Wonder Park

This writer would like to thank the young gentleman who vigorously kicked the back of her chair during the family preview screening, thereby keeping her awake.

You and your children will have sat through many worse films that took far easier routes to the screen - which is not to say that Wonder Park is not immediately forgettable.

Kind of a poor man's Inside Out or Up, the story fails to earn its emotional stripes and instead goes haywire with non-stop hecticness involving barely sketched characters.

It's hard to dismiss Wonder Park out of hand. It's a film for tots that's asking genuinely huge questions, mostly about the nature of play as an act of denial...And for that alone it's worthy of attention and respect.

It aspires to be Inside Out but falls way short.

Wonder Park feels like a tribute act from every angle, but there are worse things children's films can do than openly mimic the greats.

Go see Missing Link instead.

A movie that respects its audience. That understands children can handle complex ideas about real life and for that, it is splendiferous.

Wonder Park doesn't come close to holding a candle to the better animated fare of recent years.

Sanitized, uninspired, and forgettable.