La Folie des Figurines Funko Pop

I am in the target audience for this documentary, as I am a geeky and somewhat childish guy who loves his Funco Wacky Wobblers...and I've had them for years. So, for folks who don't mind the label 'geek', it's an excellent film. I would also add, however, that I wish the documentary had been separated into two films. That's because I loved learning about the history of the company, how they have marketed and how they've grown. But that only makes up about half the film. The other half consists of interviews with the many uber-fans of Funco (many of which are celebrities)...which I enjoyed but which also took away from learning more about this fascinating company. Still, with this reservation, I do recommend you see it...particularly if you are a fan of pop culture...which most of us are.

Funko is a well known company these days, but not many know their story or struggle. The people responsible for the popular collectible figures Funko Pops line has a touching story that is nostalgic, fun, and moving. While a documentary on the subject is not appealing to just everybody, the documentary manages to make it entertaining for someone like me who had no previous interest in these collectibles prior to watching it. I have developed an admiration for the companies ideas, philosophy, and overall take on pop culture thanks to this documentary. This is definitely not for everyone, but it is for me.

You'd think that the story of a little company that grew from a shared nostalgic interest to a pop culture phenomenon would be a terrific watch...sadly wrong, so sadly. The tone of Making Fun: The Story of Funko is slow and quiet, which is actually fine as the viewer can't help but think that the slow and quiet will build to some emotional or informational climax, but it just stays quiet never quite makes the gut-connection required to make watching this documentary worth the time. Stretches of it are border-line straight-up boring and others are oddly disjointed and not terribly concerned about contributing to a larger narrative. It's actually pretty surprising. The viewer gets plenty of backstory on the Funko company, its origins, its employees and volunteers, its evolution, its fans, its celebrities (as both fans and POP Funko subject matter), its unique and colorful products, its popularity in the collectibles market, and its future aspirations; and it is simply shocking that all of that does not add up to an interesting documentary. They even throw in a story to wrench the heart towards the end, but it feels manipulative and trumped up to justify the time spent on the Funko tale. This could have been so much better.

It could have been a great documentary but it leads the viewer down a rabbit hole where, upon reaching bottom, leaves them scratching their head saying "how the hell did we get here?" I love the series The Toys that Made Us and unfortunately, this is a far cry from fun, clear, concise and informative storytelling. It's reminiscent of an episode of Family Guy (and I'm not being complimentary) where a bunch of random ideas are thrown into a hat, randomly pulled out and glued together regardless of continuity or necessity. While it started off well enough, you'll find yourself quickly falling down the rabbit hole and likely falling asleep.

If you are a collector yourself (a friend of mine is and not anything but those Funko figures - and watching this I have to admit I totally get it), this probably will speak to you. I guess deep down many men are collectors of one thing or another. Women have been accused of collecting shoes or clothes. I guess we all have "vices", one of them can be called "collecting" stuff.

Obviously some people will take advantage of that. Just check ebay to see what some of those Funko figures cost ... and then you may wonder if you should have bought some. But back to the documentary, which is really fun and light hearted. It has a fine structure and you can see the beginnings and how it all evolved and why it became a phenomenon. Maybe some of the things seem a bit to good to be true. But some people do get lucky. Only thing I would have wanted to see in this: The friend I mentioned! He would have fitted right in with all the other people - in a good way of course