Super-Charlie

Despite being about fifty years older than it's demographic, I actually quite enjoyed this. Every century, a meteorite endowed with super-powers flies path the earth, and the only very recently born "Charlie" somehow manages to absorb it's green dust. Nothing is too obvious when he goes home with his writer mother, who is constantly glued to her laptop; his policeman father and his elder brother "Wille". Of course, there is soon a degree of little brother envy as these parents dote on their new arrival, but it is his sibling who discovers that at barely a week old, "Charlie" can talk! That's just the beginning of his quirks, and so soon the pair are on the trail of a gang who have caused their father considerable trouble over the years. All the while, the police are under pressure to buy some specially adapted uniforms that could make them into "Robocop" types, but fairly quickly we learn that the evil "Imperio" is up to a bit of sophisticated manipulation whilst it's moustachioed sidekick cunningly devises a pint-sized chair to essentially percolate the formidable powers of the young babe, so he can make himself an ultra-potent espresso. The story follows a predictable path, but along the way it does make a few salient points about obsessed parents, brotherly rivalry and mistrust whilst also proving that, in the end, family ought to come first. It's not really a film for young kids as some of the dialogue is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the visual effects are quite good fun and the message it wishes to convey to children and parents alike are adequately wrapped up in a light-hearted, sci-fi, amiability that sees the two lads learn to communicate with each other without the need for a phone, or a tablet, or any form of social media at all. That's got to be a good thing.

In a time when superhero fatigue is a real thing, with Marvel and DC films constantly in the cinema or on TV screens, here comes a new original story from the books of Camilla Läckberg. Based on the Swedish best-selling author's stories we have the tale of 10-year-old Wille (Pronounced "Willy" and voiced by Alex Kelly in the English version) who has always dreamed of becoming a superhero and fighting crime alongside his police-hero dad... a dream which is shattered when his new baby brother Charlie is born with actual superpowers. When a supervillain and a deranged scientist enact their evil plan, Wille and Charlie need to put their differences aside and work as a team. But can an infant and his envious brother save the city?

As far as children's animations go, this is a lot of fun. There's real truths in the about family life from the parents struggling to keep everything together with kids and jobs to Wille being annoyed that his baby brother has suddenly got all these super powers.

The source of the powers is never really explained beyond the knowledge that a comet-like light appears once every 50 years and grants someone powers. At the beginning of the film we see a young kid get powered up and now it's Charlie's turn, with him going from baby to super baby in no time at all.

There's a lot of fun to be had with the powers and the baby learning how to use them like there is with any film that covers this kind of story. It has all kinda been done before, most notably with Jak-Jak in the Incredibles films, but here it still works well in this world.

There's a proper bad guy who is wanting to get rid of Charlie's powers, there's some great set pieces which are animated really well and deliver a kids film which is up there amongst some of the best I've seen.

I'm still a kid at heart and this really made me smile and hope there's more to come from director Jon Holmberg.

Although the film is marketed as being based on Camilla Läckberg's popular children's books, the similarities are minimal. Critics have noted that the story, tone, and character development diverge significantly from the original source. Instead, the filmmakers have created an entirely new plot with science fiction elements and characters that don't appear in the book series. The film mainly retains the core idea of a baby with superpowers, but takes major creative liberties, making it seem as though the rights were acquired more for brand recognition than for faithful adaptation. The result is a story that could just as easily have been made without any connection to Läckberg's work.

The movie has nothing in common with the books and audiobooks about Super Charlie. My kid left early, sad and confused, because he didn't recognise the story at all.

Movie Charlie has a silly backstory that's different to the books, and a scary criminal nemesis we've never heard of. Then there's the plodding 3 act structure, ripped off every Marvel movie. The film is made for an entirely different age group to the books, probably 10+ is about right. Charlie is caught up in sibling rivalry and betrayal, crime, and some scary violence. There's loads of flashy action and pumping music. It's also way too long for younger audiences with the movement, noise, heavy themes and complex plot. The cinema experience was overwhelming. Kids were leaving the theatre.

Somebody saw a franchise opportunity in Super Charlie and they've obviously decided to ditch the younger kids who loved the books. We saw it in Swedish, perhaps it is made to appeal to American kids. But it's a sad move for a beloved character that could have been extended in sympathetic ways. No more Camilla Läckberg products in our house, sorry.

It is also bad for grownups, cringe, make no sense. From the trailer looked funny but it's full of toxic behaviour, and worst thing is that toxicity is from the family.

Parents don't listen, brothers betray each other, everything is on the negative side, children should not see this kinds of movies and I regret I took my 6yo kid to such movie.