Director: Jon Holmberg
Writers: Jon Holmberg
Stars: Alex Kelly, Lucy Smith, Paul Tylak
Synopsis: Willie’s dream of fighting crime with his cop dad is shattered when his baby brother Charlie arrives. Besides stealing all the attention, Charlie turns out to have actual superpowers.
“What superpower would you have?” is a common playground hypothetical. We like to imagine ourselves as more. We want to be beings of power and righteousness who fight crime and save people. Usually we are in grade school when we imagine this, but it is a fun thought experiment to wonder what would happen if a baby were granted incredible powers. Super Charlie attempts to answer that question.
A baby can’t do it on their own, though, so Charlie (Lucy Smith) is blessed with a superhero-obsessed older brother, Willie (Alex Kelly), who mentors Charlie in the ways of crimefighting. Willie is, like most kids who have dreamed of superpowers, more than a little miffed he wasn’t given the powers himself. While Charlie’s mind has grown exponentially he’s still very new to the world and can’t understand Willie’s exploitative ideas. The story sort of borders on a Cain and Abel like relationship. Not unlike another pair in the film.
The film begins fifty years prior when a special space rock drops a superpowered cloud through Earth’s atmosphere, Anton (Paul Tylak) and his sibling, Inferio (Brendan McDonald), are having a bike race. Inferio gains superpowers and wins the race and takes revenge on Anton for cheating. Inferio then compels Anton into lifelong service making better technology for Inferio’s criminal empire.
Though, there may have been something lost in the translation of the script from its original Swedish to English or the attempt at not revealing Inferio’s true identity got a little ham fisted. Inferio is constantly referred to as Anton’s brother. Yet, in the opening sequence they are clearly modeled as a tween girl and when Inferio’s true identity is revealed, they’re modeled as a woman. It’s more than a little confusing and can drag you out of the plot.
The plot itself, written by Jon Holmberg, adapted from Camilla Läckberg’s book series, is juggling a lot. It’s not overly convoluted, but there are many threads that have to delicately come together for it to make sense. For an all ages film with few original laughs, this isn’t the best use of the limited attention span of viewers. There are plenty of cool superpower effects and action scenes, but the child trying to solve a mystery while caring for another child who can do amazing things is a bit of a drag.
There is one sequence that has a great animated effect. While Willie is coming up with his initial scheme, one of the posters on the wall of a superhero and sidekick begins to speak to Willie and be the angel and devil on his shoulder. These characters are kept in their 2D mold, even after they jump off the poster. It’s kind of reminiscent of 2D animated characters in a live action film. It’s a great effect. It’s made even better as the sidekick represents the side of Willie’s psyche who wants to do the right thing by Charlie and mentor him and the superhero represents the jealous side of Willie, who wants to manipulate Charlie so that Willie can be the hero.
Super Charlie is an O.K. romp. It has some exciting action scenes and unique character development. Even with the short runtime, the story can wear a bit thin in places. As it’s not trying to reinvent a genre or elevate the art of animation this can make for dull watching. Super Charlie does its job in making a coherent piece of entertainment that is at least mildly entertaining and will likely spawn a sequel to keep the cycle going.
