Directors: Todd Demong, Phil Johnston, Katie Shanahan
Writers: Phil Johnston, Meg Favreau
Stars: Margo Martindale, Johnny Vegas, Emilia Clarke
Synopsis: Two orphans join forces with a family of magical animals to save their city from the powerful Mr. and Mrs. Twit, the meanest, smelliest, nastiest people in the world.
Author Roald Dahl’s fictional worlds value comeuppance for characters deemed rude. He created many stories and characters where truly horrific fates befell people. The thing is, the fates stuck. The baddest of the bad didn’t learn their lessons, they were smote by the righteous. The most despicable of Dahl’s creations, the Twits, were so awful that the people who knew them cheered their deaths. The film, The Twits, attempts to take this story in a different direction.
Much of Phil Johnston and Meg Favreau’s script focuses on empathy. A large plot device is that Beesha (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Bubsy (Ryan Anderson Lopez) can speak to the imprisoned Muggle-Wumps, creatures needed by the Twits to produce an energy source from their tears, because of their capacity for empathy. These two, the other orphans at the orphanage, and Mr. Napkin (Phil Johnston), their caretaker, seem to be the only people in town with the capacity for any empathy, though.
This story gets existentially bleak when we see the politics at play in the town. The Twits run for mayor of Triperot on a platform that these “others,” orphans and the current city administration, have stolen wealth right out from under everyone by not allowing Twitlandia, the Twits dream amusement park, to open. They use the same straw man tactics that have swayed voters to elect populist candidates the world over. Just like in our lives, it works and the Twits gain the power they need to do as they please. Even with the moral of the story to choose empathy over selfishness, you kind of wish these kids didn’t and let the Twits be taken down by the “Dreaded Shrinks.”
The story’s focus on bringing moral complexity is also given a boost at the details of what family can mean. In a scene that feels like Pixar in its heyday, Beesha is getting a pep talk from Mary Muggle-Wump (Natalie Portman) about accepting the family she’s got. Mary works up to getting Beesha to admit that she deserves love. You almost get whiplash as the gross-out humor is so rampant that you feel like there isn’t any substance to the film besides Twits=bad, orphans=good, but this little tidbit hits you in the chest. There are a few moments like this weaved in and out of the story, it just always feels a little out of place, if affecting.
The animation effects are the real thrill to the film. Each character has a unique design and you can almost smell the stench of the environment through your television. There are several scenes where it looks like a camera rig was attached to a running character, used to greatest effect when Mrs. Twit is in hot pursuit. The other animated effect that brings a strange and wonderful joy to the film are the dance moves of several characters. Mr. Napkin had his dance cut off way too soon, but the shoulder shimmy made it seem like it was going to be something truly special. The same with an unnamed townswoman present when several people bail the Twits out of jail. She dances like no one’s watching to the strange beat of a homemade marimba and you won’t be able to take your eyes off her.
The Twits is filled with disgusting humor and visuals to match. Yet, it tries to have its ickiness with a bit of emotional heft. A scene where there’s confusion between the words diarrhea and diorama is a bit nauseating, if clever in its wordplay. In many ways this is pale in comparison to many other animated films, but in a strange way it also works. The Twits is an able adaptation of its source adding some much needed empathy to a story that lacks much of it.
