The Twits

In the gritty town of Triperot, the scheming Mr. and Mrs. Twit lord over Twitlandia, a ramshackle amusement park stitched together from toilets and old mattresses, powered by the strange magic of Muggle-Wump monkeys. Locked in a sour marriage, the Twits hatch a cunning plan to dominate the town with a flood of rancid hotdog meat and a shady mayoral campaign. A spirited orphan named Beesha, alongside her loyal friends, stumbles into the heart of the Twits’ twisted plot, setting the stage for a mischievous clash.

The Twits Mini-Review

The Twits is a chaotic and creative null space that feels like having a conversation with someone who keeps telling you how imaginitive they are. They aren’t, and the gulf between their poor storytelling and Roald Dahl’s style and originality is canyonesque.

                   

Between its two directors and three writers, they packed Dahl’s rather short and simple tale like a three pound turkey with four pounds of stuffing. The result is an unfocused story with dozens of  subplots that go nowhere, and a completely unsatisfying conclusion.

PARENTAL NOTES

PG

• This rating means that the show is considered to be safe for ages 10 and up. The Twits never really pushes past that point but there is some edge-walking and a number of moments that needlessly cross the line of good taste for some easy laughs.

No 2nd Chance to Make a 1st Impression

• The show opens with the antagonists being “left for dead.”

Who’s the Audience

• Some of what the writers consider to be funny for children is mystifying.
  • The head of the orphanage tells the kids, “My mom always told me that I was an ungrateful child and the family’s biggest disappointment.” I know that that’s the kind of material that my kids love.
• One of the characters looks at the children’s orphanage and says, “It looks like a place where children go to get murdered.” I definitely want my ten-year-old thinking about pedicide when watching a kids film.
  • That same character talks about ripping a child’s guts out.

Toot Toot

• • • There is an over reliance on bodily function humor. Basically, any time the writers want an easy laugh, one is inelligently squeezed in.
      • The Twits repeatedly call diaramas  diahrea.
      • A character is tricked into eating rancid food which causes his butt to “explode,” sending people running.
      • “Did you rip a greasy fart?”
      • The villains strip the orphanage director to his briefs and kick him outside for everyone, your kids included, to see him in nothing but his tighty whities.
      • The patriarch magic monkey-like creature (muggle wumps), has debilitating anxiety which causes him to puke… often. The trade off is that he barfs up semi-sentient, antrhopomorphic hairballs.
• A sweet little orphan boy spends the first few minutes of the show excitedly waiting for the weekend to end because his new adoptive parents are due to pick him up on Monday. However, when Monday comes, we watch as his heart is broken. He sits in a small room listening to the two who he believed were his new parents callously decide to “go another way” with all of the passion of returning defective batteries.
  • It had a really harsh edge to it.

WOKE REPORT

And the Women Have It

• Few characters are portrayed as sympathetic, intelligent, or even generally favorably. However, out of the handful that are, almost all are female, and even the males that are portrayed somewhat positively can’t match the compassion, intelligence, and maturity of of the gals.

Prayers aren’t Enough

• A sleezy politician goes on TV to discuss a recent tragedy and says, “As always our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this meatastrophe.” He over emphasizes “thoughts and prayers” making it clear to the audience that he doesn’t mean it. He punctuates this by immediately brightening his disposition as he reminds people to vote for him in the upcoming election.

Prozac

• The male muggle wump is so beset by anxiety that he can barely function. He says, “I have anxiety about my anxiety.”

Lego Families

• Yet another children’s program that attempts to make the case that its possible to assemble families from spare parts and that a group of friends is the moral equivalent to an actual family.