- Starring
- Javier Bardem, Winslow Fegley, Shawn Mendes
- Directors
- Josh Gordon and Will Speck
- Rating
- PG
- Genre
- Animation, Adventure, Children, Comedy, Musical
- Release date
- October 7, 2022
- Where to watch
- Vudu (rent or buy), Amazon Prime (rent or buy)
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
Based on the children’s book by Bernard Waber, Lyle Lyle Crocodile follows the titular character, who happens to be a singing crocodile, as he is discovered and finds a home. It’s a brisk and breezy tale about Josh, played by Winslow Fegley, a kid with anxiety and asthma who finds a friend that gives him strength and confidence…because he’s a singing crocodile. Don’t expect any greater depth than that.
Lyle Lyle Crocodile
The plot is as average as the performances, full of traditional family entertainment tropes and cliches that move the plot along from one set piece to the next but do nothing to foster the wonderment and joy that it seems the filmmakers were going for. Most of the time, Lyle Lyle Crocodile felt little more than the direct-to-streaming content on Disney, but it had slightly better production value and marginally better performances.
The film tries to be more than the sum of its parts with some half-realized sub-plots, like the dad trying to get his confidence back and the mom learning to be more fun and carefree. However, each of the characters’ obstacles is so minor and their resolution so quick, that there’s barely a sense that there is a problem, let alone giving the audience a feeling of catharsis when the issues are overcome. For example, the mother is a known chef/author of cookbooks, and there are two very small, almost throw-away moments in which it’s indicated that perhaps she cooks too healthy, but after singing a song with Lyle, she’s all “better” and they’re eating pizza for breakfast. Not exactly deep stuff there.
The music in the film is just as vanilla as the rest of the show. There are a few original songs that all blend together and sound like the same one, and a few classics like “How Sweet It Is” that don’t do anything to wow or excite. They’re competently performed by Shawn Mendez, who voices Lyle, but that’s it.
Ultimately, Lyle is a safe way to spend some family time with your little ones, which is more than many of us have come to hope for with today’s cinema. With average to slightly above-average performances by the cast (that’s including Javier Bardem, who’s playing to the back rows in every scene), Lyle won’t be memorable by the next day, but it probably won’t put you to sleep either.
PARENTAL NOTES
Important Information for Parents
Our Parental Notes flag the material parents may want to know about before pressing play, including profanity, blasphemy, adult content, extreme violence, frightening intensity, hyper-stimulating sequences, and other family-content concerns.
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James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
The local high school was playing this movie. They invited families to camp out on the football field while the movie played on the scoreboard. (I believe it was chosen because the high school’s sports mascot is an alligator). I showed up around thirty minutes before the movie ended so I could take a walk and see what was going on. As I walked around the track that encloses the field, I noticed that more than half of the kids there were running around the field, playing and yelling instead watching the movie. I can’t really blame them; they were outside, after all. In fact, I considered that this might actually be the best way to watch the movie.
I’ve been wondering about movies that aren’t riveting enough to hold one’s attention for long periods of time, and I have an idea. If the target audience of small children isn’t expected to actually sit down and watch the movie the whole way through, then maybe it’s not such a bad thing if the movie isn’t important enough so that if they fool around or their parents leave to take them to the bathroom, they won’t feel they’ve missed anything. I wonder if the same is true about movies for grown-ups, too. (I’m only half-joking, but it’s a curious thought).
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