One night inside their home in Japan, Professor Sato (voiced by Gedde Watanabe) tells his young, baseball-loving son Kenji (Hiro Nakamura) that “Ultraman’s most important task is finding balance.” Moments later, Sato receives a message that the kaiju monster Gigantron is coming. Sato heads outside and transforms into Ultraman, a giant superhero who fights such monsters. Cut to 20 years later, and Kenji is now a professional baseball player who goes by Ken (Christopher Sean). When he moves from the Los Angeles Dodgers to Japan’s Yomiuri Giants, he takes on his father’s role as the monster-fighter Ultraman.
Since 1966, this superhero creation from Eiji Tsuburaya has garnered its fair share of spinoffs, and this Netflix version focuses on themes of family, parenthood and finding balance in life. That might sound a little lofty for young viewers, and the life-lesson sequences did bore my 6-year-old a bit, but there were enough action scenes to ultimately hold his attention.
Ken is up against his own ego, rampaging monsters and Dr. Onda (Keone Young), the head of the Kaiju Defense Force. The parenthood theme kicks into high gear when Ken adopts a cutesy kaiju baby named Ami (Julia Harriman). Shannon Tindle directs this film, which he co-wrote with Marc Haimes.
Lincoln Loud (Bentley Griffin), a spy-loving kid, is beyond excited to have a spy for a new grandmother when his grandfather Pop Pop (Piotr Michael) becomes engaged to Myrtle (Alex Cazares), a former professional sleuth. As Lincoln and his 10 sisters prepare to head to their tropical wedding, he assures his Gran Gran-to-be that if any enemies from her past show up, he’ll help her save the day. Of course, an old nemesis does crash the wedding.
This movie, an extension of the long-running, Emmy-winning Nickelodeon series “The Loud House,” has some clever touches that riff on blockbuster spy films like, of course, the James Bond movie “No Time to Die.” And it’s sweet to watch Pop Pop worry that he’s too boring for Myrtle, only to become a hero and develop a newfound sense of confidence. Kyle Marshall, who helped create over 60 episodes of the series, directed. Whitney Wetta and Jeff Sayers, also veterans of the series, co-wrote the script.
With plenty of car chases, booby traps and silly family-friendly humor, the movie should entertain older preschoolers and younger elementary-aged children.
‘Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation’
Children don’t need to be die-hard fans of the Disney Channel series “Big City Greens,” created by the brothers Shane and Chris Houghton, to love this movie version, which sends the countrified Green family to space. Wild child Cricket Green (Chris Houghton) is in constant pursuit of adventure, but his farming family can’t afford the SpaceX price tags to actually travel into the cosmos. When they are offered a free trip if they can save a failing asteroid farm, Cricket convinces the group — his predictability-loving father, Bill (Bob Joles), his sister Tilly (Marieve Herington) and his Gramma Alice (Artemis Pebdani) — to take the ultimate vacation. Bill’s motorcycle riding ex-wife, Nancy (Wendi McLendon-Covey), and Cricket’s wealthy B.F.F., Remy (Zeno Robinson), are also part of the cast.
The characters’ charm and humor, which make the show so watchable, are on full display, and the musical numbers should capture littler ones’ attention. Anna O’Brian, who has led several episodes of the series, directed.
‘Blue’s Big City Adventure’
Most parents who’ve watched television with a preschooler have probably heard the words “My handy, dandy notebook!” at least 100 times. It’s a catchphrase in the hit educational show “Blue’s Clues & You!,” which follows a predictable formula: The host, Josh (Joshua Dela Cruz), records clues in his notebook, that he and his animated canine companion, Blue (voiced by Traci Paige Johnson), follow to solve mysteries.
In the film, Josh and Blue leave the animated, colorful Storybook World, where the show is set, for real-world Manhattan. Josh has an audition for a Broadway show, but when he realizes he’s lost his precious notebook, which has the address for the audition, the duo dance and sing their way around New York searching for clues to find it. The original “Blue’s Clues” host, Steve Burns, returns to the story, and there are animated, talking salt shakers, alarm clocks and bars of soap to charm younger children. Preschoolers should love the movie’s ultra-peppy vibe, and the casting’s inclusivity is a big plus.
The music video director Matt Stawski directed here, and Angela C. Santomero, who cocreated the show and created “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” wrote the script.
‘Kleks Academy’
Based on a novel by the Polish author Jan Brzechwa, this dark fantasy opens in the cavernous, creepy Realm of the Wolfurs, where werewolf-type villains declare that “there won’t be a single creature that will ever stand in our way again.” Cut to a Polish neighborhood in New York, where Ada (Antonina Litwiniak), a scooter-riding preteen, zips through the streets and calls a rude cabdriver a “fatso” (not the greatest way to introduce a character to children, but she redeems herself later). She’s quickly recruited to join Kleks Academy, a Hogwarts-esque wizardry school. Ada is skeptical, but her kind (and mysterious) neighbor urges her to go, telling her to follow her destiny and solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance. “What will you choose: the world that you know, or the greatest adventure of your life?” the neighbor asks.
Adults might be annoyed by the dubbed English dialogue, but children who love (and aren’t too scared by) darker themes should be entranced by the magical realism of the world Ada enters. There are lessons about empathy and believing in yourself that help Ada go from a tough, cynical city kid to a courageous leader. Maciej Kawulski directed, and Krzysztof Gureczny and Agnieszka Kruk wrote the script.
