Enormous fun for all ages
There was much excited flapping (mostly from me) when I told our Kid Critics team, Ms 6, Mr 11 and Ms13, that we had the opportunity to see this film. The trailer looked great – why wouldn’t a massive crocodile dancing around your house be awesome?
Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem) is a magician and entertainer who always has some type of scam running, but needs some kind of “hook” for his show. He spots a baby crocodile singing away in the back room of a pet shop, names him Lyle and takes him home. Hector cares for Lyle, teaching him songs and dance moves. (As an aside, I now see Javier Bardem in a whole different light – I had never seen him as a singer and dancer!) Hector then books a theatre, putting his house up as collateral, but when they are on stage, Lyle gets stage fright. Hector loses his house, moves out and tells Lyle to stay put, he’ll be back, “in two shakes of a lamb’s tail”.
18 months later, the Primm family move in. Mrs Primm (Constance Wu) is a bestselling author and cook, Mr Primm (Scoot McNairy) is a teacher and Josh (Winslow Fegley) is their son, who did not want to move at all. Josh is finding his new school hard, with no friends and the big city being such a change from their small town. When Josh discovers Lyle singing in the attic, his whole life changes. Lyle introduces him to his world – dumpster diving for food all around the city and singing and dancing on the rooftop.
Meanwhile, Mr Grumps, who lives in the flat downstairs with his cat, Loretta, does not like new people, let alone new people who make noise, and is determined to get them to leave. We soon discover that Loretta has a mind of her own and does her own thing, making friends with Lyle and Josh and travelling out at night with them.
Things come to a head when Hector returns, with money and ideas for a new show. Will Lyle go with Hector? Will he perform on stage? What will happen if people discover a great big crocodile living in the city?
Shawn Mendes is the voice of Lyle and proves he has a beautiful singing voice, not just for a crocodile. The soundtrack is a lot of fun, and naturally, has to include Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock”.
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile is based in the book of the same name written by Bernard Waber in 1965. The book was a prequel to The House on East 88th Street, and then spawned a series of books about Lyle’s adventures. Hopefully this means there’s more fodder for a movie sequel.
We were big fans of Loretta the cat – she has a definite attitude, which reminded the kids of my cat, Queenie. Ms13 reflected that the movie did remind her a bit of Clifford the Big Red Dog, as it’s a movie about a big animal that isn’t where it should be, and both were a lot of fun for all.
The over-arching theme is a very worthy one, too – don’t be afraid to try something new, give it a go and you never know what might happen. All of the Primm family are very stuck in their ways – Mrs Primm can only cook strictly according to her recipes without any variance – and Hector introduces sheer chaos into everyone’s world. “Who wants to be safe? We are here to live, and living is a dangerous business.”
This is definitely a fun family movie, with a lot of catchy songs, and left us all with wide crocodile smiles.
They say “never smile at a crocodile” – that’s gonna be hard, you’re going to smile and laugh at this one!
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile opens on Boxing Day.
