The Bob's Burgers Movie: Movie Review

Vocal cast: H. Jon Benjamin, John Roberts, Kristen Schaal, Eugene Mirman and Dan Mintz 

Generally, movie versions of animated shows fall squarely into the category of extended episode, bound to be beloved by fans of the show already.

But in order to thrive and survive in the box office battle, they need to attract non-existent viewers to the cinema to help. And sometimes, they break the mould completely. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut pushed the show's raison d'etre as far as it could go while delivering some truly shocking earworms as well.

The Bob's Burgers Movie falls just about in the middle of likely to appease show fans - and may attract a small inquisitive audience looking for 2D animated fare.

For those not au fait with the show, it centres on a burger shop run by Bob, his wife Linda and their three kids. In the film, the burger joint is facing a financial crisis when the bank refuses to extend their loan, and gives them just 7 days to pay up.

Things are further complicated by a sinkhole opening up directly in front of the shop, with the discovery of a corpse within the mud meaning the shop will be affected indefinitely. As Bob begins to fear the worse, his three kids set out to solve the mystery of the body and try save the day.

The Bob's Burgers Movie serves up some solid dry laughs and doesn't quite outstay its welcome - though in truth around the 90 minute mark, it's questionable how much more you can tolerate.

Largely though, this is a film that will mostly appeal to the fans of the show - but it has to be said some cleverly deployed songs throughout prove toe-tappingly annoying and proffer some impressive wordplay. 

It doesn't really reinvent the animated canvas, settling more for an extension of its series aesthetics and while occasionally the pacing suffers as the story chops and changes around its narrative, you end up wishing that maybe The Bob's Burgers Movie had either fully embraced its musical desires or tried to do something different in terms of its story.

It's offbeat in many ways, and dry - but the best moments come from the interplay, absurdities and tensions within the family. Scenes where they appear to be freeforming it are a joy to behold and elevate the film from its fairly safe designs.

The Bob's Burgers Movie is wholesome enough, but like any fast food meal, it's not quite enough to satitate non-fans' cinematic bellies.