Lyle Lyle Crocodile: Movie Review

Cast: Javier Bardem, Shawn Mendes, Scoot McNairy, Constance Wu, Josh Fegley
Director: Will Speck, Josh Gordon

There will no doubt be a section of the audience who think Lyle Lyle Crocodile exists only to on-sell a Shawn Mendes album.

It's an understandable concern, given the titular croc is sung by Mendes (Lyle doesn't speak throughout, only in song) and whose toe-tapping melodies prove to be the propulsion for a lot of this movie.

Yet, you'd have to have an incredibly hard and cynical heart to not fall for the scaly singer and his familial ways in this live-action CGI take on the 1960s book series from Bernard Waber.

Beginning with a down-on-his-luck showman, Hector P Valenti (Bardem, in a crowd-winning earnest take on a PT Barnum-esque character), it's the tale of how he meets a young singing Lyle in the back of a pet shop while looking for a new act. Fired up with the possibility, Valenti's cruelly let down by a croc suffering from stage fright at the worst moment - and with debtors queueing up to take their share, Valenti is forced into a soulless drudgery of being permanently on the road, leaving his charge in the attic at his former New York apartment.

Enter the Primms; a nervy teacher (McNairy), a former chef and cookbook writer mum (Wu) suffering from guilt of abandoning her son at a young age and a nervy son Josh (Fegley). When Josh befriends the singing Lyle, the pair become inseparable - but trouble is waiting in the form of Mr Grumps (Gelman) who dwells in the basement apartment and is always looking for an excuse to move building nuisances on...

There's an exuberance to the musical numbers that helps paper over the cracks of the somewhat thin plot that exists for Lyle Lyle Crocodile. At its heart, it's a caper movie, a film about friendship and finding courage in the unlikeliest places and hope when the humdrum proves to be too much.

As such, it's not challenging fare, and while it's a little overlong with some final act silliness thrown in for good measure, it's solid family entertainment that the younger audience will enjoy than those for whose eyes the scales have fallen away as they've aged.

There are a few too many songs, and it's hard to not see an accompanying singalong album being released, but there are some thrills to be had here, in the most unexpected of places.

Bardem is a delight, exuding charm and heart in his role; if you ever thought you'd never see an Oscar-winning actor in such a light entertainment role, this is the one to change your mind. Equally Fegley makes his kid's unique problems every kid's universal worries when moving (new home, new school, no friends etc) but he takes the trope and imbues it with such likeability, it's hard to ignore.

Lyle Lyle Crocodile is entirely predictable fare, a comfortable blast of a blankie of a film that does what it says on the tin. You may end up being just a little charmed by it, despite its few flaws.