Megan McDonald's Judy Moody book series comes to life in the first, and probably not last entry in the Wimpy Kid type of tween orientated movie adaptations. Judy (Jordanna Beatty) is a strong willed third-grader who has a shock or red hair with a little question mark curl on the top of her head. She sets up some elaborate dare games to earn thrill points, but her friends families have scheduled exotic vacation plans. Their summer adventures would rack up way more points than Judy can ever hope to achieve just staying at home.
Before school is let out their teacher Mr. Todd (Jaleel White) gives his students a challenge of finding out what he will being doing during the summer with only the word “cold” as the clue. One of her friends is going to circus camp and her other friend is going to Borneo. Practically doubling their thrill points just on locations alone. On top of that her parents (Kristoffer Ryan Winters and Janet Varney) are taking a trip without her. Her mom's sister Aunt Opal (Heather Graham) is going to stay with Judy and her annoying little brother Stink (Parris Mosteller). Opal is a bit of a free spirited artist and jumps into Judy's Summer Dare contests by making trashcan lid sombreros. Opal basically turns everything into an art studio making a mess of the house. Stink is obsessed with finding Bigfoot so Opal makes a huge papier-mache Bigfoot statue in the front yard. Meanwhile Judy is running around trying to over come staying home for the summer tries to out dare everyone determined to have the best summer ever.
This frantic film is directed by John Schultz with a screenplay by Kathy Waugh. Like other films of it's ilk, Ramona and Bezus, and the Wimpy Kid, the children are precocious and independent. But unlike the other films this one doesn't have much of a plot woven into the various adventures. There's plenty of colorful sets, busy little pieces of action and somewhere in there is the search for Bigfoot and Mr. Todd. How it all gets tied up at the end sort of makes sense. Jordanna gives it all she's got, and Graham holds back the usual manic performance by almost being a decent entertaining creative caregiver. If you dig hard enough there some basic lessons in the story regarding responsibility, competition and forgiveness so it's not totally a bummer summer.
(Review by reesa)
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