MOVIE REVIEW: Flora & Ulysses ~ FILMYWAPAS

When Flora rescues an injured red squirrel from a neighbor’s malfunctioning robotic vacuum running amok, she finds a bit of a buddy and a muse. Flora names him Ulysses (vocal effects by animation veteran John Kassir) and begins to see heightened intelligence and hints of superhero powers coming through this valiant yard rodent. Having a superhero around makes her feel like one too. This is her chance to fight for the weak in her community with reinforcements. That’s if the wily local animal control man named Miller (Community’s Daniel Pudi and director Lena Khan’s good luck charm) doesn’t nab him first.

LESSON #2: THE FLAWS OF CYNICISM-- If Flora has a kryptonite, per se, biking and skipping her way through life, it’s cynicism, a label she self-identifies. When she’s not do-gooding, Flora’s dropping sardonic zingers like “cynics invented contracts even if they live in defiance” or “cynics don’t hope; they see what’s real.” Lawler definitely plays her as smarter than the room, so to speak, in a winsome performance. Nevertheless, this streak of negativity pushes back against her heroic pep. The causes of this come from the action scenes and emotional moments that are made of flesh-and-blood rather than ink and paper.

What’s really jading Flora is the separation and possible divorce of her luckless parents. Her father George is a starving artist who has struck out with comics and now works at an office supply store, feeling every bit of a personal and supportive failure to his family. Matching him, Phyllis is a struggling romance novelist cooked up in her own house unable to write her next book since her husband left. They mean well and love their daughter, but, together, their mutual downward spirals seem irrecoverable.

LESSON #3: LIFE DEFEATING FANTASY-- As principled as her graphic novel icons have made Flora, the blurred lines between creative fantasy and life’s true adversities skew her emotions. That cynicism has her lamenting how “superheroes never show up in real life.” Well, that is precisely where fantasy ends. Superheroes, not even an adorable squirrel, can fix parental problems and mend relationships. The best fantasy can do is escapism that can become a platform for positive coping mechanisms. It is from this place of anxiety amid the amazing that Flora & Ulysses thrives.

Based on Kate DiCamillo’s Newbery Award winner and adapted by Ben Copeland (Wild Hogs, Ferdinand, Spies in Disguise), the tangible family themes of hope, disparity, unity, and risks from the source novel create something thicker than fluff. Nowhere near a full “Pixar Punch,” director Lena Khan (The Tiger Hunter) does an admirable job balancing the sunniness with the forlorn challenges. The ending driven by Pudi’s light villain gets a little too zany, but the core before it is sound. For a plucky little film that is well-boosted with slightly self-aggrandizing Marvel Comics love coming from the parent company’s convenient property ownership, this is reasonably brave territory for a pre-teen film. Feel free to drop your own “Holy Bagumba!” with a high-five washed down with a hug. You and the movie have earned it.