The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022)

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I was very excited when Bob's Burgers came out. H. Jon Benjamin is probably the most naturally funny person to ever live. It would be impossible not to at least giggle a little bit if he just read the phone book. That's why I was surprised I didn't care for the show when it debuted.

In a time when Family Guy, South Park, Aqua Teen and the like were making us all bust a gut in rapid-fire being as mean-spirited, gross and hilarious as possible, Bob's Burgers was a hard sell. A kind-hearted show about a family of misfits who eventually made it all work by the end of the episode. No cutaway gags. None of the characters getting murdered every episode. Just an oddball family actually trying to make their restaurant -- and lives -- work in an oddball town full of oddball, but almost exclusively likeable characters. I watched a few episodes when it came out and didn't laugh once, I don't think. But I bet I smiled a lot.

Time moves on, though, and at this point in my life, it's just what I needed. I'm okay just smiling for a half hour without needing the punchline right around the corner. I could still listen to Benjamin read the phone book and think it was funny. So now I mostly watch Bob's Burgers, and so this was the right time to watch the movie.

It's fair to call the movie a "really long episode", and it comes with the ups and downs that entails. There's more room for the characters to do their thing. There's several musical numbers, in that same "I think it's supposed to be this bad?" vein that the show often offers up -- Jon has a whole side career making bad music, after all. The last half hour tends to drag out a bit, particularly since if you know the show, you know everything's going to work out (it always does), and nothing particularly new will be learned about any of the characters (it never is), so that'd be my only dig at it.

Bob's Burgers is comfort food to soothe the soul after the buffet of GHOST PEPPER WINGS the rest of Fox/Adult Swim animation generally serves up.

I give it three and a half stars.