As you can see, the animation is pretty stellar, and I was so glad that the film embraced the potty humor fully and didn't water it down. Right from the start, the film has a very good idea of what it wants to be and it stick to it. It's even able to stand back and laugh and make fun of itself.

Being the jaded, pseudo-adult I am, there are way more genuinely laughable moments than I initially thought possible, and the story is full of weird touch-and-go, almost vignette-type moments, which keep the attention spans at...uh, attention. This helped to keep the narrative fresh and entertaining. Writer Nick Stroller basically took the stories from the first and fourth books and combined them into one toilet humor epic with Professor Poopypants as the villain (which, fun fact number two, Professor Poopypants' real name in the book is Pippy Pee-Pee Poopypants, but the film version will make you third-act LOL with Stroller's even more poopy changes).

At its core, it's a story about friendship, fighting to keep that friendship intact, and most importantly, being creative. Harold and George must use their power of laughter to not only liberate the school from their oppressive teachers, but defeat the villain, who is overly Trumpian, in that Professor P is someone who’s unable to laugh and doesn’t enjoy being the butt of any jokes, going so far as to make those that laugh at him pay. The characters are two-dimensional, and have a slight, last-minute, hail Mary arc that leaves the film on a high note.

Overall, the film upholds the integrity of the books and nods to the publication elements on several occasions. For instance, during the Flip-O-Rama segment, as Harold steps on the book pages, his footprints leave marks that closely resemble the guide areas in which the reader would place their fingers in order to properly flip through the pages.

Ed Helms does a great job as the joyless Principal Krupp and the ignorantly jovial Captain Underpants. In fact, the film uses Helm's ability to audibly shift between these vastly different characters as a plot device and comedic crutch on several occasions. His duality reminded me of a vocal version of Steve Martin's physical comedy in All Of Me: