FilmSnobReviews

Title: The Beanie Bubble
MPA Rating: R
Director: Kristin Gore, Damian Kulash
Starring: Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Snook, Geraldine Viswanathan
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins

What It Is: Ty Warner (Galifianakis) revolutionized the stuffed animal market by understuffing his toys. He’d do it again in almost every way possible. With his smaller, more pose able Beanie Baby an absolute mayhem ensues. These little stuffed animals, all with their own unique names and birthdays incite a riot nationwide (soon worldwide) with the help of a little invention called The Internet. But the man behind the Beanie is no perfect person and all his indiscretions come to light leaving him in not such a great place.

What We Think: There was so much promise here. The story a (mostly) true one, the characters too insane to be made up and the craze, one that gripped the nation. But where this film lacks is in how thin those characters are presented and how overstuffed (unlike the soft titular “collectibles”) the entire thing comes across. Geraldine Viswanathan is as charming as normal. Sarah Snook is likewise pretty good and Galifianakis as the centerpiece is a bit too much. He doesn’t feel like he’s even in the same film at some points.

Our Grade: C+, Apple has better films coming out this year and there are better films about various inventions (Blackberry) that you could spend time with. If you really need a fix of that Beanie action, frankly, this will do that. You go in for the story but Galifianakis’ over the topness may make you want to leave, at the very least you wanna punch him in the actual face. A film chock full of 1990’s nostalgia it is that feeling that carries you through the film because the script isn’t strong. enough and neither is the direction.