2 out of 5

Directed by: Kirk R. Thatcher

Oh, right, Jim Henson, and so there are puppets.  Unfortunately, that’s what this completely by-the-books family flick amounts to, eschewing any aspirations of creativity for a less than mundane plot that can boast a Jim Henson story idea and the fuzzy creatures to back it up.

Divorced dad and two kids stay with their naturalist Aunt – an amusingly droll Mary Steenburgen, cutely juxtaposed with her hoity-toity character on Last Man on Earth – and Kid the Younger accidentally lands her in enough debt to lose her farm when he runs afoul of the local bad guy.  Who cackles and decides to become even more one-dimensional (just in case we had any doubts) by exposing evil plans and threatening them kids until puppets can come to the rescue.  Things are telegraphed “smoothly” so that we can avoid as much excess plotting as possible, and I’ll avoid spoilers as to whether or not the good guys win, but it airs on Lifetime.

I know this is meant to be a pleasing little flick to pass the time, but it’s frustratingly lazy in execution – it feels much longer than its hour and a half – and squanders its few potentially magical moments in order to leave more room for making sure we’re ABSOLUTELY CLEAR on that evil guy, and setting up a macguffin that could’ve been scrapped in favor of strengthening the elements at the film’s core.  Ludacris has some funny lines as the narrator, but lordy the boy cain’t act that well (just listen to the words he chooses to stress…), and the “oops I done cost ya’ yer farm” kid unfortunately has a nasally whine to his delivery that makes him more obnoxious than he is.  To Actor Kid Whose Name I Haven’t Bothered To Look Up Due To My Own Laziness (acceptable nickname?): I’m not saying you’re a bad actor, but you’ve been cast as the sniveling one at until your voice deepens, it’s a little grating on me adult ears.

Have I mentioned I don’t plan to have kids?

Woop woop ya’ll, and happy T-Day.