—And I think that’s okay…
This could have been a heartfelt coming-of-age tale about a boy finding the courage to ask his crush to the dance and battling pollution in his hometown, but any magic was lost in the shadow of a flat, underdeveloped main character.
Doug’s First Movie just didn’t click with me, and that’s perfectly fine. As I told my brother, maybe I’m being too critical because I’m seeing it through grown-up eyes instead of the ones it was made for.
This was my first introduction to the world of Doug. Since I was too young to watch the show and just watched whatever my brother did, Doug never made the cut.
For those unfamiliar, Doug follows the life of Doug Funnie, an imaginative preteen navigating middle school, friendships, and crushes in his hometown of Bluffington. The show is known for its relatable stories about growing up, daydreaming, and figuring out who you are during preteen years, which made it a big hit in the 90s.
The only thing I knew was that Doug was 12-13 years old and that the show originally aired on Nickelodeon before moving to Disney.
And since I’m watching the movie for the first time as an adult and not a child or preteen, I noticed that Doug was not a good character in the movie (can’t say much about the show).
For most of the movie, Doug remained the same. He is very strong-willed, opinionated, and has a vivid imagination. But when faced with difficulties or setbacks, Dougoften blamed others for his mistakes and then apologized later, but never learned from it.
For example, when the lake monster, Herman Melville, refused to go back to the polluted lake, Doug and Skeeter couldn’t understand why at first. Rather than trying to talk to Herman, Doug started to blame the poor lake monster for ruining his life, especially when it came to failing to ask out his love interest, Patty Mayonnaise, to the big Valentine’s Dance.
It wasn’t until Skeeter realized that the lake had become too polluted for even Herman to return to that Doug apologized for what he said. But instead of learning from this, there are several moments afterwards that Doug repeats this pattern.
I don’t think Doug was a good friend either, especially to his best friend, Skeeter. When it came to whether or not to tell the public about the lake monster, Skeeter was the first one to say that it wasn’t a good idea and to back out of it. However, only when it benefited Doug did Doug make the last-minute decision to go with Skeeter’s plan, but he made Skeeter look like a liar to the rest of the town.
As a viewer, I always want to root for the protagonist. Yet I found myself rooting for everyone else but Doug. Well, I wasn’t rooting for Patty either, but that’s another story.
I think for a movie like this, I would have loved it if Disney focused on either Doug and Skeeter exposing their town for a very polluted lake, or Doug doing everything he can so he can take Patty to the Valentine’s Dance. I like both of these ideas, but a lot of character development was pushed back to fit both storylines.
Listen to the full podcast episode and let us know what you think of this movie!
-Simone
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