LEO (2023)

LEO (2023)

Tagline: Breaking Out This November.

(Animation, Comedy, No Lizard Research Was Done For This Film) [PG]

My turn with the GEICO thing!

In this one, Leo and Squirtle are a 74-year-old lizard and turtle that live in a Florida classroom as class pets. It becomes apparent that Leo is going to die in a year so he sets out to do all he can to escape and complete some of the things he’s wanted to do in life. The class they are in is given a cruel new substitute teacher who makes one of the assignments taking Leo home over the weekend. When given the chance to escape Leo passes it up when he finds out just how much the kids in the class could use his wisdom.  

First off, in the movie Leo is supposed to be 74. It’s extremely unlikely that they bothered looking up how long they actually live because the world record for a lizard in captivity is a Grand Cayman Blue Iguana named Godzilla that lived approximately 69 years. This is more just an informative point, it didn't impact my review.

This thing has some clever animation moments, and that helps it stand apart from some other efforts regarding design work. Having said that, it’s certainly not all great. The smaller kids are drawn like voiceless wind-up toys with eyeballs. Normally I don’t notice this, but I kind of felt it was a subtle message that younger kids are sort of viewed as throwaways to some people. So they didn’t even bother giving the main character’s younger siblings that even talked. Then again, that is probably just me reading something into it that isn’t there. There is an interesting commentary here about different types of parental failure. Just the fact that this entire movie focuses on a lizard giving kids advice indicates the parents didn’t bother. I do kind of wish that this wasn’t a musical. I hardly ever say that, but every number in this flick is forgettable. 

When it comes to voice acting, I always like Adam Sandler (BILLY MADISON), this isn’t his first rodeo and it’s pretty clear he knows what he’s doing as Leo. Bill Burr does the voice of Squirtle and does an okay job. I am not really a fan of his acting, so it was nice to hear he was involved in this. The movie also features Sunny Sandler who is Adam Sandler’s daughter as Summer. She has been in a whopping 22 movies already at the age of 17. Most of those with very few exceptions have been Adam Sandler’s films. One of the exceptions is THE OUT-LAWS. We also get Sadie Sandler who is Adam Sandler’s oldest daughter who does the voice work for Jayda. Both did really well. Like Sunny, Sadie has also been in quite a few Adam Sandler movies. Other voice talents include Rob Schneider (WATERBOY), Jason Alexander (THE BURNING), Cecily Strong (GHOSTBUSTERS), and Allison Strong (The Blacklist). I thought everyone did a pretty great job in this. 

There are a few funny moments in this but given that it’s a Happy Madison production, I expected more. Overall this ends up being a warm-hearted lesson in parenting that subtly exposes parenting and teachers without getting preachy. 

LEO gets a 4 out of 7. I enjoyed it and it’s somewhat fun, but it wasn’t dynamic or something that I would say stands out as a must-see.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF HAPPY MADISON PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.