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A Fairly OddMovie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!, on Nickelodeon
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So, this 2011 TV movie is based on the animated series The Fairly OddParents, which I never watched a ton of, but enough to basically know the show well enough, I guess. It was a pretty ridiculous show, and it's kind of more ridiculous in this movie, because it's live-action, but trying to be exactly the same as the cartoon, pretty much. I should say that Timmy Turner's fairy godparents, Cosmo and Wanda, appear in CG form in the movie, looking pretty much as they do in their traditionally animated form from the cartoon, and also they have the same voice actors. (Daran Norris, who does the voice of both Cosmo and Timmy's dad in the cartoon, also appears as Timmy's dad in the live-action movie.) And even the live-action characters who are played by different actors seem to be doing passable impressions of their characters' voice actors from the show (most notably Mr. Crocker). But I should also mention that at one point in the movie, Cosmo and Wanda briefly turn themselves into humans, played by Jason Alexander and Cheryl Hines. Anyway... at first I thought the movie was kind of bad, but I couldn't stop watching. Because its badness was funny. And I'm not sure my opinion ever completely changed, but... it did eventually start seeming less bad, while maintaining its utter (and amusing) absurdity.

Well, let me explain what it's about. In the cartoon, Timmy Turner is this 10-year-old boy in the fifth grade, who has fairy godparents, who no one else is supposed to know about. But his teacher, Mr. Crocker, is obsessed with proving that fairy godparents exist. He's nuts, even if he happens to be right. Now, in the movie, Timmy is 23, and he's been in fifth grade for 13 years. He doesn't want to grow up, because that would mean losing Cosmo and Wanda, who not only grant him whatever he wishes for, but they're also his best friends. (In the show, he had a couple of friends named Chester and A.J., though in the movie, for the most part, those two just mock him for refusing to grow up; though they themselves seem pretty mockable.) Anyway, Timmy still lives with his parents, who want him to move out. There's also a fairy from the cartoon, Jorgen Von Strangle (kind of an Arnold Schwartzenegger parody), who appears in live-action here (not CG like Cosmo and Wanda), and he keeps trying to shoot Timmy with one of Cupid's arrows so that he'll fall in love, which according to Da Rules would mean he had grown up. Meanwhile, there's this girl named Tootie who Timmy hadn't seen for years, since she'd moved away. (She was in the cartoon, and I must've seen her, but I don't really remember her.) She always liked Timmy, but I guess he didn't exactly feel the same. But now she moves back to town, and of course she's gotten fairly hot. Besides that, she's a crusader for, you know, causes, which Timmy thinks is pretty cool. So Cosmo and Wanda are concerned that he'll fall in love with her. (Without Jorgen even having to do anything.) But while Timmy likes her now, and starts hanging out with her, he insists he won't fall in love, because, as I said, he doesn't want to lose Cosmo and Wanda. (I should also mention Cosmo and Wanda now have a baby fairy of their own, named Poof, who I don't think I ever saw before this.)

Anyway, the main thing Tootie's doing at present is protesting a planned development by an evil business guy named Hugh J. Magnate, Jr. (played by Steven Weber, who I felt kind of sorry for, having to act like a cartoonish villain; though not as cartoonish as Crocker). Timmy uses wishes to help Tootie's cause, which leads Crocker to team up with Magnate to catch the fairies and use their magic for themselves. And... that's all I want to reveal about the plot. Like I said, it's all quite ridiculous and the whole idea of doing it in live-action makes it even more so. But that's what makes it fun. Oh yeah, I suppose I should mention that Timmy's played in the movie by Drake Bell, who's been in other Nickelodeon shows that didn't interest me, but which nevertheless does make him a good choice for this role, I guess.

Followed by A Fairly Odd Christmas


genre TV movies index