Super Charlie

In this Swedish animated film, a young boy named Willie dreams of becoming a superhero, inspired by his creative mother, who writes novels, and his slow-witted yet kind-hearted policeman father. However, with the birth of his baby brother, Charlie, Willie finds himself dismayed when his parents spend more attention on the baby, and his feelings are further complicated when his brother suddenly acquires superpowers. When Willie discovers that a supervillain named Inferio is on the loose, he decides to take matters into his own hands with the help of Charlie's superpowers.

Babbling about. The most apparent problem with Super Charlie is that it is overloaded with dialogue. Even from the very first scene, characters seem to talk too much, often reiterating details that can already be gleaned from its visuals alone. The exchange of words often feels like exposition dumps rather than actual human interaction. This might possibly be due to some sloppy translation from the original Swedish language to the English dub, but regardless, the dialogue here often feels unnatural. It often has to overload in sentences in a character's line because it feels the need to spell every single detail out. It could be argued that the film does this due to the aim at an infant or younger audience, but the content here seems aimed at families in general, like a Pixar film, especially given the action sequences presented and the twists and turns of the story. It also doesn't help that some of the family conflict can feel one-note, especially the parents' disregard for Willie to focus on Charlie, which reads as pretty contrived, simply incompetent, and ultimately unconvincing. Films from Dreamworks, Studio Ghibli, or other animation studios aimed for family entertainment don't feel the need to hold the audience's hand constantly, and I wish the same were true for this story. The script simply feels like it has very little trust in the audience.

Something Super. It's a shame that the film's writing falters because there are actually a lot of elements here that are genuinely interesting. The story takes some turns that can feel clever, but otherwise feel predictable due to the nature of the script. There are some genuinely lovely discussions here about supporting your family members rather than letting jealousy take hold, because even though one may not be as gifted as the other, cooperation still lifts everyone up in the end. Beyond this, there are some very fun scenes of Willie and Charlie exploring the newly bestowed superpowers. Most of this is thanks to some well-done animation, really swinging and spinning the camera in ways that highlight the excitement of the action on screen. The film honestly could have been a more memorable family romp due to the animation alone, if only the execution of the writing had been done just as well.