Review: The Sneetches delivers a good message (and great songs) into a fun little package

Sometimes, you gotta sneak away from your racist family so you can have dinner with your friend's equally racist family.

So it goes in Dr. Seuss's The Sneetches, Netflix's utterly charming adaptation of the book that, like so many movies, shows, and specials aimed at kids, is here to teach young viewers to not judge other people based on their differences, but instead to celebrate those differences. It's a sturdy theme that unfortunately never goes out of style, and is as relevant today as it has ever been. I wondered going in if I would feel a bit of deja vu, remembering The Smeds and the Smoos short that came out a few years ago and tackled extremely similar thematic ground. But while that was one of those super-rhymey, very British shorts, The Sneetches goes out of its way to spruce things up and make things interesting. And it's very successful at what it does.

The Sneetches are very Seussian-looking creatures (they kind of look like yellow Grinch-adjacent folks) who have divided their society into two distinct clans. The star-belly Sneetches live in the trees, while the moon-belly sneetches live out at sea on various boats and islands. Dividing the two is a forbidden beach where no one is to step foot, a no-Sneetches land that helps to keep the peace.

Of course, the differences between the two groups is basically nothing more than the shape on their bellies. Sure, they have some cultural differences, which probably stem mostly from their geographic differences, but at the end of the day, they're all Sneetches. It's one of those social commentaries that's made all the more potent by the simplification. Like, you watch this and can't help but think how deeply idiotic it is for these two groups to hate each other. Which you can then extend to thinking about how deeply idiotic it is to hate anyone based on something like skin color, country of origin, gender identity, etc. etc. A good lesson, that.

And if all Dr. Seuss's The Sneetches (yes, I feel obligated to type the whole title out like that) was interested in doing was teaching its lesson, that would be fine and dandy, and a good use of its 45-minute runtime. But the filmmakers go above and beyond the call of duty, and shape a little film that is delightful from start to finish.

Stella is a star-belly Sneetch with an inquisitive and creative mind. She's an inventor, always coming up with spectacular ideas that her parents are quick to rain on. They say they love that she's different while also urging her to not be too different. She can have a pet monkey (adorable Bean, low-key the star of the show), but her inventions are a bit much. They would rather her keep her head down and prepare for the upcoming Star Celebration, where she'll help deliver the speech about how star-belly Sneetches are far superior to their moon-belly cousins. (Why are they superior? Stella wants to know. No good answers to be found.)

Being such a curious kid leads Stella to the forbidden beach, where she spies a boat bearing a moon-belly Sneetch girl named Pearl (complete with her own fun pet, Dudley the crab). The two hit it off, and thus begins a friendship that might be able to heal relations between the two tribes.

Both of the kids are so cute, and wonderfully voiced. They have that great instant chemistry that you kind of can only have with a person when you're both kids, and you find in each other someone who matches your special brand of crazy. Just as Stella is great at coming up with ideas, Pearl is a master at executing them, making Stella's drawings into actual machines, usually with pretty nifty results.

The whole shebang is peppy, colorful, and so fun. There are a smattering of musical numbers, which are all up-beat bops, and all do a great job of building character and underlining the film's themes. I added every single one to my running playlist, which is always a stamp of approval for an animated musical.

Dr. Seuss's The Sneetches really is just one of those things that does exactly what it sets out to do, and does it all well, with humor and heart and a bunch of good songs. Hopefully, kids will watch it and be able to gird their minds from all the hateful rhetoric that seems to be flying from every corner of the world these days. It's cooler to be kind, and more fun, too.