Review: The Last Straw is Diary of a Wimpy Kid's best animated entry yet

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. 

And boy oh boy, does Greg Heffley weave a tangled web in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, the fourth animated entry in the franchise, which is now streaming on Disney+. Greg, the middle-school protagonist of the books/movies, is a grade-A screw-up, constantly causing chaos and violence, leaving a wake of destruction along his path. And that's never been truer than it is here, to the point that you, the viewer, mayb actually be hoping for him to get shipped off to a military academy by the time the credits roll.

I used to be an avid fan of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, and the live-action movies (particularly the first two) are bonafide classics in my estimation. I dropped off reading the series long ago, but I'm still always happy to jump back into the world whenever a new adaptation rolls around, and lately, that means popping into these almost yearly animated films that drop on Disney+ (the franchise skipped last year, for some reason). 

The gist of the books is pretty self-explanatory. Greg Heffley writes about the ups and downs of middle school, learning lessons about friendship, family, and life along the way. The books are breezy reads, and have the appearance of being hand-written and -drawn. Jeff Kinney, the writer and illustrator (he also writes the animated films), has tapped into a winning formula, and the books are funny, breezy reads which translate well to the screen.

With these animated ones, the translation is very direct. The experience of watching one of these is really similar to reading one of the books, which can be a good or bad thing, depending on what you're in the mood for, and how familiar you are with the source material. The art style looks a bit wonky in 3-D (especially little brother Manny, who looks downright freakish with his bizarre face shape and massive teeth), but the cartoony physics and charming simplicity make the proceedings fun to watch.

The Last Straw is the best of the animated films yet, because it feels a little more narratively cohesive than its predecessors, with all the various episodic scenes naturally flowing into the larger story. As the film begins, Greg ponders the phrase "Like father, like son," and how it decidedly does not apply to him and his dad. As you might guess, the film is a journey of him realizing he and his dad might have more in common than he thinks, and that gradual discovery is handled well, with plenty of sweet moments and great pacing. 

Hanging over Greg's head is the threat of being shipped off to SPAG UNION, a military academy that promises to whip boys into shape. And he definitely needs to be whipped into shape. Greg is the king of lollygagging, and also of causing insane chain-reaction events that leave his surroundings in ruins. This leads to his dad, Frank, feeling like a failure as a father. How does his kid not even know how to use a key to open a door (seriously, how)? It becomes increasingly clear there's probably something deeper, a sense of shame because Frank feels small and unsuccessful himself in a lot of ways, especially compared to his neighbor/senior coworker, whose son is an all-star athlete. It's about control, and feeling like we have some say in our lives.

That manifests here by enrolling Greg in the Woodchippers, which is basically the Boy Scouts. If Greg can get his act together and earn some badges, he can avoid going to military school and Frank can breathe a sigh of relief: he's not a bad dad, after all. Within this framework comes most of the film's action, with Greg hitting the gym (physical fitness), the kitchen (cooking), and running for Student Council (leadership), all with disastrous results. It's the kind of stuff that sometimes is borderline hard to watch, like, dude...come on. But it's all in good fun, and in service of bringing Greg and Frank closer together, seeing each other more clearly, and eventually just wanting to spend time together outside of the mission.

While the film has a snowy setting and a Christmas-set opening scene (a morning struggle to get the family to church on time), this isn't really a Christmas movie, but it does still feel wintry enough to warrant popping into the rotation this time of year. It has some warm fuzzies packed into the general mayhem. I'll be happy to see the Heffleys again when they return next year in The Getaway.