Adam Sandler has been making movies for Netflix for years now, and they all are seemingly huge hits. Sandler and his usual crew have ventured once again into the animated children's realm, and if you liked him as a vampire in "Hotel Transylvania," then you'll love him as Leo the lizard.
"Leo" releases on Netflix, on November 21, and stars Adam Sandler as Leo, Bill Burr, Cecily Strong, Jason Alexander, Rob Schneider, Stephanie Hsu, Jo Koy, Heidi Gardner, Nick Swardson, Kevin James and Robert Smigel. Here's what critics had to say.
The premise
Leo is 74 years old, and has shared the same glass tank with Squirtle the Turtle (Bill Burr) for more than seven decades. When Leo learns that he may only have another year to live, he wants to make a mad dash for the Everglades and catch the sunsets in the wild before his own final sunset. An opportunity presents itself when the mean substitute teacher Mrs. Malkin (Cecily Strong) forces the students to take one of the pets home for the weekend. Summer (Sunny Sandler), the class keener who can bore everyone into facial paralysis with her never ending spiels, gets the first assignment. While making his escape, Leo accidentally lets slip that he can talk. And it turns out that he's a good listener too. Years of watching the kids go in and out of the classroom makes him a de facto therapist, and he dispenses his wisdom generously, often in nonsensical songs.
There are so many life lessons, you'd think this was too preachy
At its heart, "Leo" is an uncomplicated movie that encourages kids to talk about their problems and adults to listen attentively.
Smigel, Sandler, and Paul Sado's episodic script rarely fires on quite enough cylinders to appeal to both crowds at the same time; most of the gags are too fifth-grade-funny to land for grown-ups (e.g. Ms. Malkin using "hug-off" spray to fend off overly affectionate students), and most of the messaging seems too focused on modern adult foibles and/or Leo's imminent death from old age for kids to feel like it's speaking to them. Like many of the parenting philosophies it mocks, "Leo" works better in theory than in practice. And like many of the children those parenting philosophies churn out, it fails to realize its full potential.
"Leo," like a number of recent animated films, doesn't have a terribly fearsome villain, and even the antagonistic substitute Mrs. Malkin isn't so scary once we get to know her. But the story — Sandler and Paul Sado co-wrote with Smigel — carefully and quickly sidesteps the notion of Leo escaping his elementary school home to live in the natural world. (In one mid-film setpiece, Leo tries to note to one of the kids that animals don't always love being locked up, but is interrupted before he can get his point across, as if the film doesn't quite want to grapple with its lead character being more comfortable as a pet.) Instead, "Leo" reveals itself to be something of a lighthearted ode to the value of teaching. Though the script makes some not-so-subtle commentary about helicopter parenting (in one case almost literally, as one of the students is constantly followed by a drone to ensure his parents know what he's up to), "Leo" is as much about the life lessons the eponymous lizard tries to impart as it is about emphasizing the value that a good teacher can create for a set of students.
The music and animation is fine, it's the story and the jokes that sell it
The animation work in "Leo" is solid (it's similar to Apple TV+'s "Luck") and the music (by Smigel, while Geoff Zanelli composed the score) is more winking theatricality than memorable rhymes. It's the narrative and Sandler's comedic timing that will keep you watching. The actor is joined by his daughters here, who contribute fine voice work ("Leo," like Netflix's "You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah," feels like a family affair): Sadie and Sunny Sandler play Jayda and Summer, respectively, two girls on opposite sides of the popularity spectrum, who share more than they realize.
However immature Sandler's sense of humor may have been in the past, he seems to have a pretty good handle on what makes kids tick. The movie can be making potty jokes one minute and delivering practical advice the next, wrapping with the sensible suggestion to "find your Leo." An iguana makes a fairly original choice of confidant — slow, lazy and uniquely capable of regrowing an amputated tail — and one that seems reasonably appealing to real-life fifth graders, who could benefit from the talking-animal toon's underlying message, that the best way to solve one's problems is to put them into words.
TL;DR
The film is fun, very funny, and filled with sage advice, which might be communicated in a goofy way but is, nonetheless, wholly sincere.
Both comedically clever and worthy in heart, "Leo" is a really strong animated feature that consistently delivers.
It sits in that weird gray area between satire and sincerity, between sweet and salty.
A super fun kids movie that is filled with songs and important life lessons. The always funny Adam Sandler is the standout.
[Image: YouTube]
