Two by Two series

(On Cable TV, August 2021) I’m not usually one to maintain that you must have seen the previous film in a series to make sense of sequels, but Two by Two: Overboard sorely tests this conviction. As a kids’ animation film with the usual tone of comic action, it’s not meant to challenge the plotting brain cells of adult viewers. There are cute animals, they are in danger, they triumph over danger, the end. But as a sequel, it gets roaring on a foundation of unlikely concepts presumably introduced in the previous film, not the least of which being a fantastically unlikely fictional race of animals with extraordinary capabilities, taken as granted in Two by Two: Overboard even as first-time viewers aren’t too sure about the rules covering those characters. It doesn’t make the film incomprehensible — it’s aimed at kids, after all — but it makes it feel artificial, arbitrary and contrived. I won’t place all of the blame on this being a sequel, considering that the script and animation are clearly second-rate: the jokes are often lame, the structure is overly familiar, the dialogue is bland and there’s always a willingness to reach lower to get the kids to giggle. (Flatulence is a big, big thing in this film.)  But it’s the way Two by Two: Overboard preens about with those dumb ideas (introduced in the first film) that makes it surprisingly unapproachable if you’re not among the easily impressed target audience. Maybe watch the first film. Maybe watch neither of them.