The Big Picture

Leo stands out by not introducing random characters for the purpose of selling toys but for merits which go beyond that. The trio of screenwriters pay attention to detail, creating a consistent and meaningful story for Leo, the 74-year-old lizard. Leo’s commitment to well-timed gags, development of multiple characters, and avoiding over-the-top mayhem make it a positive and mature animated movie experience.

Given the potential that animated movies have to spawn a slate of products that appeal to children, it’s not surprising that a lot of them go out of their way to introduce characters that are bound to become toys. In this regard, Netflix’s new animated movie Leo already stands out for not trying to throw random characters on the screen with no clear purpose. But the merits of the movie are not limited to that.

Leo Release Date January 22, 1984 Director Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel, David Wachtenheim Cast Adam Sandler, Bill Burr, Cecily Strong, Jason Alexander Rating PG Runtime 102 minutes Main Genre Animation Genres Animation, Comedy, Family Writers Robert Smigel, Adam Sandler, Paul Sado
The second animated movie from Adam Sandler’s production company Happy Madison, Leo stars Sandler himself as the voice of the title character – a pet lizard who’s been inside an elementary school classroom aquarium for his whole life along with his turtle friend Squirtle (voiced by Bill Burr). Leo’s life turns upside down when he discovers that he might just have one year left in his life. So, he decides the time has come to flee the classroom.

Another great merit of Leo is that throughout the movie it’s possible to see and feel that a trio of screenwriters made up of Sandler, Robert Smigel (Saturday Night Live) and Paul Sado (The Cobbler) paid attention to detail in the story. Leo isn’t just a 74-year-old who suddenly has a burst of wanderlust. Even though he’s afraid to die, he still can’t exactly muster the energy to make his life worth living. He can barely blink without feeling exhausted, and this makes his personality consistent throughout the story.

‘Leo’ Never Forgets Its Main Character’s Personality

Leo’s age is also what makes his arc go in a totally different direction than animal adventures usually do. Instead of suddenly getting whisked away on a life-changing trip with colorful characters, Leo only goes as far as the students’ houses. But the movie is careful to make those short journeys meaningful. It’s rare to see animated movies committed to the development of several characters at once, and Leo does the work to make us care at least a little bit about a lot of them by having its protagonist get involved with the stories of most of the kids in his classroom.

Leo also understands the power of its gags and how to use them at appropriate times – the best of them being the kindergarten children and their peculiar behavior. It’s the kind of joke that works because the movie knows when to use it, and it never overstays its welcome. Leo is also incredibly committed to its running jokes. A drone has its own distinct personality that keeps evolving as the movie progresses, kids are tasked with carrying extremely heavy books and they keep doing it for the rest of the movie. The list goes on and only intensifies the power of these tiny jokes.

At the same time, while several of Leo’s concepts feel fully developed and thought through, others are frustrating by comparison, since they never seem to get the same attention. The biggest of them is the animals’ talking part. Not that there is a problem with talking animals, but for a good portion of Leo, we have the impression that the lizard and his friend turtle can blabber all they want because humans wouldn’t be able to hear or understand them. That’s why it’s so surprising when we suddenly discover that not only humans can hear animals loud and clear. It instantly makes us wonder, how come Leo managed to keep his talking a secret for over 70 years?

Despite these smaller problems, Leo finds a healthy balance between what works and what doesn’t. It gets even more interesting when you realize how the movie plays to kids’ insecurities and essentially has them taking advice from an old person — something that usually is reserved for the end-of-the-movie life lesson. Even more interesting than that is the fact that Leo reserves its biggest lessons for the adult characters, which communicates to audiences what level of accountability we should administer to kids’ and adults’ mistakes.

‘Leo’ Doesn’t Go Big and That’s Okay
Image via Netflix

Leo also avoids the over-the-top mayhem that animation screenwriters seem to think is mandatory to take the story to the next level. In this one, the biggest chaos happens during a birthday party and it’s resolved pretty quickly before getting a fun callback later in the movie. This further illustrates how Sandler, Sado, and Smigel comprehend the power of their own story and realize that Leo doesn’t need to go extreme in order to convey its message or be unforgettable.

This also applies to musical numbers as Leo isn’t afraid of going weird with its songs. It’s more concerned with being funny than delivering an overwhelming soundtrack. In “Dear Drone,” for example, we’re taken through the process of breaking up with an overprotective machine, and the song just ends abruptly, while “Don’t Cry” is presented as a lullaby but it’s basically Leo being a jerk to a little girl. From references to Lin-Manuel Miranda (Moana) to songs that don’t rhyme and even metalinguistic performances – the one with the clocks is especially good because it completely underscores a particular character’s personality – Leo shows a surprising level of maturity that we’ve only come to expect from Pixar and Studio Ghibli films.

Rating: B+

Watch on Netflix