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Today Jay and Sean review Flora and Ulysses, a brand new movie streaming on Disney Plus about a little girl and a super squirrel. It's sweet, it's charming, and it's a lot of fun.
The adventures of a young girl and a squirrel with superpowers.
Director: Lena Khan
Writers: Brad Copeland (screenplay by), Kate DiCamillo (novel)
Stars: Matilda Lawler, John Kassir, Alyson Hannigan, Ben Schwartz, Danny Pudi, Anna Deavere Smith, Kate Micucci, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Nancy Robertson, Bobby Moynihan
Flora (Matilda Lawler) is a little girl who wants to believe the world is filled with wonder and magic, but experience has taught her to embrace cynicism instead. She may hope for the best but she prepares for the worst, reading disaster preparedness books alongside the comic books written by her father. Incandesto and his super hero friends are so familiar to her she can practically see them but her father George (Ben Schwartz) has had no luck selling them, and has recently left the family, bereft. Mom Phyllis (Alyson Hannigan) isn’t doing so hot either. A romance writer, Phyllis has been in a bit of a slump lately, and her new project isn’t very inspired either.
But don’t worry, folks, this isn’t some sad sack story, this is a super hero origin story, and the super hero is a squirrel named Ulysses. Ulysses gets sucked into a robot vacuum and once resuscitated, he’s got super powers! He’s super strong, and super fast, and super troublesome when Flora brings him into the house. He also writes poetry, but it’s unclear whether that’s actually a super power. Anyway, any squirrel in the house is likely to wreak havoc, but Ulysses is capable of so much destruction! All accidental, of course, but ask mom if she cares. She does not! But in the course of things, mean Miller (Danny Pudi) at animal control gets whiff of a potentially rabid squirrel and he’s on the case, pursuing the Buckman family, the boy next door, William (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) who is temporarily hysterically blind, and their super squirrel Ulysses, stopping at nothing to euthanize super Ulysses, willing even to tranquilize humans in his quest to cage a furry little super hero.
Matilda Lawler is an insanely cute kid and a very capable actor. Much of the film’s charm emanates directly from her. Ben Schwartz harnesses a lot of his oddity and delivers straight up goofball as the affable, supportive dad. Their family adventure makes for excellent family viewing, and there’s no denying the soft, endearing fuzziness of Ulysses the poetry writing super squirrel. Director Lena Khan does an excellent job of translating the hijinks onto the big screen but keeping it grounded first and foremost in family values. The characters may be offbeat but the message is hopeful, the story is bright, and the squirrel is hard to resist. Flora & Ulysses has the makings of an excellent family movie night.
In one scene, Flora's father, George tells her he loves her, and Flora responds, "I love you 3000." This is the same thing Tony Stark's daughter says to him when he tucks her into bed in Avengers: Endgame.
The doorbell tone on Flora's house is the Imperial March from Star Wars.
Bobby Moynihan's character is a comic book store owner named Stanlee, a nice tribute to Marvel's late creator, Stan Lee.