Ramona and Beezus Is Less Disney Than Hallmark Channel

Details

Ramona and Beezus
Directed by Elizabeth Allen
20th Century Fox
Opens July 23

Related Content

• Live: Taylor Swift Brings Selena Gomez And James Taylor To Madison Square Garden
  November 23, 2011
• Celebs Who Are Only Children: Here's The List
  October 7, 2011
• Gossip! Gossip! Gossip! With Names!
  July 13, 2011
• Please Welcome Nick Murray, The Village Voice's New Clubs And Music Listings Editor
  August 15, 2011
• Underwhelmed And Overstimulated, Part IV: The Joys Of Nicola Roberts And The Problem With Odd Future
  December 21, 2011

More About

• Selena Gomez
• Elizabeth Allen
• Beverly Cleary
• Ramona and Beezus
• Ramona Quimby

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Despite the presence of Mouse House starlet Selena Gomez, Ramona and Beezus is less Disney than Hallmark Channel, a loose adaptation of Beverly Cleary's first novel in her beloved kid-lit series that's wholesome to the point of being dull. Without much in the way of a governing narrative structure, Elizabeth Allen's innocuous film charts Ramona Quimby (Joey King)—her age advanced here from four to a more precocious nine years old—as she suffers a series of embarrassments in front of family, friends, and classmates. King captures Ramona's spunky, oddball spirit, but her imaginative antics, often embellished with ill-fitting fantasy CGI, frequently take a backseat to the inconsequential romantic predicaments of big sis Beezus (Gomez) and aunt Bea (Ginnifer Goodwin). Ramona's story admirably attempts to address issues of adult abandonment, social alienation, and economic instability, the last of these via a timely subplot about Ramona's dad (John Corbett) being downsized that's wrapped up with disingenuous happily-ever-after tidiness. Yet even more than the overriding milquetoast atmosphere, it's this focus on real-world fears that destabilizes Allen's film, as the plethora of pressing adult concerns eventually becomes so pronounced that any trace of comedic verve dissipates, thereby draining the proceedings of the very color that defines its idiosyncratic protagonist.