Bring in the clowns! The clowns make this a unique adventure, but the movie is teeming with fun. There are lots of clowns, but there are lots of valuable lessons to learn too. After all, laughing with others is better than laughing at them, and this movie features these positive themes.
Young Bernie (nicely portrayed by Zachary Arthur) feels like a failure in some ways. His mother recently died, and he hasn’t adjusted well. But his mother used to have a saying that she shared with Bernie’s dad a lot—and now his dad shares it with him—”Everyone has value and God doesn’t make junk.”
This will come in handy for Dr. Chuckles (Ryan O’Quinn), a clown who is bent on laughing at others or making them the butt of jokes. He shoots people with a laughing gun, but he also has some other amazing weapons in his arsenal, such as a remote that makes people pause and freeze! One of his bad decisions is to rob a store of its Gooey Chewies, a candy that results in a lot of ensuing laughter by the person who ate it. Dr. Chuckles shows up on “Chucklevision” to talk to other clowns.
He unfortunately has a nasty plan in mind. The leaders of the free world, such as the President of the United States and the Queen of England, as well as others, are supposed to meet at a peace summit to finally bring world peace to the planet. He plans to disrupt the meeting with his own nefarious plans.
Bernie’s dad is a janitor and he misses his wife, but he is doing his best to raise his son and infuse him with some self-esteem, something sadly lacking in his life. Little does his dad know that he is doing more good than he realizes and that Bernie will have a big role to play in the government in the days ahead.
The film features some peppy music and jokes too, such as, “How does a farmer count cows? With his cow-culator!” And, “What do sea monsters have for lunch? Fish and ships!” Bernie makes it his goal to show Dr. Chuckles that people can change the world for good by laughing together and by realizing everyone has value.
One of the neat moments in the film features a scene in which Bernie helps a bully who picked on him work on a school paper, and the bully realizes that Bernie is a good guy. They make peace. The movie features several such moments in which characters, sometimes very different from one another, manage to connect with each other, and put the past behind them.
In another memorable scene, a few of the kids are trapped by an electrical current surrounding them. When they begin to compliment one another, the current subsides and they are freed. This is another nice example of a valuable lesson taught within the confines of a movie that features joke-telling and dancing clowns.
This film merits our Dove seal for Ages 12+. Make sure and check out our content listing so as to make informed decisions.
The Dove Take:
The themes of self-worth and value are nicely featured in this fun movie that features clowns, dancing, and energetic music.
