This summer, Judy Moody is planning the most super-duper, double-rare summer vacation ever with best friends Rocky and Amy. Except that it turns out Rocky is going to circus camp to learn to tame lions, Amy is headed off to Borneo with her mom to save a lost tribe and Judy is stuck home with her pesky little brother Stink and second-best friend Frank Pearl. Just when she thinks things are as rotten as they can be, her parents announce that they will be going to California and Judy will have to stay behind with her Aunt Opal, who she's never even met! It looks like Judy's best summer ever has just become her way worst summer ever. But feisty, fearless Judy Moody never gives up. With help from some unexpected sources, she's headed for a summer full of surprises.
Genres: Comedy, Kids/Family and Adaptation Release Date: June 10th, 2011 (wide) MPAA Rating: PG for for mild rude humor and language. Distributor: Relativity Media
Bobbi Sue Luther, Andrew Sugerman, Sarah Siegel-Magness
Take the animated adolescent flourishes of “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World†and apply them to a hyperactive child’s imagination, and you have an idea of the texture of “Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer,†John Schultz’s rambunctiously exuberant film featuring Megan McDonald’s popular children’s book character.
The heroine (played by the Australian dervish Jordana Beatty in her lead American debut, evincing the carrot-topped charm of early Lindsay Lohan but at a higher metabolism) painfully says goodbye at school year’s end to her vacationing best buds Amy (Taylar Hender) and Rocky (Garrett Ryan). Agonized, Judy is left with the milquetoast Frank (Preston Bailey) and her younger brother, Stink (Parris Mosteller, winningly annoying), who is obsessed with finding Bigfoot. The season would be a washout if it weren’t for the arrival of Aunt Opal (Heather Graham, wide-eyed, bohemian and deftly subordinate to the star), who has come to stay while the parents are off helping an ailing grandfather.
Let the avoidance of boredom and the fitful, all-important accumulation of “thrill points†commence: Opal brings tales of exotic travels, and, best of all, she’s an artist, which dovetails nicely with Judy’s bric-a-brac aesthetic and gift for fancifully rendered lists.
The whole film is a celebration of messy, colorful, vigorous creativity, echoed in Cynthia Charette’s gloriously cluttered hodgepodge production design, with barely a product placement in sight. Scrawls and doodles flit around characters’ heads; Judy’s reveries become eye-blink vignettes of digital animation. Imagery and movement â€" not gratuitous destruction â€" prevail.
Got a restless preadolescent daughter around the house? An air-conditioned theater and this breathless kaleidoscope of a movie might be the answer.
“Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer†is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It has â€" gasp! â€" comic references to body functions.
Take the animated adolescent flourishes of “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World†and apply them to a hyperactive child’s imagination, and you have an idea of the texture of “Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer,†John Schultz’s rambunctiously exuberant film featuring Megan McDonald’s popular children’s book character.
Got a restless preadolescent daughter around the house? An air-conditioned theater and this breathless kaleidoscope of a movie might be the answer. 
