Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Some things I liked some I did not.

Great Film overall

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Many people appear to be assuming that this movie is trying to take its premise seriously, when in fact it's mostly making fun of itself. It's stupid for the sake of being stupid. Pie in the face sort of humor. If you don't like laughing at very obvious jokes then this is definitely NOT a movie you are likely to enjoy. There are a number of well placed hidden gems though, like the "fart containment unit" that is absolutely a ghostbusters reference.At it's core, it's a movie that most people love. An outcast child who meets a truly accepting friend who is also an outcast, and then the two work together to turn their differences into a gift rather than a weakness. A fairly standard underdog type movie.

I honestly don't understand the negative reviews of this film. The film is silly, the acting is over the top, the entire premise of the film is that a boy farts a lot - how can anyone expect that it should be seen as anything serious?I think that the movie is funny - silly, yes, but still funny. It is also touching, and actually has a quite heartwarming story about friendship, about being special, and about turning your uniqueness from a weakness into a strength. It is also a critique of adults, and their tendency to lie, cheat and misrepresent everything for their own gain. There is a small scene set in a courtroom, where a metallurgist is pressed to express opinions beyond his professional knowledge, and to me it conveys how everything in the adult world is about politics and power, rather than about friendship and respect as in the children's' world.I also find it interesting that just as the main character describes every experience as either "the worst day of my life, ever" or "the best day of my life, ever" - the reviewers seem to think that this is the worst piece of film, ever - or the best ever.It may not be the best film ever, but it is great fun, nice for an afternoon's laugh, and just so plain silly that you can't but smile at every single scene or character.Enjoy!

Great film..made for kids of a certain age.Maybe it should have been "re-branded" as Thunder Fanny in the US to avoid any misunderstanding that the film is primarily about fart.I am quite amused by how serious and this film has bee watched and how earnestly it has been reviewed. There are numerous reviews that have given it 1 star with the title "I couldn't stop laughing" and went on to justify the mark with "but because the film was so bad...it had constant repetitive fart references" but my favourite is this little Gem "Typical British though and basically typically European and other non American countries to have a "comedy" which has more sadness and brutality in it than anything funny. I do not recommend this film at all"It reminds me of when my 3 year old got upset at the beginning of Ice Age because the squirrel couldn't get his nut! In summary...Not a Classic, not a joyous exploration into the dreams and aspirations of 8-12 year old..Just a funny film about Farting

Spoiler as some prefer stories to just be stories and Thunderpants can be very nice just as that. I purchased the DVD as it is early Anna Popplewell, I was impressed by her in The Little Vampire. I tend to cringe at features that have lots of bad language, so the reviews here gave me qualms, but I found the language to be * mostly * no problem at all. It is mostly very 'elementary school' level language and humour. Rupert's acting style underlining that. Some cringe at such, I cringe at other. This will not be for everyone, but I find it to be very appropriate humour in this particular story. The bad language exception is one I solve by trying to look the other way. Holy mackerel, mullet and cod. One of the main characters of the final scenes is a religious fundamentalist of the praise the lord type, just his praises are a real pain. My guess is that the storyteller got carried away by personal politics and worked to stop this from being a comedy that can transcend borders. Uncle Buck was slightly worse. These two do not attempt to transcend borders or build bridges, that is left to the viewer. Thunderpants could easily have had some fundamentalists really loving potty humour. Some, but maybe not so many. Could be that Thunderpants and Uncle Buck both try to tell their individual story well, then look to Heathers in a wrong sort of way and misuse Heathers by allowing it to be inspiration to give their own work disease. With both I need to 'look the other way' in a very specific and careful way. In this case I then try to say clearly what I feel the problem to be. I experience Thunderpants as more of a parable than most fiction. I now doubt that some of the bad reviews stem from objections to the symbolic language, such as the abundance of Morris Minors in racing green, a complex English symbolism. I interpret that symbol as not so much including a reference to a mini skirt, which it can, but more to a traditional dance form that includes a stick and a bladder. The dance is also referred to in the fairground scene of Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang of 1968, the old bamboo. I read the dance as including allusions to an English form of ? Penada, penar, penado? I interpret the execution, my DVD commentary mentions more than one, as referring to a very real English reality. I say that as an underclass. Even more, I was drawn to Apollo 13 of 1995 as it is an Emily Ann Lloyd, but was disenchanted by how the director turned much of the reality upside down. That messes up my appreciation of Grinch of 2000, which in itself is quality. This 2002 feature feels like a parable about that sort of turning upside down, as if Thunderpants Are Go to coming to the defence of the realities of the Apollo 13 flight and to a lot more too. This story gets big things wrong and big things right. There is not much Anna in this feature. I still rate it a lot. Even more than Narnia. When I manage to look the other way, cheek turned. Predictably, there is a region 2 version of this UK feature, just I could not find it when I purchased.