It’s hard to say the name “Captain Underpants” without smiling, and the big-screen debut of the skivvies-clad superhero (the film’s subtitle is “The First Epic Movie”) maintains that same goofy, innocently naughty nature for nearly its entire running time.
Yes, there are farts, and musical numbers choreographed around infinite rolls of toilet paper, and an arch-nemesis named Professor Poopypants; at the preview screening I attended, kids were delighted, and so were more than a few adults who were willing to surrender to the animated feature’s grammar-school scatology and loopy, anything-for-a-laugh ethos.
Adapted by Nicholas Stoller (“The Muppets”) from the popular books by Dav Pilkey, “Captain Underpants” has the breathless pacing and constantly-topping-itself narrative that suggest a sugar-stimulated youngster spinning a yarn with frequent use of “and then.”