Ivan the Incredible/Jelly T Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjoZVStw-IM
I watched this movie on Netflix months before I started college and thinking about the events that occurred still hurts my brain and even my heart.
I knew that if I wanted to review this movie now, it was necessary to re-watch it to be sure that I got all my facts straight and point out many of its obvious flaws. So, for your sake, I watched the movie again, reliving the pain I felt all those months ago.
According to Commonsensemedia.org, Ivan the Incredible is an, "English-language version of a Danish animated movie" and the site points out that, "kids used to the upbeat rhythm of American cartoons and movies will find this film's pace slower and some scenes repetitive."
Slow pacing and repetitive scenes are the least of this movie's problems. Any movie that presents such grotesque imagery, mean spirited characters, and one of the worst morals of all time should not be able to see the light of day.
As the summary states, the story revolves around Ivan Olsen. He is a young boy who is ignored by many and his only comfort is playing with his makeshift household appliances in a private room of his house.
Ivan is "plagued by bullies". There are three bullies at his school that appear much older than they seem. I assumed they were in middle school and around the same age as Ivan, but these bullies looked like stereotypes. A thug, a drug addict looking dummy, and a girl who is purposely drawn to look very ugly with a disporpotional figure and is always seen with a half eaten sausage in her mouth-like a cigar.
In the beginning of the movie, they pick on Ivan and his friend Lottie (who has a crush on Ivan) and while Lottie is able to sneak away from the bullies, Ivan is left with the trio and they force him to sit inside a large sink filled with water and later throw him into a toilet stall and mock him till no end.
But that's not the worst part, these are not the only bullies Ivan deals with.
It's not just the trio of mean kids that bully him, it's the entire town!
Seriously, almost every single person insults Ivan in one way or another. One of his classmates, a stuck up rich kid mocks Ivan for not being able to spend time with Lottie as much as he is-which is never truly explained why they hang out so much, since Lottie clearly doesn't like the rich kid. The town butcher and an older lady comments on how frail Ivan is, and even the Ivan's father (Holson Olsen, the name is mentioned once) is a bully to him. In fact, the dad was my least favorite character because of his insufferable behavior towards his son.
It is known that the bullying at school happens daily once Ivan's father, Holson asks if the kids messed with him again. When Ivan says yes, the dad doesn't comfort the son or tell the principal about it; he scolds him for not being strong enough to take care of the situation. The dad continues ranting about how he wishes Ivan could be like Tarzan-a fascination that I was really confused about.
Throughout the movie, the dad is always talking about how Ivan should be like his ideal man, Tarzan-by being big and strong. It's peculiar that the writers chose Tarzan as the ideal man for the father, since Tarzan is a story in itself; I think if the father was obsessed with something like a spaghetti monster, that would make the story better and perhaps funnier because you'd find it hilarious that he would obsess over something so stupid; but that's not the case. Since he was into Tarzan, it not only throws the audience off but gives a minor dislike to everything Tarzan related for the next few days (unfortunately)
Anyways, the father is a complete jerk to Ivan. He is delusional and never takes his son's side on anything bad that happens to him. It's also realized that his father didn't take the time to teach his son simple things like riding a bike.
It is also learned that Ivan cannot read. When it comes to Ivan's illiteracy I was perplexed at how bad his condition really was. Ivan would literally witness the letters of a book jump off the page and run across a room yelling. At first, I thought this was just a running gag that turned out to be a weak joke, but now I see it as a sad revelation. Based on how his father treats him and his conceited nature, I could only assume that his dad never taught him how to read properly either.
His father cares more about being a coach for the townspeople to boast his ego and get the popularity he thinks he deserves, but he's outshine by a traveling witch who comes into town and grants people's wishes, including making a old man walk again. This causes the father to use his son to prove to the community that he can make people strong with his coach skills.
One thing he does to his son is that he gathers all the townspeople to a tall tree and makes Ivan climb all the way to the top to prove that he's strong. Ivan reluctantly goes up but fails in making it all the way and drops to the ground in front of everybody. His father grows infuriated with him and spouts hateful words, telling him he's impossible to work with and that he can't do anything right and gives his son the nickname, "Jelly Tarzan" (Jelly T- The Danish title of the movie) and the townspeople make fun of Ivan using that nickname once the father abandons him by the tree.
The only one who wasn't making fun of Ivan was Lottie, who at this point has been constantly trying to avoid any confrontation with bullies and always left Ivan to fend for himself. Frankly, I don't see this as too bad since Lottie is a kid and to be fair, she does seem to understand that what she does is wrong. Whereas, his father...is all kinds of evil. This is the point where I really wanted to not watch anymore, but I pushed on.
41 minutes pass before we get to the climax of the story when Ivan later discovers where the traveling witch is located and the witch is kind enough to give him one free wish. Ivan wishes to be the best at everything and he gets want he wants, but the witch warns him that he could only stay like that for one day.
Of course, the next day Ivan shows off his new powers by reading multiple books to the class, getting revenge from the school bullies and showing off his muscles to intimidate them (the muscles by the way freaked me out by how they were designed. It was unsettling to see) plus he can spit fast enough to break a window and races the girl bully around town on a bike while he has his friend Lottie on the back, putting her in serious danger.
Ivan is proud of his new powers until Lottie complains that the powers have changed him and that she doesn't like this new Ivan. The young boy is then upset over losing his friend, but soon enough he makes the surprising revelation the day after that he hasn't lost his powers. This is because the witch forgot to make Ivan drink a potion that stops the powers. This turned out to be fortunate news for Ivan's father, who promotes himself through his son's powers and makes a book called, "Tarzan Coach" and travels around the world to sell it to everyone.
Again, his father is being conceited and still doesn't care for Ivan. He only cared for himself.
After traveling the world, the father and son return home and the father immediately causes tension between himself and the town butcher. However, Ivan is there for him and picks up the butcher and walks over to the tree from earlier in the movie. The whole community is surrounding Ivan, chanting for him to throw the butcher on the tree but Ivan ultimately refuses and -shocker-picks up his dad and throws him on the tree instead. The dad falls from the tree and cries over his embarrassment but once again, Ivan feels guilty for being mean to him so he carries him home.
When they get home, basically the father admits that he's not all that great and is a weak person. Ivan shows off his private room of household items to his dad and the witch finds him there suddenly, gives him the potion and turns him back to normal. And apparently the father is okay with his son the way he is now, because he learned his lesson-how sweet.
At the end of the movie, it shows Ivan going to school and telling Lottie that he is back to normal right before the trio of bullies return to mess with him again (knowing he's normal too) but this time, Lottie is strong enough to stand up for Ivan and they both get bullied and thrown in the sink together and when the bullies leave laughing at their shame, the pair hold hands and enjoy their company as it pans over to the witch traveling to a different unknown town.
....This movie is just horrible. The characters are either bullies or victims and I agree with commonsensemedia.org when they say that the moral of this story is, "It's better to be bullied than to become a bully yourself" because that's what it is presenting to young children.
This movie is intended for kids 8 and up, but what exactly were they thinking when they created this? This moral can seriously damage a child, thinking that you should settle for being picked on and it's okay for people to beat you up and not say anything to anyone as long as you are a kind child.
Yes, it's fine to say that you should be kind, but also be brave and love yourself enough to protect yourself. Protection does not call for fighting; something as easy as telling a teacher is an act of love towards yourself.
here was little love to be spread in this film, the only characters the audience might like are Ivan, Lottie and the Witch, but everyone else act like devils' advocates, especially the father. He was made to be too unlikable and never charming enough to make me like him. He threw his insecurities onto his son and he deserves no pity for his past or a pat on the back for "changing" his attitude at the end. I'm sure if they made a sequel, he would revert back to his old ways. Seriously, if I were Ivan, I would try to run away from home every chance I got, although since the father was neglectful, I'm sure it wouldn't be that difficult to do.
This was a challenge to get through, but I'm glad I did it. No one needs to watch this. I'm an adult and I almost grew depressed seeing this young boy's torture go on for so long. I could only imagine how kids would feel.
Only watch it if you want to confirm that I'm telling the truth about this, that I'm not making up an elaborate story just to mindlessly rant. And don't watch it with children in the room.
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