The DCOM formula hasn’t quite been refined yet in Under Wraps
Now this is more like it.
From the opening of Under Wraps (1997), you can tell that the classic DCOM formula is present. Campy music? Check. Silly animated opening that goes on for far too long? Check. Goofy logo for the movie? Check.
It’s a formula that the Disney Channel will tinker with in future films, so this one is very much a work in progress. For starters, the adult humor is wildly present in this, mostly through the female character, Amy. Harold, the mummy they find, is actually celibate, which Amy G-ratedly defines as “no chicks.”
The three leads are as clichéd as possible. You have Marshall, the prettboy male lead, Gilbert, the nerdy guy who’s scared of everything, and Amy, the tomboyish girl who is contractually obligated to become the love interest at some point. And…that’s really all there is to them.
Now, these types of characters aren’t inherently bad, but none of them have much depth or substance to them. Marshall is struggling to accept his new step-dad, but it never feels like it’s something important to the plot. You could omit every scene related to that and he’d have about the same level of development.
One good thing I can say about them is that the chemistry between Marshall and Gilbert are pretty great. Their personalities merge well, and the actors (Mario Yedidia and Adam Wylie, respectively) manage to deliver a few funny lines:
Gilbert: “What about, uh, Patrick Ryer?”
Marshall: “What about him?”
Gilbert: “He blew up Kubat’s mailbox with a cherry bomb and nobody ever saw him again.”
Marshall: “That’s because he moved to Toronto.”
Gilbert: “Oh, really? You, know, he never writes.”
Amy functions mostly as the serious comic relief. A lot of her dialogue is bitterly down-to-earth and deadpan, which feels out of place in an otherwise goofy film. The love interest angle also doesn’t work organically for her character. Why can’t she just be friends with Marshal instead of having a contrived romance? It doesn’t help at all that Clara Bryant doesn’t have the bet on-screen chemistry with the other kids.
And then we have Harold. Most of his interactions with the world are neither funny nor relevant. Each scene with him went on for far too long and were almost completely unnecessary. I like slapstick, but every moment was boring to watch. Even his interactions with the children could inject only so much interest in the film. His only good joke was when he saw a bathroom and immediately ran to pee.
However, my main gripe with Harold was his voice. He’s played Bill Fagerbakke (Patrick Star from SpongeBob Squarepants), but he only speaks in grunts. Try watching SpongeBob where Patrick only grunts for 90 minutes and see how well it tests your patience.
So you may be wondering what conflict there is in this. The kids obviously have to hide this mummy ET style, since the mother is selling the house that the kids found him in. However the owner of the house, who faked his death to avoid paying taxes, has Harold’s sarcophagus. If he doesn’t get back in the sarcophagus before midnight on Halloween, he will disappear forever.
There’s also a subplot about Harold’s girlfriend, another mummy who was in a sarcophagus next to Harold. She comes to life in the end, but it adds nothing to Harold’s character. It, like the other subplots, just felt like filler.
I think that despite it being a silly story, this could have a solid execution under the right conditions.
Suggestions:
- Add some character development and make the kids less one-dimensional.
- Flesh out the boy’s relationship with his mother and stepfather.
- Remove the needless slapstick with Harold and make him less annoying.
- Make the villain (usually the saving grace of films like these) more memorable, or at least have an actor who hams it up (a la Christopher McDonald in Lemonade Mouth).
You may not have a great movie, but you’ll have something much more watchable in the end. Just don’t ever change the title. Under Wraps is one of the most perfect titles ever.
This one was…better than the last one, I suppose. It’s hard to judge between the two of them since they’re so vastly different. Maybe the next film will be better than this one! Wait, it stars Kirk Cameron? Oh no…
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