Criticism of ‘Lilo, my friend the crocodile’: Javier Bardem’s fantastic musical

Never, as far back as I can remember, published in Spain, but in some other delicious hardcover jewel from Mexico, the first of the numerous books written and illustrated by the American Bernard Waber could have been, precisely in those first and innocent 60s, an endearing piece of animation in the style of those that Chuck Jones or the geniuses of the UPA production company did with works of the other great pillar of illustrated children’s literature: Dr. Seuss. Perhaps Walt Disney, the one with that mixture of cartoons and live images that he was perfecting with ‘Mary Poppins’, would not have betrayed the naive spirit of Lilo, the singing crocodile that a family finds in the attic of their new New York home. But Lilo, or Lyle, along with her rhymes and songs, remained on the pages of books that were caressed by children’s hands in schools, nurseries and libraries. Resurrecting him in full disbelief and not at all innocent of the 21st century seemed a priori a suicidal decision, as much as two directors associated with the comedy of coarse salt and scatological (‘The changeover’; ‘Company party’…), Will Speck and Josh Gordon whoever did it. Obviously there is no coarse salt (yes bath salts) nor scatology (some moment of childish fart) in ‘Lilo, my friend the crocodile’, nor a cumbersome cheesy family cinema (no, thank God it’s not ‘Stuart Little’) and even less (I confess that I appreciate this) a hipster rereading of the story in the manner of, I don’t know, Wes Anderson. What there is is a musical with all of the law, a ‘My sister Elena’ (Richard Quine, 1955) where a dream New York and a thousand and one colors beats to the rhythm of the music, the choreographies and that strange and longed for happiness that only survives in classical musicals.

Shawn Mendes provides the voice and the songs (of the duo that composed the songbook for that other kitsch and gay musical that is ‘The Greatest Showman’) of the CGI animated crocodile, more similar to those of Disney’s ‘The Rescuers’ than the original of Waber. The silly effort and candor of his is appreciated as the silly tone of the film is appreciated, a film that ends up shining brighter than the neon lights of Broadway thanks to an incredible paraphernalia of humor, talent for singing and dancing, emotionality and a bigger than life performance by Javier Bardemas immense and memorable as Donald O’Connor from ‘Singing in the Rain’ or Topol from ‘Fiddler on the Roof’.

For big children of musicals painted with plastidecor

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DATA SHEET

Address: Josh GordonWill Speck Distribution: Javier Bardem, Constance Wu, Winslow Fegley, Scoot McNairy Country: USA Year: 2022 Release date: 21–10-2022 Gender: Musical Script: William Davis Duration: 106 minutes

Synopsis: When the Primm family moves to New York, their teenage son Josh struggles to adjust to his new school and new friends. All that changes when he discovers Lilo, a singing crocodile, who likes baths, caviar and good music, living in the attic of his new house.