"Clever, Clean and Wonderful"
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What You Need To Know:
LEO is brilliantly conceived as a real gift to parents looking for clean entertainment with positive messages for their children in an often-destructive entertainment landscape. Sandler and his co-writers have perfectly chosen fifth-graders on the cusp of middle school. They spotlight the importance of innocence in children’s lives. Each main character gets a song (or two). With no objectionable content, LEO is a holiday treat that may prove to be timelessly popular.
Content:
More Detail:
Adam Sandler is the king of comedy for Netflix. His latest Netflix movie, LEO, is a clean, clever, utterly wonderful animated musical comedy for all ages that follows a talking lizard named Leo. Leo (voiced by Sandler) has spent his entire 74 years of life in a glass-encased terrarium at an elementary school fifth-grade classroom alongside his best friend Squirtle the Turtle (Bill Burr).
When Leo overhears a student’s parent saying that lizards can only survive 75 years, Leo is desperate to get out of his glass prison and see the world – especially hoping to spend time in the aquatic paradise of the Everglades. He finds his way out thanks to a new substitute teacher named Miss Malkin (Cecily Strong), who seems to be cruel hearted for her no-nonsense, hit the books approach to teaching.
Miss Malkin orders the students to each bring Leo home for a weekend apiece in order to teach them responsibility. At first, the children are annoyed, but when they hear Leo talk and start offering kind-hearted and witty advice for their array of childhood problems, they come to love him. However, each one thinks Leo is talking only to themselves.
Among the problems the students deal with are loneliness, bullying and their parents’ divorce. As Leo helps each student handle their tough situations, the children grow in confidence and kindness. The students are soon acing their classes and extracurricular activities and are excitedly hoping to win the school’s academic decathlon.
However, when Miss Malkin learns Leo talks and has the ability to impact children in ways she can only hope, she steals him away and dumps him in the Everglades.
Can Leo ever make it out of the nature preserve that’s scarier than he expected? Will the kids be able to save the day? Can Miss Malkin ever change for the better?
LEO is brilliantly conceived as a real gift to parents hoping to find clean entertainment with positive messages for their children in an entertainment landscape that’s normally preaching the destructive lessons of wokeness. Sandler and his co-writers Robert Smigel and Paul Sado have perfectly chosen fifth-graders on the cusp of middle school, and spotlight the importance of innocence in children’s lives.
An especially touching moment is one where Leo tells one boy not to be concerned with how babies really happen and instead embrace his innocent wonderment with the world. Each of the main characters gets their own song (or two) along the way, adding to the amusing way LEO’s life lessons are imparted.
Sandler is fantastic in his voice work here as Leo and has built a cast of his talented friends to fill many of the other leading roles. Sandler perfectly conveys the wide array of emotions Leo experiences, mostly bringing big laughs but also a touching tear or two in other spots.
Altogether, LEO is an absolutely terrific movie the whole family can enjoy together – a rarity these days in movies with big stars. With no foul language, violence, sex or nudity and numerous positive life lessons, LEO is a holiday treat that may prove to be timelessly popular.
