Tag: Diary of a wimpy kid

Arlyn Reviews ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever’

Just in time for the holiday season, Disney+ has released a new Diary of a Wimpy Kid animated movie. Loosely based on the 2011 book Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever follows Greg on mischievous winter adventures with his best friend Rowley while also enjoying Christmas with his family. It may not be a direct adaptation of the book, but it keeps many of the same storylines and overall is another solid entry into the animated franchise.

With the movie debuting during the holiday season, it’s key that it touches on some traditional holiday themes. When a big snowstorm shuts everything down it forces Greg to spend time with his family at a time when he wants nothing more than to be away from them. Another one of Greg and Rowley’s typical dumb ideas leads to a series of events that brings Greg face-to-face with the driver of a broken snow plow. Their interaction leads Greg to realize that being with his family isn’t the worst thing in the world and he learns to start to cherish those moments.

(L-R): Manny (voiced by Gracen Newton), Frank Heffley (voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos), Susan (voiced by Erica Cerra), Greg (voiced by Wesley Kimmel) and Rodrick (voiced by Hunter Dillon) in Disney’s DIARY OF A WIMPY KID CHRISTMAS: CABIN FEVER, exclusively on Disney+. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

From a kid’s perspective, Christmas is too often all about presents and that’s definitely something Greg deals with in this movie. For most of the movie, Greg is obsessed with this year’s “best gift ever”: a gaming system. Also in typical kid fashion, Greg justifies his snooping and grows paranoid about his elf on the shelf observing his behavior. Greg’s obsessive behavior over the present ultimately leads Greg to learn the most important lessons about the holiday season, not everyone is as fortunate as him, and giving is better than receiving.

Author Jeff Kinney’s continued creative input into the movies allows him to tweak the storylines for the new medium and for modern times. Aimed at younger viewers, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever offers laughs and lessons wrapped up in a cute animated package delivered on Disney+.

About Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever

Get ready for the Wimpiest Christmas ever! The original animated adventure, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, the latest animated movie based on Jeff Kinney’s wildly successful book series, will premiere December 8, 2023, exclusively on Disney+. The film is a hilarious and heartfelt holiday tale centered around everyone’s favorite disaster-prone middle school student.

The winter holidays are turning out to be especially stressful for Greg Heffley this year. After
accidentally damaging a snowplow while making a snowman with best friend Rowley Jefferson, Greg worries he won’t get the new video game console he so desperately wants for Christmas. To make matters worse, he gets snowed in with his family, including his grumpy older brother Rodrick and annoying younger brother Manny.

Directed by Luke Cormican (Teen Titans Go!) and written and produced by Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever features the voices of Wesley Kimmel (The Mandalorian), Spencer Howell (Ithaca), Chris Diamantopoulos (Beavis and Butt-Head), Erica Cerra (Power Rangers), and Hunter Dillon (Deadpool 2).

The Characters

(L-R): Manny (voiced by Gracen Newton), Frank Heffley (voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos), Susan (voiced by Erica Cerra) holding Elfrendo, Greg (voiced by Wesley Kimmel) and Rodrick (voiced by Hunter Dillon) in Disney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, exclusively on Disney+. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Wesley Kimmel (The Mandalorian) is the voice of Greg Heffley, the disaster-prone middle
school student having a stressful winter holiday. He is trying to be on his best behavior so he will get the new video game console he desperately wants for Christmas but gets into trouble with best friend Rowley Jefferson when they damage a snowplow while innocently building a snowman.

Spencer Howell (Ithaca) voices Rowley Jefferson, who enjoys spending the winter holidays
inside sipping hot cocoa and singing Christmas carols with his parents, eagerly anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus on the big night. He is an unwilling accomplice to Greg Heffley’s snowplow cover-up.

Erica Cerra (Power Rangers) is the voice of Greg Heffley’s mother, Susan, who lives for the
Christmas holiday season and all its traditions. She is happiest when the family can celebrate the Yuletide season together.

Chris Diamantopoulos (Beavis and Butt-Head) voices Frank, Greg Heffley’s father, who is so busy anticipating a massive winter snowstorm that he is missing out on the family’s holiday
traditions that are so important to his wife Susan.

Hunter Dillon (Deadpool 2) is the voice of Greg’s older brother, Rodrick Heffley, who is spending the winter holidays lazy and unmoving from the couch until he decides he will find the culprits wanted by the police so he can take the reward money for himself.

Lisa Ann Walter (Abbott Elementary) voices Gabby, who drives a snowplow to make extra
money for the holidays. She is a single mother to her son Tyler, who is the light of her life.

Elfriendo is a homemade doll from Susan Heffley’s childhood who keeps watch over children and reports any bad behavior to Santa and his elves at the North Pole.

The Filmmakers

Jeff Kinney (Writer/Producer) is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a
Wimpy Kid series and the Awesome Friendly Kid series. He is a six-time Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award winner for Favorite Book and has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England, where he and his wife own a bookstore named An Unlikely Story.

Luke Cormican’s (Director) numerous animated credits include over 78 episodes of Teen Titans Go, on which he served as writer, producer, and director, as well as The Penguins of
Madagascar, Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, The Buzz on Maggie, and Ren and Stimpy Adult
Party Cartoon, among others. Cormican also served as head of story on Teen Titans Go to the Movies.

John Paesano (Composer) is a BAFTA-winning, Emmy®-nominated composer with a range of credits that include The Maze Runner film trilogy, both of PlayStation’s Spider-Man videogames, 50 episodes of Marvel’s Defenders and Daredevil and 100 episodes of
the How to Train Your Dragon series (for which he won an Annie Award).

https://youtu.be/A–mvyHQhcc

December 8, 2023
EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Kinney Hints at Which ‘Wimpy Kid’ Story Will Hit Disney Plus Next

After Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules successfully debuted as animated features on Disney Plus, it seemed that audiences were in for a very linear adaptation of creator Jeff Kinney‘s best-selling Wimpy Kid series. Indeed that was the plan as Kinney indicated in 2022 that work had begun on turning the third book in the series, The Last Straw, into a feature intended for a 2023 debut. However, it turns out 2023’s Wimpy Kid release will instead be a Christmas Special adaptation of Cabin Fever. So what will become of The Last Straw?

Given that Kinney and Disney had done so much work on The Last Straw before pivoting to Cabin Fever, it stands to reason that they would not let that work go to waste. In talking with Kinney about Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, we asked if he believed The Last Straw would be next up and possibly ready for a 2024 release on Disney Plus.

“I‘m hoping so,” exclaimed the author. “You never know what the landscape is going to look like in streaming. That world is kind of a work in progress but I’m really hoping that that story gets told.” As Kinney explained, the decision to move to an adaptation of Cabin Fever was at the behest of Disney to provide a holiday special for their streaming service and not an indication of any problems with The Last Straw. Given all those variables, it seems very logical that they’d like to finish production on that project and have it ready for 2024. However, as Kinney points out, things can change very quickly in the entertainment industry.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever debuts at 12 AM PST/3 AM EST on December 8th only on Disney Plus.

December 7, 2023
EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Kinney on the Possibility of Developing an Original ‘Wimpy Kid’ Story for D+

Since author Jeff Kinney first published Diary of a Wimpy Kid in 2007, more than 275 million copies of his Wimpy Kid books have been sold worldwide. Earlier this year, the 18th book in the series, No Brainer, was published and now a third animated feature, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, is set to debut on Disney Plus on December 8th. Despite being in the business for nearly two decades, it seems like Kinney is just getting started. The author told us that there are no plans to end the series and that he hopes to ultimately adapt each of his books into an animated feature for the streaming service but for a creative mind like Kinney, there are certainly a lot of ideas that haven’t made it into a book just yet and new ideas being generated by the day. So what to do with all those ideas?

Working alongside Disney to develop the series of animated Wimpy Kid features means that while Kinney serves as the writer and producer of each project he’s also one half of a creative partnership with a studio that has its own streaming service. While talking to Kinney about his latest project, we wondered if Kinney had considered creating an original Wimpy Kid story for Disney Plus.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” expressed a genuinely pensive Kinney, “but I wouldn’t be too surprised if they approached me with that idea. Sometimes you find…like I said, this time around they were like ‘we really could use a holiday story’ and if I hadn’t written one before, I think that Disney probably would have asked me to write one. So that would be interesting to have a feature that’s not in the Wimpy Kid canon.“

While the author was clearly open to the idea, he quickly indicated that if he ever did create a project for the streamer, he wouldn’t forget about his first love: the Wimpy Kid books. “What I’d probably do is say, ‘Ok, sure I’ll do that but I’m also gonna make this into a book.‘” said Kinney, “because I want to sort of duplicate my efforts.” Given Kinney’s willingness to try something new and the success of the series of animated features on the streaming service so far, it would seem anything’s possible.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever debuts on Disney Plus at 12 AM PST/3 AM EST on December 8th.

About Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever

Get ready for the Wimpiest Christmas ever! The original animated adventure, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, the latest animated movie based on Jeff Kinney’s wildly successful book series, will premiere December 8, 2023, exclusively on Disney+. The film is a hilarious and heartfelt holiday tale centered around everyone’s favorite disaster-prone middle school student.

The winter holidays are turning out to be especially stressful for Greg Heffley this year. After
accidentally damaging a snowplow while making a snowman with best friend Rowley Jefferson, Greg worries he won’t get the new video game console he so desperately wants for Christmas. To make matters worse, he gets snowed in with his family, including his grumpy older brother Rodrick and annoying younger brother Manny.

Directed by Luke Cormican (Teen Titans Go!) and written and produced by Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever features the voices of Wesley Kimmel (The Mandalorian), Spencer Howell (Ithaca), Chris Diamantopoulos (Beavis and Butt-Head), Erica Cerra (Power Rangers), and Hunter Dillon (Deadpool 2).

The Characters

Wesley Kimmel (The Mandalorian) is the voice of Greg Heffley, the disaster-prone middle
school student having a stressful winter holiday. He is trying to be on his best behavior so he will get the new video game console he desperately wants for Christmas but gets into trouble with best friend Rowley Jefferson when they damage a snowplow while innocently building a snowman.

Spencer Howell (Ithaca) voices Rowley Jefferson, who enjoys spending the winter holidays
inside sipping hot cocoa and singing Christmas carols with his parents, eagerly anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus on the big night. He is an unwilling accomplice to Greg Heffley’s snowplow cover-up.

Erica Cerra (Power Rangers) is the voice of Greg Heffley’s mother, Susan, who lives for the
Christmas holiday season and all its traditions. She is happiest when the family can celebrate the Yuletide season together.

Chris Diamantopoulos (Beavis and Butt-Head) voices Frank, Greg Heffley’s father, who is so busy anticipating a massive winter snowstorm that he is missing out on the family’s holiday
traditions that are so important to his wife Susan.

Hunter Dillon (Deadpool 2) is the voice of Greg’s older brother, Rodrick Heffley, who is spending the winter holidays lazy and unmoving from the couch until he decides he will find the culprits wanted by the police so he can take the reward money for himself.

Lisa Ann Walter (Abbott Elementary) voices Gabby, who drives a snowplow to make extra
money for the holidays. She is a single mother to her son Tyler, who is the light of her life.

Elfriendo is a homemade doll from Susan Heffley’s childhood who keeps watch over children and reports any bad behavior to Santa and his elves at the North Pole.

The Filmmakers

Jeff Kinney (Writer/Producer) is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a
Wimpy Kid series and the Awesome Friendly Kid series. He is a six-time Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award winner for Favorite Book and has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England, where he and his wife own a bookstore named An Unlikely Story.

Luke Cormican’s (Director) numerous animated credits include over 78 episodes of Teen Titans Go, on which he served as writer, producer, and director, as well as The Penguins of
Madagascar, Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, The Buzz on Maggie, and Ren and Stimpy Adult
Party Cartoon, among others. Cormican also served as head of story on Teen Titans Go to the Movies.

John Paesano (Composer) is a BAFTA-winning, Emmy®-nominated composer with a range of credits that include The Maze Runner film trilogy, both of PlayStation’s Spider-Man videogames, 50 episodes of Marvel’s Defenders and Daredevil and 100 episodes of
the How to Train Your Dragon series (for which he won an Annie Award).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A–mvyHQhcc

December 7, 2023
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Wimpy Kid’ Creator Jeff Kinney Reveals Who Greg’s Favorite Marvel Superhero (Probably) Is

Kids love superheroes. From their flashy costumes to their incredible powers, superheroes allow a measure of escapism while also teaching them traditional values and even offering them opportunities to be critical thinkers and problem solvers. While they’ve become more mainstream than ever with the rise of Marvel Studios, superheroes have been a part of pop culture since the 1930s and just about anyone, young or old, can name a favorite or two.

That holds true even in the fictional Wimpy Kid Universe where Greg Heffley and his best friend, Rowley Jefferson, live. While the two are known for their misadventures, they’ve always had active imaginations and in the 2019 book Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson’s Journal, Greg even went so far as to create his own superhero: Intergalactic Man. Born in the unknown depths of space, Intergalactic Man was gifted with the incredible ability to have different powers emanate from each of his four fingertips: fire, ice, electricity and an undefined zapability.

With Greg now part of the Disney family, where the live-action rights to almost all of Marvel Comics greatest characters reside, we wondered if he might have a favorite. Of course, nobody would know better than Wimpy Kid creator Jeff Kinney, who offered up a character who is certainly among the most beloved across the globe when we talked with him about the upcoming streaming release of Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever.

“I think he would like Spider-Man,” said Kinney when asked who Greg’s favorite Marvel superhero might be. “Peter Parker was a bit of a weakling before he got his superpowers–I don’t think Greg would really relate to one of the big, tough guys so probably Spider-Man.“

Peter Parker has remained one of Marvel’s most popular and beloved heroes since he first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962. With one of the greatest stables of supporting characters in all of comics, Peter’s Spider-Man has connected with people of all ages and his stories have been adapted into both live-action and animated adventures that are among the most popular superhero projects ever. If Spidey were indeed his favorite hero, nobody could question Greg’s choice.

About Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever

Get ready for the Wimpiest Christmas ever! The original animated adventure, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, the latest animated movie based on Jeff Kinney’s wildly successful book series, will premiere December 8, 2023, exclusively on Disney+. The film is a hilarious and heartfelt holiday tale centered around everyone’s favorite disaster-prone middle school student.

The winter holidays are turning out to be especially stressful for Greg Heffley this year. After
accidentally damaging a snowplow while making a snowman with best friend Rowley Jefferson, Greg worries he won’t get the new video game console he so desperately wants for Christmas. To make matters worse, he gets snowed in with his family, including his grumpy older brother Rodrick and annoying younger brother Manny.

Directed by Luke Cormican (Teen Titans Go!) and written and produced by Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever features the voices of Wesley Kimmel (The Mandalorian), Spencer Howell (Ithaca), Chris Diamantopoulos (Beavis and Butt-Head), Erica Cerra (Power Rangers), and Hunter Dillon (Deadpool 2).

The Characters

Wesley Kimmel (The Mandalorian) is the voice of Greg Heffley, the disaster-prone middle
school student having a stressful winter holiday. He is trying to be on his best behavior so he will get the new video game console he desperately wants for Christmas but gets into trouble with best friend Rowley Jefferson when they damage a snowplow while innocently building a snowman.

Spencer Howell (Ithaca) voices Rowley Jefferson, who enjoys spending the winter holidays
inside sipping hot cocoa and singing Christmas carols with his parents, eagerly anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus on the big night. He is an unwilling accomplice to Greg Heffley’s snowplow cover-up.

Erica Cerra (Power Rangers) is the voice of Greg Heffley’s mother, Susan, who lives for the
Christmas holiday season and all its traditions. She is happiest when the family can celebrate the Yuletide season together.

Chris Diamantopoulos (Beavis and Butt-Head) voices Frank, Greg Heffley’s father, who is so busy anticipating a massive winter snowstorm that he is missing out on the family’s holiday
traditions that are so important to his wife Susan.

Hunter Dillon (Deadpool 2) is the voice of Greg’s older brother, Rodrick Heffley, who is spending the winter holidays lazy and unmoving from the couch until he decides he will find the culprits wanted by the police so he can take the reward money for himself.

Lisa Ann Walter (Abbott Elementary) voices Gabby, who drives a snowplow to make extra
money for the holidays. She is a single mother to her son Tyler, who is the light of her life.

Elfriendo is a homemade doll from Susan Heffley’s childhood who keeps watch over children and reports any bad behavior to Santa and his elves at the North Pole.

The Filmmakers

Jeff Kinney (Writer/Producer) is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a
Wimpy Kid series and the Awesome Friendly Kid series. He is a six-time Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award winner for Favorite Book and has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England, where he and his wife own a bookstore named An Unlikely Story.

Luke Cormican’s (Director) numerous animated credits include over 78 episodes of Teen Titans Go, on which he served as writer, producer, and director, as well as The Penguins of
Madagascar, Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, The Buzz on Maggie, and Ren and Stimpy Adult
Party Cartoon, among others. Cormican also served as head of story on Teen Titans Go to the Movies.

John Paesano (Composer) is a BAFTA-winning, Emmy®-nominated composer with a range of credits that include The Maze Runner film trilogy, both of PlayStation’s Spider-Man videogames, 50 episodes of Marvel’s Defenders and Daredevil and 100 episodes of
the How to Train Your Dragon series (for which he won an Annie Award).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A–mvyHQhcc

December 6, 2023
EXCLUSIVE: Wimpy Kid Creator Jeff Kinney Hopes to Make a Summer Movie for Disney Plus

The December 8th launch of Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever marks the third consecutive year that Wimpy Kid creator Jeff Kinney has seen one of his beloved books adapted as an animated feature on Disney Plus. While the original plan was for an adaptation of The Last Straw to hit the streaming service in 2023, Kinney noted that he switched gears when Disney approached him about putting together a holiday special instead. With quite a bit of work already done on The Last Straw, Kinney is hopeful that the project will make its way to the streamer soon but the idea of working around a theme also struck a chord with the writer.

While talking with us about Cabin Fever, Kinney revealed that as he works through developing each of his books into features for Disney Plus, he’s hoping to break out of the winter time frame and put together one of his projects as a summer movie.

“I would love to do a summer movie, eventually,” said Kinney. And as fans of the series might expect, the author already has one story in mind. “I’m really hoping we get to tell lots of stories including Dog Days because I think a really good summer movie would be fun.”

Published in 2009, Dog Days is the fourth book in the series. It details Greg’s adventures on the summer vacation between his seventh and eighth-grade years, one Greg remembers as possibly the worst summer ever. So far, each of the three Wimpy Kid animated features has been released in December but it’s possible that Disney would work with Kinney to roll one out during the summer allowing kids to take it in on their own summer vacation.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever is now streaming on Disney Plus.

December 6, 2023
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Wimpy Kid’ Creator Jeff Kinney Details His Evolution as a Story Teller

When Jeff Kinney started writing the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series in the mid-2000s, it was a way for him to, in his own words, “sneak” his cartoons into books once his career as a newspaper cartoonist didn’t pan out. A decade and a half later, Kinney is still pushing out new ideas (the 18th book in the series, No Brainer, was published in October) while also working with Disney to adapt his stories into animated features for Disney Plus. Ahead of the release of the latest animated feature, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever (read Arlyn Murphy’s review here), Kinney talked with us about his career and the unique opportunity provided to him to be able to revisit his own works years later.

“It’s funny because I wrote the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books…when I first started writing them I was 28 years old,” began Kinney when asked to reflect on his career trajectory. “Now I’m 52. It’s a big jump forward in time. At first, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was writing–I was just trying to write jokes–just write a bunch of jokes, string them together into a reasonable plot but I never really cared about writing a good story,” he explained.

“Now I care a lot about writing a good story. So I think I’ve changed over time,” he reflected before adding that his work with Disney Plus adapting his own stories has fundamentally changed the way he works. “Movies really taught me how to structure a story properly,” explained Kinney, “and so now even when I write the books I’m using a cinematic framework to tell the stories.” With Kinney having no plans to stop writing new Wimpy Kid books any time soon, it looks as though fans have many more good stories to look forward to.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever is now streaming on Disney Plus.

December 6, 2023
REVIEW: ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules’

Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has sold over 275 million books since the original was published in 2007. Over the last 15 years, Kinney has published 17 books in the main series, including Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde, which was released just this past October. The beloved series has expanded into supplemental books, a spinoff series and live-action films, and, most recently, animated films on Disney Plus. The first film, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, debuted on the streaming service in December of 2021 and now the first sequel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, has followed.

Much like 2021’s entry into what looks to be a growing animated franchise (the third book in the series is already being developed for release on Disney Plus) plays out over an easily-digestible runtime. Also, like 2021’s entry (and presumably all future entries) Kinney has adapted his own original work into the screenplay which makes Rodrick Rules feel like a bit of a highlight reel of all the important beats from the book. At the heart of the story is the relationship between the franchise’s central character, Greg, and his older brother, notorious slacker Rodrick. Greg, voiced by a returning Brady Noon, finds himself with some leverage over Rodrick when the older brother throws a huge party when their parents are away. Over the course of the film, Greg’s relationship with Rodrick is tested and strained as a result of said leverage allowing the nature of family, specifically sibling relationships, to be explored. A visit with their grandfather, voiced by Ed Asner in his final role, sets the stage for Greg to do some tough thinking about the present and future of his relationship with Rodrick.

(L-R): Mackie (voiced by Nathan Arenas), Bill (voiced by Jimmy Tatro), Rodrick (voiced by Hunter Dillon), and Larry (voiced by Hudson Yang) from 20th Century Studios’ DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES. © 2022 20th Century Studios.

Though Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules plays as a CliffsNotes version of either the novel or the 2011 live-action film, the theme comes across loud and clear, especially during the climax at the talent show in which Greg, following an emotional conversation with his grandfather, makes a choice about where he will stand in his relationship with Rodrick. Like 2021’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules seems aimed at younger audiences. The animation, the short runtime, the shortened plot and the simple themes should all make this and future installments fit Kinney’s goals of telling more emotional stories on Disney Plus.

December 3, 2022
Disney+ Already Working on Next ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ Film

Disney+ has been busy promoting its big-budget shows based on popular IP like Marvel, Star Wars, and many more. Of course, the family-friendly company has not been wasting any time to also focus on some iconic stories for its younger streaming audience. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney has made its way to the streaming service Disney+ as an animated film in 2021.

It’s sequel, Rodrick Rules, is about to hit Disney+. Yet, as revealed by the series creator Jeff Kinney in an interview with One Take News, they’re already working on a sequel based on The Last Straw. So, those hoping for Disney+ to spend more time on this adaptation are going to be happy to know there’s more to come.

Yeah, I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say but I will say that yes, The Last Straw is in the works and I’m hoping to do lots and lots of [animated Wimpy Kid films] over time.
Jeff Kinney

The book series that this is based on first released back in 2007, and it’s spawned sixteen entries with the latest Diper Överlöde having released this October. So, it’s not too surprising that Kinney is excited to do a lot more. If the series remains as a staple for young kids to check out, he might just get his wish and Disney is no stranger to enjoying a long-running franchise based on a popular IP having a prominent spot on their platform.

Source: One Take News

December 1, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ Author Details How the Disney + Adaptation Differs From the Book

The animated film Diary of a Wimpy Kid debuted on Disney Plus last week and fans of the book have noticed it wasn’t exactly a beat-for-beat adaptation of the original novel, nor an animated remake of the 2007 film. According to author Jeff Kinney, who also wrote and served as an executive producer on the new, animated film, that was intentional. Kinney used the animated retelling as way to beef up the emotional impact of the story, as he explained to our Arlyn Murphy.

We’re really trying to tell an emotional story. Like my first book is just a bunch of jokes, really, with a thin story and this is a more meaty story where you really come to care for Greg and Rowley.

Creators are famously never satisfied with their works and often tweak and revise things endlessly. In Kinney’s case, this new film gave him a chance to slide a little bit of empathy into the film, something Murphy noted in her review. As Kinney told us, he hopes to adapt all of his Wimpy Kid series’ books into animated films for the streaming service (in fact, Rodrick Rules is already in the works and headed to D+ next year), so it’ll be fun to follow how he continues to tweak the stories of each of his works moving forward.

December 8, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Kinney Updates the Progress on Wimpy Kid Sequel ‘Rodrick Rules’

An animated adaptation of the 2007 classic children’s book, The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, hit Disney Plus last weekend and seemed to land with the target audience. Author Jeff Kinney served as writer and executive producer for the film and chatted with our own Arlyn Murphy last week.

Disney and Kinney must have been fairly confident in the public’s reception of the first film as the two have already teamed up on adapting the sequel into the same 3-D animated format. That film, Rodrick Rules, is slated for a release on Disney Plus sometime next year. During the interview, Murphy inquired into how efforts on the sequel were proceeding:

(Things) are going very well. You know, we’ve got a really great script, we’ve got great performances, great actors and it’s a really different kind of story. The scope is a little bit bigger than the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie; the canvas is a little bit bigger and the themes are a little bit heavier. I feel really good about it. I can’t wait to introduce it to the world.

This first film certainly seemed like a bit of an experiment for the streaming service and the results seem to have been mostly positive. The shorter runtime was a nice way to introduce the characters and the Wimpy Kid world through a lot of humor aimed at kids. The film did, however, touch on some other themes, themes that Kinney seems keen to explore in Rodrick Rules. As you can read here, Kinney hopes to keep the Wimpy Kid train rolling and adapt all the books into animated films and Rodrick Rules in the next step in that plan.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid is streaming now on Disney Plus.

December 6, 2021