I suspect that this movie will barely manage to entertain children. I laughed - out-loud - a handful of times. Unfortunately, the rest of the time I kept noticing missed opportunities. The characters of Ivy, Butch, Scott, and Prof. Brody are severely underwritten. These are characters that we're supposed to care about but I knew so little about them that when they were in danger, was so uninvolved I pondered the mechanics of the set, of the plot, of the actors' careers, etc. The script would have benefitted from even one more revision to add just a few details here and there. It wouldn't have been a great film then, but that would have been enough for a much better movie.

Sean Hayes stands out as Mr. Tinkles. He does a such a good job of being funny and evil, I wondered how much of his lines were improvised. (Given how lazily the rest of the dialogue was written, his lines were much appreciated.)