Beating the pre-teen summer blues

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012)
Certified: U
Duration: 94 minutes
Directed by: David Bowers
Starring: Zachary Gordon, Steve Zahn, Robert Capron, Devon Bostick, Rachael Harris, Connor and Owen Fielding, Peyton List, Melissa Roxburgh
KRS release

Directed by David Bowers, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days continues where the first two movies left off.

This third instalment – an adaptation of The Last Straw and Dog Days, the third and fourth books in The Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney – thankfully enough keeps the same tone and humour as it acts as a mini-window into the life tribulations of a pre-teen boy.

The film keeps the same cartoonish trend and natural feel-good attitude which gives it an endearing quality.

In Dog Days, Greg (Zachary Gordon) has planned the perfect summer: relaxing, playing video games, drinking as many sodas as possible and going all out on junk food.

But his parents (Steve Zahn and Rachael Harris) have their own plans for him: Dad wants him to join him at work as an unpaid summer intern while Mum wants him and his best friend Rowley (Robert Capron) to join her book club and read the classics.

When Greg is let in the country club to which Rowley’s parents belong, his whole world turns upside down.

Here he discovers that the girl he has been infatuated with, Holly (Peyton List), is a tennis instructor for kids. Greg lies to his father and tells him he has an internship at the club while convincing Rowley to take him to the country club every day.

That is when Greg’s older brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick) finds out about his mischief and blackmails Greg into smuggling him into the country club too.

His objective is to impress Heather (Melissa Roxburgh), Holly’s sister. Everything will implode at Heather’s birthday party.

One of the eternal conundrums in my boyhood years was what to do all summer! While I was happy filling in the time reading tons of books and comics, eating ice cream and watching loads of cartoons, there would always be those who would want to spend it differently.

Dog Days captures that feeling perfectly through Gordon who, in this third instalment, delivers a much more assured screen presence.

The film is made up of one sketch after another, with delightful over-the-top physical humour.

Yet it manages to also capture that element of lost innocence.

The interaction between Gordon and Bostick stands out as it is that sort of love-hate relationship that only brothers in this age group can share.

The film’s fun factor is upped through the sympathetic cast which has really grown on me.

Capron is simply a hoot while List provides a shimmer to the film.

Zahn is perfect as the hapless parent trying to cope with his kids and he is well teamed up with Harris.

Another factor that stands out in Dog Days is the theme of youngsters growing quickly out of childhood.

Why the hurry to grow up so fast? Why not relax and enjoy simply being a kid?

This is a message all parents should take heed of.