Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made’ on Disney+, a Clever Kiddie Flick About a Misfit and His Imaginary Polar Bear

Now on Disney+, Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made appears to be the Mouse House’s latest middle-tier franchise hopeful. How so, you may ask? First, a colon followed by a subtitle suggests the inevitability of other movies with the same two words followed by a colon and a different subtitle. Also, it’s based on a series of seven kid-friendly chapter books by Stephan Pastis (creator of the terrific newspaper comic strip Pearls Before Swine), so source material is plentiful. Notably, it’s directed by Tom McCarthy, following up his Oscar winner Spotlight, and if this type of movie seems like a curious step for his career, keep in mind he also helmed a true tonal oddity, The Cobbler (THE COBBLER!), and has Disney ties via writing credits for Up and Christopher Robin. So he’ll for sure make it worth watching, right?

TIMMY FAILURE: MISTAKES WERE MADE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Timmy Failure. That’s his real name. Timmy Failure. Poor kid? Maybe. But believe not that destiny is dictated by one’s birth name, for Timmy Failure (Winslow Fegley) believes he’s destined for greatness. “Greetings, fellow humans,” he says via voiceover, then explains how he has his own detective agency, a signature red scarf and a three-quarter-ton polar bear partner named Total (get it? Total Failure?) who may or may not be imaginary. He has a two-thirds mullet and a mom (Ophelia Lovibond) with a segway and Sleater-Kinney T-shirt — all of which is fine, because they live in Portland, Oregon, officially the Quirkiest Place in America, where nobody would bat an eye at a random polar bear on the street, even if it’s not imaginary. His dad ditched the family when Timmy was young, apparently never to be seen again, unless there’s a sequel, and coincidentally, the bear entity showed up at exactly the same time. THINKY-GUY EMOJI.

Timmy’s in fifth grade, where he engages in mutual torment with his teacher, Mr. Crocus (Wallace Shawn), and exists under the constant threat of suspension. Rollo Tookus (Kei) is the closest thing to a pal Timmy has, considering his coolly detached film-noir demeanor. Timmy’s case file is bursting: a classmate’s missing backpack, the probably not untimely death of the class hamster, a likely Russian conspiracy involving heavily tattooed and bearded men selling borscht in a food truck. (Ha! Portland!) Three key supporting characters emerge: Mom’s new boyfriend (Kyle Bornheimer), a soul-patched meter maid, heavily side-eyed by Timmy. School counselor Mr. Jenkins (Craig Robinson), tasked with managing Timmy’s behavioral issues. And Corrina Corrina (Ai-Chan Carrier), who Timmy calls the Nameless One probably because she’s cute as heck, and whose face is blacked out for half the movie, which is half Timmy’s delusional distortions of reality, and half scenes capturing wacky-ass Portland, which is just a different type of delusional distortion of reality.

There’s sort of a plot in all this setup, and it’s mostly character-based. Timmy leans hard into his misfitedness, encouraged by his mom’s mantra: “Normal is for normal people.” But it too often leads to trouble, which is a one heck of a granddaddy of a identity-based conundrum. If he’s suspended, it threatens Mom’s precarious two-menial-jobs living-on-a-shoestring existence, especially considering rental rates in Portland are comparable to the annual budget of the Space Force. Will Timmy continue to walk the line? Will he throw his hands in the air and join the pack? Or will his mild delinquency be his undoing?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Timmy Failure is right smack in the wheelhouse of Diary of a Wimpy Kid/Captain Underpants, books-to-movie franchises about oddball kids making their way through the psychological bumps and bruises of adolescence. Oh, and throw in the satirical oddities of Portlandia too.

Performance Worth Watching: Few actors express exasperation more exquisitely than Wallace Shawn, who’s understandably at wit’s end as Timmy’s beleaguered teacher. Every line reading subtextually implies that Mr. Crocus is counting every millisecond to his retirement.

Memorable Dialogue: “Capeesh?” Mr. Crocus splutters.

“What does ‘capeesh’ mean?” Timmy asks.

“It means ‘understand’.”

“I capeesh you.”

Sex and Skin: None. Although right in line with Disney-animal tradition, the polar bear never wears pants.

Our Take: Timmy Failure is sturdy in direction and pace, clever without going full-metal-ironic, and start-to-finish amusing. These elements go a long way towards elevating a fragmented screenplay consisting of many half-realized sequences and cutaway gags that dole out bits of character or stir up one-to-three sight gags. One, in which Timmy and Rollo don fencing masks to infiltrate a bank for a stolen Segway, is mostly fruitless. Another, in which Timmy imagines his impending graduation to middle school as a bitter march to a gulag of relentless conformity, is inspired and funny.

But it works as a hangout movie of sorts; McCarthy lets us get a feel of the colorful setting and characters, all of which exist on the wackiness scale, but never exhibit truly irritating traits. You’ll like everyone here, and McCarthy draws the perfect amount of vulnerable humanity from Fegley’s deadpan performance to render Timmy sympathetic. There’s a scene in which Timmy gives up, does his homework and plops in front of the TV like the average kid, and it’s a nice bit of small-scale comic tragedy. Many other movies would be content with simple functionality for moments like this, but here, they’re well-considered and thoughtful. Even the polar bear scenes work perfectly, drawing laughs by depicting Total as a domesticated bear who acts exactly as a bear should act, minus the murderous hunger, of course.

Timmy Failure is episodic and understated, and lacks the big set pieces of most theatrical kid fare. But it’s perfect for streaming. A middling flashback-framing sequence aside, it lacks a significant dramatic arc, and seems to be establishing a set of characters for future installments — a TV series would be a logical extension of the brand, and if that sounds more like the assessment of a corporate entity rather than a critic, well, this is a Disney film we’re talking about.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made is a winner about a loser who’s actually a winner. It’s mostly original and consistently funny — and we can’t really ask for more from live-action kiddie Disney fare.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made on Disney+