Kidzworld reviews the Blu-ray set for Wonder Park. Is this cute movie worth adding to your collection? Extras, except fun lessons on drawing the animated characters, are aimed at your little sister.
By: Lynn Barker
Wonder Park centers on Wonderland, a colorful amusement park, created in sculpture and drawing by talented tween June (voices of Sofia Mali and later Brianna Denski). When June suffers a family loss, she puts all of her park-related toys etc. away. Alone in the woods, she climbs inside an abandoned roller coaster car and is transported to a real life version of her park! It has fallen into disrepair, the inhabitants are fighting one another and The Darkness that descended when June abandoned her creation is consuming everything. Can she help her friends rebuild before it’s too late?
"Meet The Team" from Wonder Park
June's model for a new rideCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Building Wonderland
June and her mom (Jennifer Garner) work together to create Wonderland, an amazing, imaginary amusement park with hosts and workers that are animals based on June’s stuffed animal collection. They are Greta (Mila Kunis) a warthog, Boomer (Ken Hudson Campbell), a bear, Steve (John Oliver), a porcupine, beaver brothers Cooper (Ken Jeong) and Gus (Kenan Thompson) and others. The animal who carries out all of mom and June’s plans for the park is Peanut (Norbert Leo Butz), a chimp who does what mom says when she whispers instructions into his ear (the stuffed animal’s ear that is).
Friendly chimps will be chimpanzombies!Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
What If the Park Were Real?
The SkyFlinger which literally flings park visitors across the park inside clear plastic orbs is the newest creation. Riders are caught at the other end. This Wonderland “game” includes plans, models and more that inhabit most of the house. Dad (Matthew Broderick) makes June get to bed where she asks “What if Wonderland is Real?” Mom tells her she can make it so. June teams up with her neighborhood pals to build an actual roller coaster in the hood and it’s fun but dangerous but, on testing, nearly wrecks the neighborhood.
June's ride will wreck the neighborhoodCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Illness
Mom isn’t feeling well and has to go away to see specialists who think their treatment can help her. June is freaked out but mom tells her to remember that she is the wonder in Wonderland. After mom leaves, June goes into a funk, takes down all of the Wonderland models, packs away her stuffed animals and won’t play with the neighborhood kids who are trying to suggest new rides, etc. For June, Wonderland is over. When June burns the plans in the fireplace but we see that some of the pieces float out the chimney and away…somewhere. Dad decides to distract June by sending her all summer to Math Camp. She reluctantly goes but decides that her dad can’t really take care of himself without mom and needs her. She manages to get off the bus and starts walking through a woods headed for home.
June with her dadCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
It’s Real!
A piece of her original plans blows past June. She follows and finds a vine-covered roller coaster car that appears to have been on its old track a long time. She gets in and is whisked off to a real version of her creation but, it looks old and in great disrepair. In its streets she sees real versions of her host animals on the run toward her. Boomer tells her to run. Suddenly thousands of the park’s normally benign little mascot dolls based on chimps are chasing them. Boomer calls them chimpanzombies and they are destroying the park.
Wonderland is a real life park!Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Chimpanzombies
The animals tell June that a clockwork system in the park stopped when The Darkness, a giant, dark cloud, came. Things stopped working and the now evil chimpanzombies have been taking the park apart and feeding the pieces to The Darkness. June tells her animal friends that she is the park creator. Maybe she can fix the clockwork system. After several chases and narrow escapes from the hordes of chimpanzombies, June learns that she can’t go home. All the exits are locked by the malfunctioning clockwork system.
June tries to save the parkCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Save the Park?
June knows that if she ever wants to go home, it is up to her to save the park. After a struggle to get to the system, June realizes that it is more detailed and complicated than what she designed. She can’t figure out how to get it working again. Various tries separate her from the others and she ends up in Zero G Land where she floats without gravity and finds Peanut hiding. He feels useless since he doesn’t hear the voice that used to whisper in his ear telling him what to do so he’s been in hiding. The chimpanzombies have followed June to his hiding place.
Peanut is the designerCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Peanut in Trouble
June escapes and rejoins her animal friends but Peanut is captured by the chimpanzombies. June realizes that she is the one who created The Darkness when she gave up on the park and became depressed after her mom got ill. This is all her fault! The animals are disappointed in her and walk away. She cries but remembers that mom said she was the wonder in Wonderland. She regains her confidence and formulates a plan to rescue Peanut and get the park going again. Can she succeed? Will her mom ever get well? Will Peanut feel useful again? Will June ever feel truly creative again?
Peanut is in hidingCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Special Extra Features
All the extras are cute but seem aimed at the youngest audience members.
- Gus Yodeling – Deleted Scene is just that. Cute beaver Gus demonstrates that he can yodel.
Beaver brother Gus can yodel!Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
- The Wonder Chimp Channel is an imaginary TV channel featuring news, entertainment and fashion from the park. There is a fashion show stopped by Breaking News depicting the chimp turmoil and how to escape it.
- The Pi Song Sing Along is the entire song the mathlete campers sing on the bus with lyrics on the screen so you can sing along. Kind of catchy.
- Making Noises: It’s Actually a Job features the voice actors recording their parts, warming up their voices to make silly noises and talking about their characters. Actually cute and fun.
- June’s Guide to Wonderland focuses on June, her blueprints and sculptures for each “Land” inside the park. We get a brief tour of each land. We learn that she put all her favorite life experiences into the park. You can build your own!
June's park hostsCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
- June’s Welcoming Crew introduces us to the mascots in a breakdown of each character.
- Boardwalk Caricatures is my fave extra. An adult artist works with three different kids to draw bear Boomer, Wonder Chimp Pirate and Wonder Chimp Princess. This is very detailed and my bear turned out pretty cool. If you like art. Give it a try!
Wrapping Up
Wonder Park extras are all entertaining if aimed at the youngest watcher. The “Caricature” drawing extra can be enjoyed by all ages however. The film’s look and sound is well-transferred in this Blu-ray set.
June and her mom build the park togetherCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
The film is full of really colorful with great creative production designs. There are lots of chases and escapes but the story has a few logic holes and takes quite a while to really get started. Yes, it is about a fantasy world but in the real world there are some behavioral things regarding June’s mom that make no sense. Can’t say more without a spoiler!
June and mom design Zero-G LandCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
Voice acting is competent if not sparkling. Most memorable for me is John Oliver as porcupine Steve.
The film celebrates our sense of wonder and imagination whether we are a kid, teen or as an adult and that’s cool. Since extras are a bit overly-“young”, we give three stars.
Wonder Park Blu-ray Rating: 
Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Wonder Park is in stores June 18th
Will You Collect this Blu-ray?
Do you wish the fantasy world in your head or on your sketch pad were real? Does your creative side make the sad times in life more bearable? Let others know. Comment and /or write about it on your Kidzworld profile page!
