Parents' Guide to Arlo the Alligator Boy

The overwhelming positivity of this film's main character and the emotion conveyed in its musical numbers will stay with viewers after the movie has ended. They also compensate for some of the more gratuitous action sequences and less interesting characters of Arlo the Alligator Boy. Arlo draws you in immediately with his wide-eyed sense of adventure, the loving relationship he has with his rough-edged adoptive mother, and his exuberant tunes -- belted early on with a tiny square banjo. His songs express his feelings, his desire to travel, his emptiness inside, his hope he may belong somewhere, and so on. The music is clearly central to this story and character, and writer-director Crego is credited as a background musician and vocalist as well as writer or co-writer on all of the songs, which are beautifully vocalized by the lead cast.

There are also some nonsensical species in this film, which is entirely the point, but may feel confusing or distracting. Bertie, the oversized girl resigned to spending her life alone, embodies sweetness and strength. Queer Eye's Van Ness is purposefully recognizable as the pink hairball Furlecia (whose tube-socked and high-heeled legs are so long that Teeny Tiny Tony can pole dance down them). Both of these characters are somewhat superfluous, as is Marcellus, the man-fish the gang breaks out of an aquarium (he seems to exist solely for the gag of describing life on the other side of the aquarium windows, stared at by those "monsters" -- kids). They'll all probably play bigger roles in the upcoming Netflix series based on the movie. The series would also gain by focusing on the friend group and removing the subplot about the poor, dumb, malevolent bayou couple, Ruff and Stucky, chasing Arlo. The beauty of this created world is that it's a positive place where everybody, no matter how unique or unusual, belongs. As Arlo himself might exclaim, "Rickety biscuit!"