Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw Review – A Fun Family Christmas Romp

The other day, as I logged into Disney Plus, I spotted in the banner a new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie, The Last Straw. Not the live-action ones, but another animated one. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant, as I’d previously watched Cabin Fever and only thought it was okay. Nevertheless, I’m always looking out for new stuff to watch, including Christmas movies, so I decided to give this one a go. And actually, it wasn’t that bad at all. It felt like an improvement over Cabin Fever. I decided I wasn’t going to waste an opportunity writing my own review of The Last Straw, so here we go.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw is now available on Disney Plus.

Story – Straighten Up or Go to Military School

If you’re familiar with the format of Diary of a Wimpy Kid (and have read the book The Last Straw), you probably know the deal here. If not, it follows the life of a middle school kid called Greg Heffley and how he gets through life, namely by cutting corners. He’s the sort of person who wants something but don’t want to get it by working hard. His efforts to slack off and not do things properly ends up biting him in the butt a lot of the time.

In this edition, The Last Straw, it’s his exasperated dad Frank that is at the end of his tether. Embarrassed by Greg’s persistent incompetence, immaturity, and laziness, Frank threatens to send Greg to a tough military school, Spag Union, after witnessing how it has transformed a former neighborhood tearaway into a perfect role model. Terrified at the prospect of going to military school, Greg realizes that he has to prove himself to his dad so he won’t send him there.

To avoid being enrolled at Spag Union, Greg decides to sign up to the local Boy Scouts, where he can earn badges under supervision from his dad in order to impress him. Along the way, Greg also finds himself on the local soccer team. Since this is Diary of a Wimpy Kid, things don’t exactly go to plan for Greg as his lies and flaws eventually catch up with him, but is there still a chance he can redeem himself in his dad’s eyes? Perhaps a camping trip in the winter will challenge Greg and see if he really has learned anything along the way.

A Few Changes From the Book

It should be noted that The Last Straw isn’t exactly the same as the book. The main plot points are there, like Greg’s dad threatening to send him to military school, and Greg enrolling in both a soccer team and the boy scouts to avoid this fate, although these have been expanded on greatly to fill the whole story. However, I do feel the changes from the book made for the movie work very well in its favor. It feels a lot more focused, whereas the books have lots of different events going on.

Father-and-Son Bonding

The best part of The Last Straw is its focus on the relationship between Greg and his dad Frank. Greg is forever messing up and embarrassing himself and his dad, and Frank is exasperated at Greg’s flaws. A prime example is that Greg can’t even use a house key to unlock the front door without creating a scene. Another example is when Greg starts a snow shovelling business, but because he can’t help cutting corners to get the job done faster instead of well, he ends up making a big mess of everything, with his dad having to come to the rescue. It’s no wonder Frank feels that Greg needs to seriously get his act together.

After Greg realizes his dad is being serious about military school, when he signs up to the Boy Scouts, this does start them on a path to getting to know each other better. With Frank supervising Greg, Greg learns about how his dad used to be when he was Greg’s age, and that he too wasn’t perfect. As they spend more time together, Greg and Frank realize that they’re actually quite alike in many ways, despite initially appearing to be two completely different people. It’s this realization that brings them closer together as father-and-son.

The Last Straw focuses on Greg and Frank’s relationship as father and son. Will it be strengthened or weakened?

Greg’s Character Development

Greg’s character development is something to be admired in The Last Straw. Greg Heffley is famous for being a flawed character, even obnoxious at times, but I like it when there’s characters like this, especially the main character. I actually dislike it when a protagonist character is written as being “perfect”, with hardly any flaws. Greg is indeed a flawed character, but when he’s challenged, he does at least show some commitment and growth. This is best displayed in the climax of The Last Straw, when Greg and Frank go camping with the rest of the Boy Scouts and he puts his new knowledge to the test.

The Last Straw also shows Greg when he still continues to make mistakes, like covering up his failings with the safety patrol (carried over from the first book) and getting detention. Even though he is getting better, he’s still far from perfect, but at least he is showing regret for his mistakes. From his perspective, Greg is so afraid of screwing up and being sent to military school that he hides his mistakes from his dad, but he gets found out anyway. 

Seriously, Greg can’t even use a house key without somehow messing it up.

The Perfect Rivals?

The Last Straw also features two characters who are worth mentioning: the neighbors of the Heffley’s, the seemingly-perfect father and son duo. The son is fit and athletic, while the father appears to be flawless in coaching his son into shape. It’s not uncommon to see these types of characters appear in a story where the main characters are not perfect, with a perfect counterpart showing them up. In summary, these are the perfect characters the flawed characters should or want to be.

However, as The Last Straw goes on, you can see that the son appears to be embarrassed by his dad’s constant encouragement, showing that perhaps they’re not too dissimilar to Greg and Frank after all. Even though they appear to be perfect, the fact that they perhaps aren’t makes it seem that Greg and Frank aren’t too bad after all.

Characters & Performances – Great Performances for Characters Famously Not Perfect

You get a decent sized cast along with the five Heffley members in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, so it’s easy to keep track of everyone without forgetting who they all are and how their roles fit into the story.

Although I didn’t think its predecessor Cabin Fever was necessarily a great movie, the one thing I did enjoy was the performances for the characters, including the Heffley’s. Here in The Last Straw, they once again pulled off a great performance. The characters sound exactly like you would imagine when you’re reading from the books. Their performances are pretty much spot on.

All characters are performed well, especially the Heffley’s.

Audio & Visuals – Bringing the Book to Life

What really impressed me about Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw was just how good it looked visually. The animation was a lot better than I was expecting. They did a fantastic job bringing the book to life in this movie, and it translates well onto the screen. The characters have their iconic cartoonish look straight from Greg’s drawings in his diaries, but there’s nothing uncanny about them. Every emotion is plain to see through their facial expressions and body language.

The world looks incredible as well, with no rough edges or anything looking out of place. It too showcases a somewhat cartoony look, but still looks amazingly realistic, right down to the textures and lighting.

The audio side doesn’t fail to disappoint either. The sound effects breathe life to the world, and the music is suitably upbeat for a family movie, matching the tone of whatever scene is currently taking place. It’s very reminiscent of the original Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies.

The animation of The Last Straw is pretty impressive.

Editing & Pacing – Got It Just Right

Another thing Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw got right was the length and pacing. It sits quite comfortably at around one hour and twenty minutes long, meaning kids shouldn’t get bored and lose interest watching it, or adults. It does an excellent job of not being unnecessarily padded out, neither does it feel rushed at any point. All aspects of the story are told at the right speed and pace, so there’s not a moment where things feel too slow or you wish they spent more time on something.