This year there has been an overabundance of films based on true stories from the 80s. Air,  Flamin Hot, and Tetris have all done great with viewers and critics alike. The latest film in the vein, also from Apple TV Plus,  is The Beanie Bubble. About a series of little stuffed animals that created a craze for a few years in the 90s, but this story doesn’t start there.

Ty Warner (Zach Galifianakis) is a weird guy who has an infatuation with stuffed animals, mostly cats. He knows everything about how they’re made and everything in between. He meets a woman, Robbie in his building who has ideas of her own, and she and he connect on multiple levels. Together they start to talk and get the idea to start a business making specially crafted stuffed animals. Their business takes off and they get the American Dream.

The film uses multiple techniques to tell this true story. It splits the film into various segments titled by the four main characters. Two of which I mentioned already and the other two are Shela played by Sarah Snook and Maya played by Geraldine Viswanathan.  Both of these women, like the Banks character, have a big part in making this business work and help make the Galifianakis character who he becomes. He basically uses all the women in his life. Also, there is a flashback flashforward aspect that helps tell the story.

The multiple arcs are a good way to tell this story but the title says it all. This Bubble burst and like all success stories, most of them come to a close because of the people involved in them. Usually, their greed or envy gets the better of them. The Galifianakis character is a lot like so many others in this regard. Success goes to his head and the real geniuses were the women in his life. 

The cast are all fine in their various roles but unlike the other films I mentioned earlier, they don’t go to the next level to show they mean business in these films. Maybe it’s the script that seems a bit weak to me. The actors can only do what they can do. If the script is weak, that can drag the film and performances down. This story for whatever reason performances or otherwise just didn’t do it for me

The direction of the film was pretty good though Kristian Gore and Damian Kulash do a good job of turning a lackluster script into a decent film. It wasn’t anything special but it was fine. This year has some good true stories but this one is more toward the bottom of the barrel compared to the others I mentioned. It doesn’t do anything special this genre hadn’t done before. The cast doesn’t give everything to bring this story to life. It needed more despite good direction. 

The Beanie Bubble isn’t the best movie of all the origin stories we’ve gotten this year. It lacks the performances that put it over the top as a good film. I feel like everybody phoned in their performances and maybe the script is a bit lackluster. The directors try to turn this story into something worthwhile but it lacks the punch of other films similar to this one this year. Apple TV Plus has had a good year with its original IP this year so far but this film is one of the weakest they put out this year.

2 stars

Dan Skip Allen