Film| Cert: PG | ★★★★✩

This animated musical film is based on the cult television series Bob’s Burgers, which was created by multi-talented Jewish animator Loren Bouchard and ran for 12 uninterrupted seasons on the Fox network stateside. Bouchard has co-written, co-produced and co-directed his feature directorial debut alongside Aussie-born animator Bernard Derriman (known for the cult animation series Beavis and Butthead).

Meanwhile, the original TV show’s voice cast, which includes H. Jon Benjamin, Dan Mintz, Kristen Schaal, Zach Galifianakis and Kevin Kline, all reprise their roles.

After a ruptured water main creates a sinkhole right in front of their ailing burger restaurant, Bob (H. Jon Benjamin) and Linda (John Roberts) Belcher struggle to keep their business afloat. Things take a turn for the unexpected when the Belchers’ children, Tina (Dan Mintz), Gene (Eugene Mirman) and Louise (comedienne Kristen Schaal), make a gruesome discovery which could help solve their parents’ financial woes.

Bobs-Burgers 20th Century StudiosAP

The family in Bob's restaurant

Bouchard et al deliver a hilariously funny and rather endearing film which pretty much sticks to the tried and tested chaotic formula of its source material. Set to please newcomers and long-time fans alike, Bob’s Burgers’ success resides in its refusal to take itself too seriously. Here, the silly antics are cranked up a notch to fit the longer format, but all the elements that made it into a must-watch in the first place are still there.

While the Belchers aren’t explicitly a Jewish family in the context of the film or the series, there is an unmistakable Jewishness about Linda Belcher in particular. Her overbearing approach to motherhood, coupled with her wise and supportive matriarchal nature, put Linda in a league of her own.

Elsewhere, Hollywood legend Kevin Kline delivers a brilliantly camp and hilariously mannered turn as the voice of the Belchers’ millionaire shyster landlord Calvin Fischoeder, while Zach Galifianakis is equally brilliant as his duplicitous cousin Felix.

Overall this is a silly yet genuinely engaging production which has managed to successfully make the leap to the big screen, all the while avoiding the usual pitfall of similar endeavours. I for one await another film in the series with bated breath.