Ivan the Incredible (2012) User Reviews

Not a good moral

[nwsts · 3/10 · 6 July 2013]

This movie is a kids movie but does not have a good moral. It is a Danish language movie (English dub) and I am writing this from an American perspective, so I'll defer to Europeans for their take on it. But for Americans the moral will not be well thought of. The movie is about bullying and spends almost the entire time (about 80%) showing cruel images of a young boy, Ivan, being abused, which makes for a very uncomfortable 90 minutes. After a long process and very little respite, the movie ends on an abusive note. The moral of the story is that it is better to be abused by a bully than to be a bully. That will not sit well for many people. Also, the implication in the movie was that the adults (school authorities and shopkeepers) were all participants in the cruelty. As for the technical details of the animation, the movie is quite well done, and had the story been even a little bit different, (intervention by school authorities, for example) I would have enjoyed it. As it is, it seems to promote the hopelessness of the victim, and that is a view I'd rather not instill in children.

Ummmmmmmm

[Baker-Smith-271 · 3/10 · 5 February 2015]

This I found on Netflix and watched it, and I think that they put effort into it, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, I really think that it's much better than their other works though. It has incredibly weird hair animation and it doesn't really make sense. The dad's a jerk, the kid is not a likable character and a lot of the models creep me out, though not as creepy as their other movies. You need to see it to know what I mean. It's good for the Phase 5, but that's not saying much at all. I do like some of the humor and jokes and it feels good when the bullies get dunked, and like I said before, you need to see it to understand what I mean.

Find something else to do instead of watching this movie

[kourosh-2 · 3/10 · 1 August 2014]

This movie started off interesting but it took forever for the plot to develop. The child was subject to bullying from everyone including his father and by the end he decided it was better to continue being bullied. What was the character arc? Nobody learned anything or did anything different by the end. I think the writers were trying to make a point but run out of ideas and continued to keep prattling on about Tarzan. There was also the issue of his dyslexia that never got resolved. I was left scratching my head at the end. It also seemed to me that the makers of this movie had a weird breast fetish. At first I thought that characters were a little goofy looking but as more of them made an appearance the started looking creepy and not at all endearing. This is not a suitable movie for children or adults for that matter.

This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

[mrloganloco · 1/10 · 27 January 2016]

I watched Ivan the Incredible on Netflix because I like to watch cheesy movies that are so bad they're good. Unfortunately this was not this case for this movie. This movie was just bad. Phase 4 films has some of the laziest work of all time. Ivan the Incredible was almost entirely made up of reused models. The humor is so bad that I didn't even smile during this film. One of the most annoying things in this movie is that they don't use money. They just say "That'll be 100" or "Miracles 50 each". A very minute detail that was so annoying I can't get over it. The only good thing that came from watching this movie is that now I make jokes about the insult "Jelly Tarzan". Tarzan is a big part of this movie for no reason. The dad is just obsessed with him to the point where he abuses his son and embarrasses him in public. This movie is as bland as dry toast. I hated all the characters and concepts. 20 minutes into this move I thought it was ending because it felt so long. Don't watch this movie. Ever.

Worst movie I've ever seen

[kbregan-22610 · 1/10 · 11 June 2018]

I watched this movie a few years ago, but I still remember how I wanted to constantly gouge my eyes out. The animation looks like it was done on a potato, the dialog makes absolutely no sense and was obviously sent through google translate, and wasn't checked to make sure it made sense. The plot is what a two year old on crack would write on a bad day. And this is no where near a so bad it's good movie, this movie is an abomination from hell. If you value your mental sanity do yourself a favor and don't see this movie

Bad Message For Kids

[jillhip1 · 2/10 · 22 July 2013]

Don't recommend this for children. The movie started out promising, with great graphics and a cute kid. However, you met the father who treats his son very poorly.Throughout the movie you come across bullies and many others who abuse him.Like the others said, the moral is it is better to be the victim of bullying rather than being the bully itself. I wouldn't want to show kids that this is okay. Didn't like the message from this movie, and definitely did not like the way things ended. They don't hold back on anything, showing cruel forms of abuse and revenge. I also noticed his dyslexia in the movie. It was horrible how the kids and even the principal himself, treated Ivan. Even though this movie may show many true and realistic events, it's not the type of movie for kids.

Depicts Americans as gun toting cowboys

[cjturino · 2/10 · 8 July 2013]

I found the movie to be a little drawn out and mildly boring. They spend the majority of the movie showing a kid getting bullied. I think the point was clearly made by the second time the kid had been cruelly bullied. The movie kept pounding that same theme over and over and over. I asked my 11 year old if she enjoyed the movie and she said it was only OK. She didn't seem too enthusiastic about it. I might be unfairly comparing this movie to other animated movies like Finding Nemo, The Lion King or The Jungle Book. By those standards this movie was awful. I'm trying to write this review without spoiling anything but I wasn't happy with the ending and the kids acceptance of his situation. If I were to try and pull a lesson out of the movie it would probably have to been that it is better to be bullied than be the bully. That's not a lesson that I would want to impart of my kids. I rather empower my child to stand up for themselves than accept the situation and the fact they will be bullied. In the movie the kid visits the United States to be interviews. The interviewer is wearing a cowboy hat and waving a gun around during the interview. I found this depiction of Americans insulting. BOTTOM LINE, your time is better spent watching paint dry.

Absolutely Terrible

[XXPedia · 1/10 · 24 April 2016]

This is, by far, the worst movie I've ever seen. The moral is bad, the animation is bad, the characters are unlikable. I can't find a single redeemable quality to this. I remember going to it knowing it was gonna be pretty bad, but when the movie finished, I was shocked at how horrible it was. Ivan's dad is the worst thing about this entire movie. He is the single most unlikable character in the history of fiction. I mean, how can you even write someone this terrible. He publicly embarrasses his child, and when Ivan becomes magically powerful, he exploits him to make himself wealthy, and he gets what's coming to him, I felt no form of sympathy for him, whatsoever. If I could give this movie a negative rating, I would. All in all, avoid this like it's the plague.

I recommend this for kids.

[jeconia · 7/10 · 22 May 2021]

I remember my mother showing me this film amongst a collection of other downloaded animations. As a child, I didn't think much of this film apart from the fact that this kid was living a miserable life, and constantly being shamed by his father for being weak. I felt empathy for this kid, and found a bit of myself in him. When the latter suddenly endowed with these promising abilities to be no.1 at literally anything, I felt somewhat uncomfortable and petrified at the same time. Sure, it was nice to watch a weakling like Ivan seize domination over those who abused him regularly, but at the same time it wasn't him. Coming towards the end, I realised the true moral of this film. Scrolling down the page and reading these reviews, I saw that a lot of people complained how this film indicates that "It's better to abuse by a bully than be a bully". Other than the plot, the graphics aren't the best and some of the characters are very recognisable from another film (Freddy Frogface). Personally, I would recommend this to children as this film could relate to them as well as teach them a valuable life lesson: Always be yourself despite your weaknesses, and stand up for yourself without causing conflict or revenge.

Cheesy and weird

[dben-21589 · 1/10 · 2 February 2016]

The 1.4/5 Star rating on Netflix should have been a dead give-away that this movie would not be that good. The animation was good, the story line was extremely cheesy but was bearable, the music was really good, but there were just a few weird things that made me want to turn it off multiple times.

• The dad was a failure and was trying to live through his son, and held his son to unfeasible standards, causing his son to feel like a perpetual failure. A great message for the target audience, and a very real issue. Those unrealistic standards that the dad had for his kid i this movie was to be like Tarzan: to climb trees, ride a bike, be strong, and read books. The kid wanted to ditch school to go dumpster diving to collect trash to build uber creepy "garbage friends" that he stored in an abandoned warehouse. Usually these types of movies encourage kids to "be themselves", and encouraging parents to accept their kids for who they are. But, the dad's "encouragement" was uncomfortably extreme for a children's movie, and was downright abusive at times. In risk of sounding like an authoritarian, no parent should encourage their kid to be like Ivan.

-I have no idea why the animators decided to give all the women really weird boobs.

-I have no idea why girls in Ivan's grade were old enough to have boobs, drive vehicles, look like teenagers, yet be barely learning how to read. It's like they were all 15 year-old learning how to read for the first time.

-I don't know why Ivan had to chase letters around the room to represent his dyslexia. That scene didn't make much sense to me.

-His creations were EXTREMELY creepy. It was even weirder that the girl like them.

-I know that the witch was representative of his fairy god mother. Yet, she was really creepy. He found her drinking in the middle of the woods, got naked, and slept in her clothes. Then he drank weird potions she gave him. I think it was supposed to be funny, but it was weird.

-The kid's life was a living hell. Why would she give him a potion that would make his pain go away for only a day? To send him back to the pit of despair?

-The years of abuse the dad gave to the kid ended with a simple talk?

-At the end, he never really overcame being bullied, or learned how to read.

There were other things off about this movie, but these were some of the highlights.

its not that bad

[dinorita1217 · 8/10 · 13 November 2013]

This movie is surely not for kids, but its not that bad you just need to see the hard facts of life. I am sure there are many kids that are living Ivan's poor lonely life, with an idiotic selfish ignorant father who only cares about himself. the moral really as I see it is within the relationship of father and son. Sometimes you have to stand up to your parents and show them what they are doing to you and embarrass them in public for them to realize how pathetic they are acting. Ivan shows compassion, nobility, besides the facts that he had been tortured verbally and physically he is a strong kid after everything. and What child doesn't get back on their bullies if they had a chance for one day? So this type of cartoon is more for teenagers and adults to understand. but everyone has their own point of view.

Not a Good Lesson

[carolcrawford-36301 · 2/10 · 28 January 2016]

There was many things wrong with this film. One thing is that it had a bad lesson. In the movie, the boy is bullied hard. He tries to stand up for himself, but at the end of the movie it goes back to him getting bullied but with a new friend he made. So, the lesson is that it's better to get bullied with someone else then to get bullied by yourself. That is not a good moral. The lesson that they should be teaching children is that you can stand up for yourself and that you should, not to be okay with bullying as long as you're with someone else. That's my main problem with the movie. Other problems for me are that there are a few plot holes,and that the characters look gross. If you look at the females in the movie they have something OFF with them, you'll see what I mean. To sum it up it's not a great movie, but it's not the worst movie I have seen.

wouldn't even watch it ironically

[letmepasttheagerestriction · 1/10 · 26 May 2016]

went to my uncles house, was looking for some crappy movies to watch, just to pass the time and fill the silence. found this, saw how ridiculously bad it looked, turned it on... couldn't sit through 10 minutes. it felt like hours. i was determined. determined to see the end. i finally decided it was time to throw in the towel when my uncle looked at me and said his first words in the last ten minutes, "I think I hate this." i couldn't agree more. maybe there's something im missing that was lost in translation, but the 3d models alone are enough to make me incredibly uncomfortable, paired with awful voice acting. not even good for a "bad" movie.

It's just sad.

[shinanikashin · 1/10 · 18 August 2021]

Everybody please watch this it's ridiculously bad. It has a bad message, the animation is terrible and it makes you rethink what you think about jelly. What does Tarzan have to do with it?!?!?!?it's so bad that you want to see it again.

They completely ruined the original story

[jens-285 · 1/10 · 16 January 2021]

The film is based on a really funny children's book called Gummi Tarzan. And the first 5 min of the film is following along with the story of the book. And from here a take another very strange direction and is killing the morale of the book completely. It have made a funny cool book into a very bad, strange and not funny film. Don't waste your time. Read the book instead.

Not appropriate for kids

[deexsocalygal · 2/10 · 1 August 2020]

The animation is inappropriate for children. They drew the girl bully in school with weird little nubs that look like ping pong balls hanging under her shirt. Sick scenes of school bullys spitting thick wads of spit all over school property & forcing Ivan to spit but he can't & it sticks on his chin. Bullys force Ivan into the school bathroom, push him in a tub of water with his pants on & make fun of how it looks like he peed his pants. One scene follows a ball bouncing down the street & it shows panties underneath a grown woman's dress.

Funny Movie!!!! The Kids Loved It!!!!

[tvanacour · 10/10 · 27 March 2015]

Moral is.....BE YOURSELF!!!! Certainly not for the closed minded. If you think three nude men in a sauna are "GAY"...read no further. Unfortunately there are too many uneducated people out there that do not get what films are really about and give poor reviews because they don't understand what they're watching. This children's film was entertaining and good for children as a cautionary tale in; be careful what you wish for. As an American I know many of us will not get it but these people will never see the world outside our borders and certainly won't appreciate it. I am not one of these people so I showed my kids this movie and guess what. They got it. Not only got it, but loved it. So if you want your kids to see places like Provence, France or Madrid, Spain; and not feel like they're out of place in a global village, then show them this film and pat yourself on the back for expanding their minds.

Entertaining and not dumber down like MOST American animation movies!!

[joiningjt · 8/10 · 3 December 2020]

I enjoyed this movie a lot I purchased it because its 3d and the moronic Americans dont get that 3d is by far the best way to watch a movie!! It was fun and a great lesson for kids. Overall very entertaining and glad I purchased it.

Not That Bad

[tkinglife · 8/10 · 8 April 2022]

In My Opinion It's Not That Bad It's Like A Very Very Weird Comedy To Me People Have There Opinions Believe Them Or Not I'm Just Saying I Actually Really Like This Movie It's Pretty Funny Thats Why I Gave It A 8/10.