Movie Review: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile

Movie Review: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile                                                                    4-9-26

When the Primm family (Constance Wu, Scoot McNairy, Winslow Fegley) moves to New York City, their young son Josh struggles to adapt to his new school and new friends. All of that changes when he discovers Lyle - a singing crocodile (Shawn Mendes) who loves baths, caviar, and great music- living in the attic of his new home. The two become fast friends, but when Lyle's existence is threatened by the landlord Mr. Grumps (Brett Gelman), the Primm's must band together with Lyle's charismatic owner, Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem), to show the world that family can come from the most unexpected places and there's nothing wrong with a big singing crocodile with an even bigger personality.

Even though Hector’s arc in the movie is basically what would happen if you took the Looney Tunes cartoon “One Froggy Evening” and stretched it to feature length, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile makes up for it with fantastic CGI made on only 50 million dollars (May I remind you that Wish cost four times as much money, yet it looks like Sofia the First!), songs that outshine Disney’s own live-action musical that year (Disenchanted, which I was disenchanted by), production design that really captures the beauty and grittiness of New York City, a heartfelt tone worthy of the Heartland Award for Truly Moving Picture, and a relatable protagonist. Josh Primm moves into a new city and has trouble making friends, just like me when I moved to Plymouth. He’s shy, not very cool, picked on at school, and has an asthma inhaler whenever he has a panic attack. In fact, you can say that Josh is autistic, and there are hints throughout the movie: He has a very strict diet, has trouble making friends, and even knows about subway schedules and city crime rates. Also, like many autistic people, Josh prefers to be with other animals rather than people. In this case, he likes to hang around with Lyle and Loretta, Mr. Grump’s cat.

Another thing to point out about ‘Lyle’ is how despite being a Sony film (but not Sony Pictures Animation), there isn’t as much product placement and uses mostly fictional brands. Instead of TikTok, the characters use Sweep. Instead of America’s Got Talent or American Idol, wannabe stars try out on Show Us What You Got!

If I were to make nitpicks, I feel the movie should’ve been shorter. I also feel Hector’s a bit of a crook: The only reason he bought Lyle in the first place is so he can make money off of him. He doesn’t care about the crocodile’s mental health, he just wants to get rich off of Lyle like in One Froggy Evening. If I wrote the movie, I’d change it so that Hector was poor, and that Lyle is the only hope he has making enough money to pay off his apartment.

Hector swinging Lyle around as a croclet.

In conclusion, despite its flaws, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile is a fun movie for the whole family to enjoy. I recommend either borrowing the movie from your local library or wait until it’s available on Netflix.

Rating: 3.8 stars out of 5

I also have an update: Zootopia 2 now has a 4-star rating, while Zootopia 1 has a 5-star rating.