REVIEW: ‘The Twits’ Offers A Beautifully Animated But Unfocused Take On Roald Dahl

Written for the screen, directed, and produced by Phil Johnston (with Katie Shanahan and Todd Demong co-directing), The Twits is the latest Roald Dahl adaptation. With remakes of Matilda (2022) and The Witches (2020) already on the books for this generation of young audiences, The Twits introduces them to an even meaner look at the world adults create.

Still with animation from Jellyfish Productions, who brought the world The Bad Guys, the amount of magic delivered to the story stands out. The exciting thing about Netflix Animation’s take on The Twits is that, unlike the other recent adaptations of Dahl’s work (I guess including 2023’s Wonka), this one hasn’t been made into a film before.

Based on the book, which has been translated into 41 languages, The Twits brings the originality and spectacle that only animation can, even if it does lose itself in the spectacle from time to time. 

The film centers on the denim-boot-wearing Mrs. Twit (Margo Martindale) and the man with the grossest beard you’ve seen, Mr. Twit (Johnny Vegas). The duo has been married for over 30 years, and the key to their long-lasting marriage is that, well, they hate each other. Meanness is like breathing to the couple; with constant tricks being played and angry words being slung, they’re just miserable. But Mr. and Mrs. Twit do have one thing that they both love and makes them happy, Twitlandia. 

Netflix Animation has another example of gorgeous animation in its filmography with The Twits.

Handbuilt in their egregiously large backyard, Twitlandia is their amusement park. However, when they celebrate their grand opening, the city of Triperot quickly shuts it down for violating multiple health and safety regulations. To take their revenge on Twitlandia, Mr. and Mrs. Twit hatch a scheme to take over Triperot, flooding the town with hotdog goo. Yes, hotdog goo. 

However, the Twits aren’t our lead characters, just the antagonists. To counteract the nastiest of the Twits, we follow Beesha Balti (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Bubsy Mulch (Ryan Anderson Lopez). They are two orphans who make it their mission to bring Mr. and Mrs. Twit to justice after Bubsy’s adoption falls through. Beesha is courageous, wasting no time to take care of Bubsy and the people around her.

But when Beesha and Bubsy find the Muggle-wumps caged in Twitlandia, they make it their mission to save them, setting off a chain reaction that leads the Twits to take over the city, and every adult buys their lies. Our heroine of the story, Beesha, is a stellar protagonist.

Instead of feeling sad about her parents, she turns that loneliness into caring for others. She pushes past the negative thoughts and instead tries to be there for others, even if she doesn’t have someone to lean on herself. 

As Beesha and Bubsy save the Muggle-wumps, the story evolves into a timely exploration of cruelty versus empathy, and how selfishness can harm those around us, even if it’s unintentional. However, how it gets there is long and winding, yet it’s still great to watch.

The Twits has a great theme when it isn’t distracted by spectacle.

The Twits’ animation by Jellyfish Pictures is outstanding. It’s both whimsical and grotesque when necessary. Each animated moment feels plucked from Roald Dahl himself. The vibrant colors and near-claymation style are some of the creative animations we’ve seen this year. The ability to be both endearing and make you deeply uncomfortable is a perfect match for the author known for doing precisely that. 

Additionally, while the musical moments feel out of place, even with only a few sprinkled in, the music’s strength is genuinely fantastic. And that is thanks to David Byrne (Talking Heads), who wrote and produced the three original songs for the film: “We’re Not Like Ev’ryone Else,” “Lullaby,” and “The Problem Is You.” And if you stay through the credits, you’ll even hear Hayley Williams perform “Open the Door,” which she co-wrote with Byrne.

The Twits is a good film when you take each of its individual themes on their own. You have found family, the way politics takes advantage of desperate people, the importance of not keeping animals locked up for your own gain, asking for help even when you feel like you don’t need it, and oh, adopting kids and magical animals?

The film, despite having the Roald Dahl edge in terms of visuals, lacks cohesion. If you push all of those themes together into one message, it can be summed up in the lullaby that one of the Muggle-wumps sings: the world is horrible, but you can find a way through it.

Hayley Williams’ end credits song steals the show.

And that’s traditionally a key to Dahl’s work. Take children in horrible situations and read as they find a way through them, whilst balancing whimsy and darkness. It’s what makes his work lasting and why we keep revisiting it. However, in this case, The Twits is trying to do too much all at once, sometimes burying its strongest elements in spectacle. 

However, one of the more touching moments in The Twits is when Beesha talks to the mother Muggle-wump about feeling alone. The Muggle-wump points out that Beesha shouldn’t feel unloved. Sometimes parents can’t take care of their children, and leaving them is the best they can do. The film’s third act is where everything comes together, as Beesha learns that she deserves to be loved, even if the Twits exploit her loneliness and her wish for her parents to return for their benefit. 

But even then, Beesha’s independence is also used to highlight that when we want something to be true, we will believe it, even when we should understand reality. For the adults in Triperot, it’s about doing the Twits’ bidding and voting for them to be co-Mayors of the city because everyone is struggling financially in their dying city. And for our main character, it’s about realizing what she has and how to cherish it, rather than longing for what she doesn’t. 

Still, the most important moment comes when the audience is shown what happens when we give in to our worst inclinations. The children ‘s choice to leave Mr. and Mrs. Twit to die removes their ability to understand animals. By letting the Twits take away their empathy, they lose their connection to the Muggle-wumps.

The Twits could have been great, but it’s too much all the time.

While the core message about not being swayed by something you desperately want to be true works when attributed to ideas of family and the traditional “grass is greener” theming, the real message reveals itself in the final moments when Beesha and Bubsy choose to rescue Mr. and Mrs. Twit, in that hate allows you never to see the other people as people. It removes your empathy, and all of the worst things you feel about someone become real because you want them to be. 

The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve come to appreciate the time that I spent in Roald Dahl’s stories. The balance of darkness and hope, and consistent takeaways to let children be children even when the world is bad and scary, has ended up being some of my favorite writing. 

However, as we approach the homestretch, the road there is littered with toilet humor, inconsistent writing, and a narrative drive to set up bombastic animation moments that hinder the film’s ability to maintain a consistent message.

With a little editing, The Twits had the inventive animation, performances, music, and essential message that could have gone the distance. In fact, Hayley Williams’ “Open the Door” aptly sums up the film. However, at just over an hour and 40 minutes, there is simply too much happening at any given time in the first two acts to let this film shine as brightly as it should. 

The Twits is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix.