Netflix’s Roald Dahl push has produced a few genuine bright spots, from Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar shorts to the enduring charm of Fantastic Mr. Fox. The Twits (2025) is not one of them. Phil Johnston’s animated take on Roald Dahl’s book leans hard into kid-only chaos and forgets the cross-generational spark that made Wonka with Timothée Chalamet and Henry Selick’s Coraline feel timeless for families. What lands instead is a noisy, sugar-rush riff that rarely finds a rhythm adults can enjoy alongside their kids.
The visual approach is the first hurdle. The Twits goes for a quasi stop-motion look in full CG, a clay-like veneer without the tactile magic. It resembles a budget echo of Selick’s work on Wendell & Wild and the handmade personality of Memoir of a Snail, but with textures that read as plasticky and lighting that flattens the mischief out of the frames. The framing device is equally familiar. A chatty firefly named Pippa, voiced by Emilia Clarke, narrates from inside Mr. Twit’s beard in a way that recalls Jiminy Cricket in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, only with less wit and far less purpose.
Storywise, the Twits themselves are a tough hang by design, yet the film never figures out how to make their awfulness funny. Credenza and Jim Twit, voiced by Margo Martindale and Johnny Vegas, plot to control their town while a pair of orphans join up with magical animals to stop them. That could be a springboard for gleeful nastiness or Dahl-ish anarchy. Instead, the jokes lean crass and obvious, the set pieces feel recycled, and the script gives its capable voice cast little to play beyond shouty bluster. Even the running gags feel lifted from louder franchises like Despicable Me without the elasticity or warmth that keeps those movies afloat.
There are isolated bits that work. Clarke’s line readings occasionally inject a sweet-natured twinkle, and a few sight gags hint at the grotesque playfulness you expect from Roald Dahl. Mostly, though, The Twits mistakes volume for personality. It borrows the look of stop-motion without the hand-crafted soul, borrows the structure of better fairy-tale tellings without the narrative glue, and borrows the prankster energy of Dahl without the sting.
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Johnston’s credits include Wreck-It Ralph, Zootopia, and Ralph Breaks the Internet, but that blend of concept and heart does not translate here. The Twits is exactly the kind of content-first IP adaptation Netflix’s Dahl deal was supposed to rise above. Younger kids may cackle at the mess and meanness. Everyone else will likely be counting the minutes.
Score: 3/10
The Twits (2025)
- Cast: Margo Martindale, Johnny Vegas, Emilia Clarke, Sami Amber, Alan Tudyk, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Ryan Anderson Lopez, Phil Johnston, Natalie Portman, Timothy Simons
- Director: Phil Johnston
- Genre: Animation, Comedy, Family
- Runtime: 99 minutes
- Rated: PG
- Release Date: October 17, 2025
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