Dennis the Menace
Bringing the menace to life.
- Score
- 6
A pretty faithful and entertaining frolic.
A pretty faithful and entertaining frolic.
By Tym Stevens
Cartoonist Hank Ketchum created the comic strip dervish in 1951 based on his own young family. Dennis, a tornado tyke in overalls, quickly spun from panel gags and Sunday pages into a popular TV series (1959-'63) and comic books. Ketchum is admired for the sketchy abandon and fluxing line widths in his inking, as well as his brash slapstick, which paved the way for later works like "Calvin And Hobbes".
Fresh from the success of the Home Alone movies, producer John Hughes recombed their roots with this screen adaptation. While overly haunted by those films (and Back To The Future), it is remarkably faithful to the strip and TV show in its characters appearances, '50s aesthetic, pratfall antics, and breezy pace. Walter Matthau enjoys himself as the beleaguered neighbor Mr. Wilson, young Mason Gamble is an easy natural as Dennis, and the generally entertaining film did well with audiences.