Robbie Coltrane has never looked so small.  Of course, in Gooby he only voices the title character—who is actually portrayed by another actor, Derek Scott.

It’ll really help you understand that you’re not watching Coltrane under the bear suit going in, I think.  Otherwise you might wind up as distracted by the thought of a tiny Hagrid as I was!

Ahem.

And now for the main attraction.

Matthew Knight plays Willy, a fanciful, imaginative young boy who entertains fears of aliens and monsters.  His tightly-controlled world is tied up with potions, talismans, and rituals designed for his protection.  Not only are his parents not particularly supportive—they just get him counseling—they pull the rug out from under him by moving!  Gone are his figurative moat and parapets.  Gone are his shields and defenders.  In frustration, he throws his old toy bear Gooby in the corner of the closet, and the movers are slipshod enough to leave him behind.

Ah, but Gooby is bigger than that—though not as big as Coltrane.  He comes alive, just-bigger than life, and tracks down Willy in his new “dream home” digs.  Imagine the problems that Willy might have dealing with a six-foot stuffed bear whose social skills are about as developed as a three-year old’s!  And, well, imagine that.

To start out with, Wilson Coneybeare’s film is an exploration of helpful fantasies.  And just when you think that problems with a consistent point of view and odd lighting will overwhelm your interest—early scenes intended to build tension fall flat because the audience knows more about what’s going to happen than Willy does—Gooby comes to life and the second act of the movie shifts into broad comedy.

It’s in this section that we find out Gooby got his name “because [he] couldn’t say ‘good bear,’” and Gooby declares “I’m not people; I’m a monster!”  Eugene Levy, as schoolteacher Mr. Nerdlinger, gets to ham it up like, well, Eugene Levy.  And when the whole neighborhood turns out in costume for Halloween, Willy—whose dad is too busy for him—goes out on the town with his six-foot stuffed bear.  Who declares, “Willy! The hot dog peed!”  Ya hafta have been there, I guess.

Then, when the goofy fun culminates in a head injury… from a soccer ball… sort of… the third act gets all serious and stuff.  Cuz the film is really about parents who are too busy for their children, trying to make up for the childhoods they never had.  And end up becoming the parents they never wanted to be.  And it’s about learning how to let go of the stuff and comforts and security (the moats, and parapets, and shields, you know?) and just be.  Parents.  Good ones.

And it’s about kids making the transition into that security-blanket-free zone we call maturity, passing the torch and moving on.

And truly that’s all well and good; David James Elliot as Willy’s dad even develops some likeability in that final third, even if Ingrid Kavelaars, as Willy’s mom, is kind of left dangling by her movie husband, the script, and the director.

But Knight, to me, feels way too old for this part, which seems crafted for someone like the young Macaulay Culkin or Haley Joel Osment.  I have a strong hunch that the target audience, which is a couple to a few years younger than Willy, is not going to stick with Knight through 99 minutes.

And then there was the Coltrane thing.  But nobody warned me!

Gooby is rated PG for “some mild rude humor and bullying.”  It’s pretty mild, indeed.  It’s good that the MPAA is still on the lookout for farting bears and peeing hot dogs.

Courtesy of the distributor, Greg screened a promotional DVD of Gooby.