Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again’ on Disney+, an Animated Continuation of the Exhibits-Run-Amok Series

Now that Disney empire consumed 20th Century Fox, Mickey Mouse is now in control of the Night at the Museum franchise, thus why the fourth movie, Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again, turned up as a Disney+ exclusive. Mickey Mouse hasn’t just de-mothballed the series, whose last entry was 2014’s Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, he’s revamped it with an animated feature, possibly because its concept – a trip outside the museum to ancient Egypt – may have been too expensive for live action, especially considering the probable occurrence of diminishing returns on financial investments for fourth movies in somewhat long-in-the-tooth series experiencing rapidly decaying public interest. Which is to say, NATM: KRA (you may pronounce it nah-tem-krahh) doesn’t offer much nor does it ask for much, and it might just meet shruggingly modest expectations from bean counters and TV watchers alike.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: KAHMUNRAH RISES AGAIN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: A new security guard, positively Blart-like in shape and demeanor, strolls into the New York Museum of Natural History. He doesn’t last long – he’s chased right out the door by a T-rex skeleton, a monkey, a bear, a lion, Sacagawea, Joan of Arc, etc., all of whom are supposed to be doornail-dead but, as you may recall, were brought to life via the magic of an ancient Egyptian tablet. Do you also recall the rules? You know, that the exhibits animate at sunset and will turn to dust if they’re outside the museum at sunrise? It’s all very convenient, this taking place outside the boundaries of the museum’s opening hours, although an argument could be made that seeing an undead dinosaur skeleton move of its own accord might be a huge draw for a publicly funded nonprofit institution. Just a thought.

What, exactly, is the problem with the Blartish new guy? He’s not the museum denizens’ longtime night watchman pal Larry Daley (Zachary Levi), who’s taking a job at a museum in Tokyo. If Larry’s got to progress his career beyond carrying a flashlight and sipping coffee in an itchy uniform, then, Teddy Roosevelt (Thomas Lennon) and co. ask, why doesn’t his teenage son take over for him? And so Larry arranges the gig for Nick (Joshua Bassett of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series), who’s a good kid mired in self-doubt because he stammers mightily while trying to ask his crush on a date and nervously fumbles through his audition to be the DJ in the school jazz band. (That’s exactly what every jazz ensemble needs – more EDM!) See, he has perfect pitch, the screenplay strains to point out – perhaps because it may come in handy later, no spoilers – but he seemingly can’t pitch himself to save his life.

So Nick has some confidence issues to overcome, and if anything will help him work through them, it’s traveling through a portal to ancient Egypt to divert an apocalypse. His very first night on the job becomes rather eventful when he fails to lock the door on Egyptian chaosmonger Kahmunrah (Jospeh Kamal), who snatches the magic tablet and takes it to the art museum so he can awaken a vengeful jackal-god to help him take over the world. And before the bad guy can quip “Don’t eat me, or it’ll be a real short movie,” Nick and Teddy Roosevelt, Sacagawea (Kieran Sequoia), Joan of Arc (Alice Isaaz), Dexter the monkey (Dee Bradley Baker), Attila the Hun (Alexander Salamat) and the Neanderthal Laaa (Levi) have to gather their wits to embark on a quest to stop this nonsense. Will they succeed? Or will the bad guys win and make this story actually interesting?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: It just dawned on me that transitioning a live action series to animation is the opposite of Disney’s current modus operandi. Anyway – a recent movie I saw that carried the premise from live action to animation was Netflix’s Marmaduke, a comparison NATM: KRA will appreciate, because you could side-by-side Marmaduke with a moldy cheese log and conclude that the cheese log offers more sophisticated comedy. I digress: NATM: KRA is a lot like the recent animated Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies – both are Fox properties revived on the cheap by Disney to fill the menu of its streaming service.

Performance Worth Watching: I didn’t notice Chris Parnell’s vocal cameo as George Washington, so let’s go with Joan of Arc, a new character to the series who brings the badass, doesn’t comprehend metaphors and delivers a pretty ripping one-liner reference to how she was burned at the stake.

Memorable Dialogue: Kahmunrah and Joan of Arc square off:

Joan: The only metaphor I need is to literally vanquish you in battle!

Kahmunrah: Metaphors are literally not literal!

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Unlike other Disney+ exclusives, nobody’s going to lament that NATM: KRA was denied theatrical release – visually and thematically, it’s very much a made-for-TV movie and should be judged accordingly. Which is no surprise, considering director Matt Danner is a veteran animator and director with a long list of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel credits, and here he is, helming the first 2D-animated Disney film since 2011’s Winnie the Pooh. Visually, the movie’s lively and colorful, with broadstroked lines and smooth-flowing action sequences that will pop nicely from your smartphone if you’re one of those maniacs who watches movies on a smartphone.

The screenplay, though, is more of a mixed bag. The story is Whatevs City, a boilerplate adventure in which a boy gets a much-needed opportunity to boost his self-esteem by saving the world. Don’t accept it as wholesale truth, though – diverting eternal dictatorial rule and the potential outright destruction of civilization as we know will never be a suitable substitute for therapy.

What saves the movie from tedium (especially for any adults propped in front of it) is its witty script, which takes a more-is-more approach to delivering jokes. The one-liners stack up like cordwood, and while some are too green to burn yet, the majority of them spark and flame nicely. Such rapid-fire comedy keeps pace with the near-omnipresent hyperkinetic action, which would wear us to nubs if this movie was a second longer than its 77 minutes. Bottom line, it ain’t half bad, which is about all we can ask for from the Museum franchise at this point.

Our Call: STREAM IT. NAH-TEM-KRAHH is a little noisy and by-the-numbers, but it looks good and rarely diverges into dullness.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.