Since the mid-90s, American animated features have stuck to a seemingly successful pattern: stories aimed at children spiked with visual and verbal jokes that can still appeal to their parents. Needless to say, adults of a certain professional sensibility are charged with pulling these movies off, but Julian Glander’s quirky Boys Go to Jupiter actually looks and feels like something a kid would come up with, which isn’t to say it will automatically appeal to everyone under the age of 11, but rather that the freewheeling attitude that bolsters its humor and world view is childlike in the most natural way. First of all there’s the look, which consists of super-bright primary colors and 3D-graphic plastic/ceramic textures and rounded shapes that look as if not much thought was put into them, and yet they are more expressive than a lot of what you see lately from Pixar; or maybe it’s just that we’ve become so used to Pixar that the expressions have become predictable.

This demeanor extends to the characters, who are mostly adolescents or younger kids with too much time on their hands. Our hero, Billy 5000 (Jack Corbett), is a teenage high school dropout living in his older sister’s (Eva Victor) garage in a lower middle class Florida suburb. The plot line follows Billy’s determination to make $5,000 through his gig job for the food delivery service Grubster (his mode of transport a wave board), whose motto is “Have a grubby day.” Though it’s clear Billy has not much use for formal education, he’s well read and something of a math wiz, explaining the recession to bored elementary school-age neighbors and devising an ingeniously complex currency transfer system that he believes will get him to his monetary goal more quickly. However, his well-laid plans are constantly foiled by matters he can’t foresee, such as customers who refuse to pay for stupid reasons and dodgy infrastructure. During one delivery to a corporate greenhouse where “designer fruits” are being developed, he meets and falls instantly for one of the workers, Rozebud (Miya Folick), who happens to be the daughter of Dr. Dolphin (Janeane Garofalo), the billionaire mastermind of the company, a combination of circumstances that allows Glander to bolt off on a tangent about the history of genetically modified food that sounds exactly like something a bunch of smart but smart-alecky 6th graders would come up with if prompted to do so by a particularly charismatic teacher. Rozebud wants to humor Billy if only because it might get her out of the greenhouse and away from her domineering mother, and not necessarily because she thinks Billy is a catch. As observers, we’ve already determined that he isn’t.

There’s not much plot outside this sketchy outline, and sometimes the juvenile quality of the storytelling feels undercooked, meaning it only really comes into its own in shorter, self-contained vignettes, as when Billy’s collection of neighborhood pals hang outside the local convenience story faking traffic accidents in order to extort drivers into buying them beer. But the movie’s strongest suit is its dialogue, which is hilariously perceptive and sometimes downright wise. “Sleep is for rich people,” Billy retorts to one of his sister’s nags. “Wash your hands if you’ve been touching money,” she complains before serving dinner. “Renting the fantasy!” Billy exclaims as he buys a lottery ticket. It’s obvious from the thrust of almost all the conversations that Billy is not as in control of his fate as he thinks he is, which is a common delusion of youth and one that Boys Go to Jupiter explores with rare, albeit absurd, insight. But then, everyone in the movie, including the town’s genius hot dog entrepreneur and even Dr. Dolphin, knows you can’t always get what you want. What else should anyone living in Florida expect?

Now playing in Tokyo at Shinjuku Musashinokan (03-3354-5670), Shibuya White Cine Quinto (03-6712- 7225). 

Boys Go to Jupiter home page in Japanese

photo (c) Glanderco, LLC