Editor’s Note: The following contains The Bob’s Burgers Movie spoilers.The Belchers are back, baby! All right! The Bob’s Burgers Movie is finally upon us, complete with catchy songs, heartfelt storylines, and sky-high stakes. After spending countless episodes homaging movies on their hit TV show Bob’s Burgers, the Belchers have finally made it to the big screen and their antics do not disappoint.
The movie starts simply enough. Bob Belcher (H. Jon Benjamin) is stressed that he won’t be able to make the restaurant’s loan payment in time to keep the restaurant afloat. It’s due in seven days and if he misses this payment, he’ll effectively lose the family’s business and livelihood. Tina Belcher (Dan Mintz) is fawning over her longtime crush, Jimmy Jr. (Benjamin) and if she can’t work up the nerve to ask him to be her summer boyfriend before school lets out, she’ll spend another summer alone and pining. Louise Belcher (Kristen Schaal) is desperate to prove she’s not a baby to the mean girls teasing her at school. Gene Belcher (Eugene Mirman) wants to finally play a gig at the Wonder Wharf. And Linda? Well, she’s cheerleading everyone to the finish! It’s not long into the movie, though, before disaster strikes. A colossal sinkhole opens right in front of the restaurant, grinding the burger business to a screeching halt. How will they make that loan payment now? And to make matters even worse, a dead body is discovered in the hole, turning the already-insurmountable-feeling obstacle into a crime scene, and turning this movie into a thriller-who-done it! So…who done it?
Louise, desperate to not be a baby quickly ropes her siblings into cracking this case, getting that sinkhole filled in, and saving the family restaurant. But by the movie’s climax, she and her siblings find themselves trapped, at gunpoint, with Calvin and Felix Fischoeder (Kevin Kline and Zack Galifianakis) down in the Fischoeder’s secret clubhouse underneath the Wonder Wharf. And who’s threatening to kill them all? None other than the Fischoeder’s own family lawyer and cousin, Grover Fischoeder (David Wain). Grover wants the family fortune all to himself and to completely renovate the Wharf, and he’s devised the pitch-perfect plan to do all of it without any chance of the police catching wind of his plot. Or so he thinks…
Thankfully, Linda spots her babies’ bikes outside the secret under-Wharf lair entrance while she and Bob are outrunning their own angry mob of Wharf workers, thanks to Teddy’s (Larry Murphy) hair-brained scheme to help save the restaurant with a grill on wheels. Anything for his best friend Bob! Linda and Bob end up following their babies under the Wharf and land themselves at gunpoint alongside their children. Luckily, in a moment of distraction, they all manage to escape through a secret storage area. Calvin and Felix aren’t so lucky, dropping into the ocean trapped in an ill-outfitted submarine Wharf ride vessel.
Grover immediately chases after the Belchers, who are making their getaway in a car shaped like a clam. Just as the Belchers reach home, Grover appears on their tail, crashing them down into the sinkhole. Even worse, the car-clam’s door is stuck! Even worser, Grover shovels all the dirt meant to fill in the sinkhole on top of the clam, effectively burying the Belchers alive!
After trying anything they can think of to get the clam open and also weathering various stages of a collective panic attack, Bob comes up with a genius solution: use the exposed metal axle on the clam car—a battle scar from their epic chase sequence—to slice open the exposed plastic water pipe underneath them in the sinkhole so that the rushing pipe water shoots them out. Thankfully, his plan works! They’re out of the hold, but still trapped inside the sealed shut clam.
Teddy saves the day, prying the clam open with part of his Bob’s Burgers on-wheels invention. You know, the one that caused angry Wharf workers to chase Linda and Bob to their doom! And where’s Grover? He’s climbing his way back into the health club he planned as his alibi location, causing a big scene so if ever interrogated by the police, everyone will say this is where he’s been all night. With their lives finally saved, the Belchers know exactly what to do. They send the police to catch Grover at the health club, call rescuers to save the Fischoeders from their sunken submarine, and make their way back to the Wharf to save the beloved landmark from a catastrophic explosion.
Grover has ignited a comically-long fuse within the ride atop the Fischoeder’s clubhouse. Bob starts climbing through the scaffolding of the ride toward the fuse, but he’s so slow, he’ll never make it in time. Louise, hell-bent on finally proving she’s no baby, climbs on the epically slow ride car, which by her calculations, will get her to the fuse just in time to catch it before it ignites all the stuffed animals Grover has positioned throughout the ride as kindling. Louise misses it the first time and then sprints to the back of the cars and manages to grab it. HUZZAH! Louise Belcher, friends, is officially not a baby.
Overjoyed with their survival and the restaurant’s re-re-re-re-opening, the Belcher’s are officially back in business. Tina, having experienced how fleeting life can be, finally takes her shot and kisses Jimmy Jr. Louise finally proves to all the mean girls at school that she’s not afraid of anything by swinging in the playground and not caring that her ears briefly fall off. Gene finally gets his shot at stardom as the Fischoeders let him and his band that Itty Bitty Ditty Committee play the big stage at the Wonder Wharf. And Bob and Linda finally cut the bank that check for their loan payment. The restaurant, for now, is safe!
Overall, this movie’s got it all. An action-packed who-done-it. A will-they-won’t-they romance. A buddy comedy. A coming of age story. A rise to superstardom. But most of all, The Bob’s Burgers Movie has a whole lot of heart. Hopefully, this isn’t the last time with get to see the Belchers on the big screen.
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