My 3 year old daughter and I went to see Wonder Park together and we were both cheering throughout the entire movie. It was exciting and magical and full of emotional moments. This is definitely a movie both children and parents can enjoy!

Wonder Park is an amusement park that June (voiced by Sofia Mali and Brianna Denski) and her mother (voiced by Jennifer Garner) create over years through her toys, model-sized creations, paper cutouts, and, most importantly, imagination. It is a very extensive, picturesque land that bonds their characters deeply and instills a value in June that all things are possible. June is so committed to making Wonder Park a real thing that she recruits all of her friends from all over the neighborhood and they become invested in it as well. Eventually we learn that mom is sick and her absence leads June to abandon the idea of Wonder Park, to her friends and family’s disheartenment, and she becomes obsessive over dad’s health (voiced by Matthew Broderick). This leads her to reconsidering camp and running back home where she discovers that Wonderland Park is real! This is where the true adventure ensues and June discovers more about her character and what is really possible when you believe in yourself.

One of the other characters also goes through a similar pivotal change that mirrors Junes’ and that is the monkey, Peanut (voiced by Norbert Leo Butz). He is very symbolic of a representation of June and her self-esteem. Peanut is the creator of rides and wonder at the park, but the trick is, he gets his inspiration from mom whispering in his ear as his doll form. His story, like June’s, is so transformative that it’s moving. He is a great role but the best character of Wonder Park was Steve. Steve is the porcupine who is in charge of maintenance, regardless of his quills damaging things/people around him. I love John Oliver and his voice and personality fit that role impeccably. He really contributed the majority of Wonder Park’s humor and kept the park grounded. He’s definitely a character that is focused towards the adult audience with his wit, but he was cute and funny to the children too.

If I could change anything in Wonder Park, it’s that I would’ve made the fight against the villains shorter. I felt like that conflict dragged out a little long and that the image of the well-ran, fully functioning park was too short. This is common among movies, but the trailers made it seem like a generally happy film, and it didn’t seem like that was the overall theme with the focus mostly on the conflict. It was understandable with the mom being sick and June slowly losing her spark, but I wish the adventure after she lit up again had been extended. That part of the movie was so sweet and inspirational. With the theme that I picked up on, it really felt like an older type of audience would appreciate the movie’s message better than younger kids, which is not what I guessed from the trailers.

I’m so glad this film didn’t feel like it was trying to be a Disney movie. The tropes weren’t extremely drastic where something random happens to the main character to change her. This movie felt more real than that, even for June happening upon her animal-ran, imaginary theme park in the forest. Paramount did this movie justice with the balance between struggles and discovery, childhood and growing up. I also really enjoyed that they made June’s best friend Hindu and that it was so casual. That’s how diversity should be normalized. Banky was very cute. 

Every character was so good! I felt like even the villains were lovable or, at least, understandable. The darkness being the main one. It represented sorrow and gloom within June. Everyone goes through that eventually. It was so symbolic, as were all the characters of Wonder Park, and that was inspirational. This movie is definitely for the entire family and I would love to watch it again. I give it a 9.