Leo (animated film): A relatively good Adam Sandler animation

This one comes from Netflix, who I believe Sandler is under contract to do work with exclusively for some period of time or some number of movies. As it stands now I believe the Netflix exclusives with Sandler have been 50% good and 50% terrible. The ones where he includes all of his old pals are the ones that normally end up being bad but I watch them anyway because I appreciate a guy that looks out for his buddies even if their presence normally results in the movie being really stupid such as The Ridiculous 6

I had my reservations about watching Leo because of the fact that it was a Sandler comedy but what changed my mind was both the IMDB rating as well as the fact that it is animated. What I ended up getting treated to was a lot better than I had expected and I am glad that I took the time to watch it.

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I suppose the story isn't that important in Sandler movies but I'm gonna give it to ya anyway! Leonardo is a lizard of some sort that lives in a terrarium in a 5th grade classroom along with his turtle buddy named "Squirtle the turtle" and is voiced by Bill Burr. The story is narrated by a number of characters because the story isn't just about the life of "Leo," it is more about the various issues that little kids go through in school and perhaps this was motivated and inspired by the fact that Sandler has 2 daughters. The school that they manufacture in this film isn't terribly representative of any school I have ever seen or heard of and since it is Netflix, the school is very diverse, but that's Netflix so it was expected. At least they didn't try to indoctrinate anyone with this aspect of it.

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Basically, the students all have various problems that I think most of us can relate to at some point in our lives and in particular when we were at the awkward age that they are in the film. The students are forced to take one of the terrarium pets home for the weekend each week and while Leo's initial intention during this trip is to escape and head to the outside world and most notably the Everglades, he accidentally reveals to the first girl that he can actually speak when he gets hurt. He has kept this hidden for many years and the idea in the movie is that all animals can speak but they have a strict code to not let humans know this for some reason.

Leo confides in the kid and ends up becoming her friend and helping her with the problems that she is having in school. Leo also tells her that she is the only one that knows he can talk and she mustn't tell anyone else. But then he finds that he can't control himself and he really enjoys helping the students so he ends up talking to all of them and telling them all the same thing about them being the only one that knows.

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Because the students have no fear of anyone else finding out about what they confide in Leo with, they spill their guts to him and he ends up helping them a great deal. This is all quite inspiring to the point of getting misty-eyed on my part because well, I guess I am a sucker for someone helping another person out.

Various adventures are built into the story and I'll not say much else about the plot because I don't want to spoil it for potential viewers. Just know that the characters are all pretty great and there is a little bit of every type of person that I can remember from the schools that I attended. There is adult and childlike humor in this movie, so therefore parents and kids can watch this film together and both will enjoy it.

Should I watch it?

This isn't going to change your life all that much but as far as animated films are concerned this is one of the better family-friendly ones that I have seen in a long time. Kids and adults will enjoy this and because it is devoid of any sort of Netflix indoctrination message that they seem to want to include in everything that they do, I think that most people will seriously enjoy it. I give it my stamp of approval!

_{The only legal way to watch this film is to stream it on Netflix}