The No Country for Old Men Oscar-winner has lost himself in another role, this time alongside Constance Wu and a CG song-singing crocodile voiced by Shawn Mendes. Here’s what it’s all about.
At first glance, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile looks like another overblown adaptation of a beloved children’s book. It’s got a more “realistic” but still cartoonish CG rendering of a classic character (like Peter Rabbit or Clifford the Big Red Dog); a setting in storybook — which is to say, vaguely Canadian-looking — New York City (also like Clifford); and egregious celebrity voice casting (featuring Shawn Mendes as Lyle!).
The rest of the cast, however, is a little more eclectic and higher-end than usual. The parents of its young human hero are played by Constance Wu, who has had two recent hits with Hustlers and Crazy Rich Asians, and the wonderful character actor Scoot McNairy. Moreover, Lyle has a featured role for quadruple Oscar nominee (and one-time winner) Javier Bardem. And the character demands the forbidding star of No Country for Old Men and Skyfall wearing suspenders, throwing colorful smoke bombs, and practicing soft-shoe with a CG croc. What’s going on here?
It’s not that unusual for a major star to log time in a movie for kids, especially when they have younger children of their own, as Bardem does. For that matter, the role of Hector P. Valenti, a gregarious wannabe “star of stage and screen” per his business card, who discovers the singing-not-speaking crocodile Lyle in a rundown pet shop, shares some common ground with Bardem’s recent turn as a charming-yet-caddish Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos. Both characters are born entertainers, equally capable of inspiring trust and suspicion. Under normal circumstances, Bardem’s appearance here would probably make some kind of sense. But this version of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile is not normal circumstances.
