The main reason my wife loves this movie is Josh Gad as a famed children's performer named Teddy McGiggles.
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The Role: Teddy McGiggles
The premise of Little Monsters is a small zombie story. Viral agent goes haywire at a local U.S. military base in Australia. Creates a bunch of traditional Romero zombies (i.e. transmit through bites and move rather slow). And a classroom full of children are caught in the maelstorm at a nearby petting zoo with a washed-up muscian/uncle and their teacher as their only defense. But there's another survivor as well. A famous children's performer who came to Austrailia as part of his world tour: Teddy McGiggles. Only Mr. McGiggles isn't eager to help anyone but himself.
Why It Works
Reason #1: Josh Gad's Public Image
In an era where every single celebrity appears to be problematic, Josh Gad is...not. He's an agreeable fella who is known for his kid friendly voice over roles in movies like Frozen, working with comedy legends like Billy Crystal and Mel Brooks, made reunion material during the COVID-19 lockdowns with beloved casts like Lord of the Rings and even in his adult-oriented stuff like The Book of Mormon, he's the guy playing the innocent or naive good egg.
So when he first arrives on screen as children's performer in a frog themed suit, it looks and feels completely on brand for him. And I'm sure a bunch of adults who were forced to watch the Frozen films who were thinking "Sweet lord, not again" and proceeded to put their head in a microwave or something.
We see him again as he performs for the kids, brings up Lupita Nyong'o to chat with him and presumably leaves to never be seen again. Then comes the turn.
Reason #2: The Reveal
The reveal of Teddy's true character is a comedic bomb that comes out of nowhere. Right as the class is all shuffling trying to get into the petting zoo's gift shop, we see that hey Mr. McGiggles is here! They're saved.
And he immediately tells them to go fuck themselves. In those exact words. And insists that he's not letting the kids in. He just keeps cussing up a storm saying they're gonna get him killed. He even points at a walking aide and calls him (big sigh) meals on wheels.
It actually takes an entire fight sequence for our teacher's aide and one of the kid's uncles, Dave, to get the door open and let the kids in.
Josh Gad is so good in this bit, swinging wildly from out of control narcissism to absurd curses in a single breath and he maintains this character's vulgar sad sack comedic momentum.
Reason #3: A Great Foil/Complication
Something I always like to highlight with great side characters is how they enhance or improve the story.
Because Teddy McGiggles could've been killed off no problem and just been a zombie. Why make him this out-of-control maniac?
Conflict for one. While the main tension in the movie (aka will the kids survive the zombies) is evergreen, Teddy constantly makes existing problems worse and ratchets up the tension. It would be fine if the field trip all got into the gift shop no problem. But the prolonged action beat of them fighting to get in stretches out the movie's run time and adds more tension to the scene.
He also nearly upends the children's toned down image of what's happening and nearly gets everyone killed by being selfish towards the end.
The way he reacts also lets our two leads Audrey and Dave show their mettle/character.
The way he reacts also lets our two leads Audrey and Dave show their mettle/character.
Dave is introduced to the audience as an immature screwup who's still trying to coast by on rock and roll glory from year's past. He constantly does and says the wrong things around the kids and doesn't appear to have a strong nurturing instinct.
But compared to Teddy, even before he begins to take his role more seriously, he's much better. He's not trying to be a shithead. Teddy is. And he's also willing to smash his guitar on Teddy to get the kids and Audrey inside.
But compared to Teddy, even before he begins to take his role more seriously, he's much better. He's not trying to be a shithead. Teddy is. And he's also willing to smash his guitar on Teddy to get the kids and Audrey inside.
Likewise, Audrey is super hard to read and seems to good to be true. Like...why the hell is she pretending this zombie apocalypse is a game and staying in "teacher mode" the whole time? Well Teddy being a problem gives her a chance to demonstrate that she's deadly serious and monologue about why she's behaving that way...as she chastizes him for being a liability with a broken off souvenir in his side.
And finally, this movie needs someone to cut through the tension.
As funny as the general premise of the movie is, it really needs someone who's freaking out and cursing up a storm for variety's sake. So Gad going off about how he's "f***ed a lot of moms" while Audrey and Dave are trying to save everyone's lives or yelling at the kids about how his cameraman got his face eaten off (he's clearly not actually yelling at kids by the by, you can tell they're never in the same when he's going off).
Reason #4: Josh Gad is Really Good At This
One of the problems with such explitive laden parts is making them sound natural. Like as much as Jim Carrey's use of the world "fuckers" is played for shocking laughs in Bruce Almighty that sounds so strange and awkward coming out of his mouth. He's clearly more comfortable doing goofy physical stuff.
Whereas Gad lays into these horrific lines with as much gusto as his kid performer stuff. Every curse sounds perfectly natural and almost every scene comes with a different energy. We drift from sarcastic and hostile, to drunken rage to sad monologues. All played for laughs. All lethally effective because Gad is good at this.
While Little Monsters hasn't achieved anything close to new classic or cult favorite status, Sharon and I still keep coming back to it because...Josh Gad is that fucking funny in it and that says a lot.
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