Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again

Disney is once again dipping into the 20th Century Studios bag of franchises to give Disney+ a brand new original movie. They’ve tried it with “Home Alone”, “Ice Age” and “Cheaper By The Dozen”. And sadly, we can add this new installment of “Night At The Museum” to the pile of failed Disney+ 20th Century reboots.

This is a direct sequel to the films, so watching the previous films will require viewing, as it picks up several years after the events of the third live-action film, where we see Larry take his 18-year-old son, Nick Daley as night guard at the museum for the summer. Fortunately, since he’s familiar with the museum’s ancient tablets that bring everything to life when the sun goes down, he’s happy to see his old friends, including Jedediah, Octavius, and Sacagawea. But when the mad ruler Kahmunrah escapes with plans to unlock the Egyptian underworld and unleash its Army of the Dead, it’s up to Nick to stop the demented overlord and save the museum once and for all.

There are many problems with “Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again”, firstly the transition to animation is strange. It’s arguably much cheaper to make an animated film, because there are no CGI effects of a giant dinosaur to pay for, and none of the big name actors from the film have returned. Trying to fill the great shoes of Robin Williams would be difficult, but doing it in animated form makes it a lot easier.

The art animation style is very strange and I felt it was a bit jarring throughout the film. I actually felt like I was watching a Saturday morning cartoon from the 90s. Because not only was it just a 2D animated film that looks a little rough, it’s barely over an hour long (but I was still waiting for it to end), and most importantly, the tone of the film is exceptionally juvenile. While younger audiences might like the movie, because it has some funny Scooby Doo-style moments, older audiences will just reach for the remote, possibly to put on the original live-action movie instead. The main character, Nick, is supposed to be an 18-year-old, but he’s just a clumsy teenage boy, who can’t ask a girl out and at one point, during a skateboarding scene, reminded me more of Bart Simpson.

There are so many points in this movie where it’s just so bland, or you can see where it’s going a mile away. The main villain Kahmunrah is so one-dimensional, and he even ends up getting a tiny zookeeper that feels straight out of a traditional straight-to-video Disney movie from the 90s.

“Night At The Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again” is a very disappointing addition to the franchise that didn’t need to be made. Instead of making a proper sequel, with all the big name stars like Ben Stiller or Amy Addams back, Disney took a shortcut and decided that the only way to make this movie on a Disney+ budget was in animation. But even the animation looks cheap and dated, with cheap gags and a generic story, you know what’s going to happen in the movie within the first 10 minutes. Kids might enjoy it, but it’s a disappointment, and frankly, I’d suggest just watching the original live-action movie instead.
Rating – 2 out of 5

“Night At The Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again” is out now on Disney+

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a child and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney parks all over the world and has a huge collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What’s On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: [email protected] Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk