Night at the Museum: Animated Sequel Fails to Uphold Franchise’s Tradition

By John Kirk

Rating: B-

I am a fan of the original Night at the Museum, the film that spawned this animated sequel to the franchise. It had a cool premise, a great cast, and a lot of excitement.

However, animated sequels of established film franchises mostly seem like an apology to me. To my mind, it’s a message that there isn’t enough interest for a live-action production on the part of the previous cast, and it’s easier to continue the franchise via an animated style just to keep the interest going.

Warning about Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again: shortcuts abound.

You see, even the title already suggests a shortcut in the concept of this film, because it’s sort of like a cross between The Mummy and the first iteration of Night at the Museum, using an established villain from the second film.

But, if you think of villain options in a museum, you’re limited in what subjects you can choose. I mean, why not a mummy that’s just been shipped to the museum on a night where there just happens to be a new nighttime security guard?

The premise is already a given, so the film starts with a new security guard, Ronnie (Bowen Yang) getting scared out of his first evening job. But he has to be removed in order to make way for who will be the museum guard at the New York Museum of Natural History going forward.

If that’s a question, well, the answer is the son of Larry Daley, the previous security guard (Zachary Levi), who for some reason is shifting his duties to the Tokyo Museum and the denizens are insisting on his son. After all, he knows the secret of the Museum, practically grew up there, and that seems to be their wish.

Nick Daley (Joshua Bassett) is then the selected guard-slash-protector. Our first introduction to him is as he not-so-deftly navigates his way throughout his high school. That’s right. Nick is a teenager. But, according to the Museum folk, so was their father – emotionally, that is.

When we first meet Nick, he’s experiencing the typical angst of an older teen still in the protective embrace of high school. He must navigate crushes, audition for the school jazz band, and deal with the negative types of peer pressure that we all remember too well. Combined with the issues of co-parenting, this film presents the image of a modern family trying to help a young person find his way and gain his confidence.

On a side note, the way the music teacher encourages his audition, yet subtly undermines his confidence is a bit of a teacher power move that personally irritates me. I mean, of course, we know that the teacher means well, but it’s a measure of predictability that’s been laid out from the beginning of the film that doesn’t help in its enjoyment.

Of course, the predictability here is a major obstacle in enjoying the film, which is why it’s an animated apology in the first place. The audience knows from the get-go that this is going to work out for the kid. The characters are known and the conceit of the Museum denizens animating themselves to life at night is a foregone conclusion.

Wow. With all these modern family issues, where’s the room for all the fantasy of the Museum coming to life in the story? Which begs the question: where’s the appeal to this film?

Well, there’s the angle of passing on of responsibilities from father to son that has an evergreen feel. The fact that Nick is readily accepted by the Museum is nostalgic and endearing. That sets the audience up for the hijinks and antics that eventually happen and when he must face the big fear of going into the basement and dealing with the “grand villain” Kahmunrah (Joseph Kamal).

Of course, it’s just the magical effect of the tablet in the Museum that allows exhibits to come to life, and of course, while Nick predictably fails to unlock the loading dock, he – and the upper floors Museum exhibits – now must face the villainy of the resurrected Egyptian prince, which extends to when Kamunrah manages to escape the Museum, yada yada.

Despite the talent of the voice actors and the success of the previous franchise films, this fails to attract the attention that I think it deserves because it’s a shortcut.

That said, it could have been worse. The repetition of the “young person wanting to succeed” motif gives it an appeal that family viewers can relate to, and given the rating, it works for the intended audience even if it makes me somewhat nostalgic for Robin Williams playing Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt. I just wish that there was more excitement and that Kahmunrah was a villain.

Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again. Directed by Matt Danner. Featuring Zachary Levi, Joshua Bassett, Jamie Demetriou, Alice Isaaz, Gillian Jacobs, Joseph Kamal, and Thomas Lennon. Now streaming on Disney+.