It’s been five long years since The Thundermans TV show premiered its series finale. After such a long time, The Thundermans Return brought new and old characters, unexpected plot twists, and more. While being made by Nickelodeon, the film obviously isn’t the best piece of media to be created, and wasn’t expected to be. With that being said, seeing the old cast on the set together was a nostalgic experience. 

In the show, the Thundermans were a family who had a double life as regular humans and as superheroes in their town, Hiddenville. They made friends, formed relationships, and more until they eventually moved to Metroburg where they were full-time superheroes. After someone was injured during a mission, they were all forced back to Hiddenville where they struggled to fit back into being normal. 

It was amazing to see the original cast again including Kira Kosarin, who plays Phoebe Thunderman, Jack Griffo, who plays Max Thunderman, Rosa Blasi, who plays Barb Thunderman, Chris Tallman, who plays Hank Thunderman, Addison Riecke, who plays Nora Thunderman, Diego Velázquez, who plays Billy Thunderman, and Maya Le Clark, who plays Chloe Thunderman. While they were able to play their characters just as they had in the series, the film exhibits no character development in the three years they’ve been in Metroburg. 

Speaking of the cast and returning characters, the stars of the films, Kira Kosarin and Jack Griffo, were given roles as executive producers of the movie, which was a great decision. It allowed them to give their input on something they loved and worked on for many years.

The sets were amazing and recreated perfectly. From the Thunderman house, to Mrs. Wong’s, played by Helen Wong, Splatburger restaurant, everything was set the same as if the series never ended. 

With the return of the Thundermans, so many characters that we all loved and enjoyed such as Cherry, played by Aubrey Whitby, and Blobbin, played by Harvey Guillén, returned as well. 

One of the biggest problems of the movie was the CGI. Although it is a Nickelodeon film, you would expect the CGI to be better than it was back in 2013, but that was not the case. There were many instances where a scene could have painted itself onto the screen much better if it were to have better CGI. A prime example of this shortcoming is the meteor scene. 

Additionally, as stated previously, there was little to none character development. The only few who did have any were Chloe and Nora, however, it would make sense for Chloe to have some considering she was at least six years old last time we saw her. On the other hand, Nora’s only development was the fact she didn’t wear bows anymore. 

This is a problem especially for Billy’s character. He was always seen as the dumb and comedic relief character and it honestly doesn’t seem fair for him to be that character. Billy was smart and he could have been smart if only the writers let him. 

A good part of the movie was the plot twist. It wasn’t much, but it was still surprising nonetheless. Additionally, the ending that we saw was enough to give us hope that there could possibly be a sequel or at least some other film to this project. 

Despite the poor CGI, which was one of the only negative parts about the movie, it really brought back a lot of good memories. People hate on it too much for the, “poor acting,” or, “corny jokes,” but they forget it’s a Nickelodeon film made for kids. The movie seemed to be made for the older generation who originally grew up with the characters, but it was still able to appeal to younger audiences. All in all, The Thundermans Return felt more like another episode rather than a movie, which wasn’t entirely a bad thing.