--- title: "Son of the Mask" year: 2005 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/son-of-the-mask" fi1m_score: 20 critics_score: 18 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-16T14:54:03.997769+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T14:54:04.436765+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Son of the Mask (2005) Directed by Lawrence Guterman · 1h 34m · MPA PG · Fantasy, Comedy, Family, Adventure **Fi1m score: 20** · Critics 18 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* The baby can change shape, but nobody can find it a decent joke > Lawrence Guterman’s family fantasy gives a shape-shifting baby more attention than its human cast, with dispiriting results. Jamie Kennedy supplies occasional warmth, but the frantic effects and shapeless comedy make these 94 minutes a chore. ## Synopsis Tim Avery (Jamie Kennedy) and Tonya Avery (Traylor Howard) face parenthood with Alvey, played by Liam Falconer and Ryan Falconer. Their baby can change shape, and his dancing and bodily transformations bring cartoon behaviour into family life. Tim has a child to raise, but the infant’s body will not obey ordinary physical rules. The story also follows Loki (Alan Cumming), with tensions between parents and children accompanying the supernatural trouble. Alvey’s antics leave the adults dealing with something beyond the usual demands of looking after a baby. ## Review *Son of the Mask* tries to turn the unruliness of a cartoon into a comedy about parenthood, and scarcely finds a joke worth the trouble. Lawrence Guterman directs a film in which frantic movement becomes the default response to almost every comic problem. There is room for a good family comedy in an adult’s attempts to manage a child who cannot be managed. This one keeps reaching for another effect before the situation can become funny. We would give these 94 minutes to something else. Jamie Kennedy supplies a little sweetness as Tim Avery, enough to suggest that an ordinary, flustered father might have held our attention. His occasional foolishness has a human scale that the surrounding effects lack. Alan Cumming works away at Loki, but visible effort does not make the character entertaining. The roles give both actors little opportunity to establish anything beyond the immediate demands of the next gag. We were repelled by the baby’s shape-changing and dancing, because the digital contortions make an infant look disturbing without finding anything funny for it to do. The idea is recognisably cartoonish, but the movements have little comic force. A drawn body can stretch or collapse and still communicate a clear reaction, provided the movement follows a joke we understand. Here we are repeatedly asked to enjoy the transformation itself, and the repetition makes the baby harder to care about. Greg Gardiner’s cinematography puts live actors alongside the animated infant, with Leslie Dilley’s production design providing their surroundings. Neither contribution makes the baby seem to belong in the same space as the adults. Its digital contortions keep attracting attention, but the images seldom guide that attention towards a readable joke. The glimpses of older cartoons are a relief, because their movements have a comic purpose we can follow. The editors, Debra Neil-Fisher, Malcolm Campbell and John Coniglio, face a similar problem with pace. A film can be hectic and still leave a fraction of a second for us to register what has happened; here one bout of activity merely makes way for another. The score by Randy Edelman cannot rescue jokes with no clear point of arrival. We were bored well before the commotion stopped, because the scenes kept changing what the baby could do without giving us another reason to watch it. Lance Khazei’s screenplay gives the parent-child material more weight than the comedy can support. Tenderness needs some reason for us to like the people involved, and too much of their time is spent responding to effects. The family emphasis is a reasonable choice for this sort of fantasy, and Jamie Kennedy occasionally makes it seem workable. It becomes wearying when the film asks for affection it has done so little to encourage. Family comedy can be rude, strange and alarming without losing its audience, but it needs someone whose confusion we can share. The child here is too much of an effect, and the adults are too thinly written to offer much company. Most critics have been severe, and we agree: there is willing work from the cast, but not enough control of tone or comic timing to justify the noise. For cartoon mischief, we would choose one of the old shorts glimpsed here. *Fi1m score 20, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The consensus on Son of the Mask is uniformly negative: all twelve reviews find the sequel unsuccessful, with little sustained praise for any performance or department. Most critics describe frantic action that produces few laughs, a weak story and characters unable to hold attention. The computer-animated baby attracts particular criticism, with its transformations repeatedly judged unpleasant, tedious or derivative. Several reviews also question an audience strategy that combines childish gross-out humour with adult references and sentimental family material. The differences concern isolated merits rather than the verdict. Screen Daily finds the family elements partially successful, while Slant Magazine allows faint praise for Jamie Kennedy’s occasionally lovable stupidity and clips from older cartoons. The effects divide critics slightly: Variety considers them polished but derivative, whereas several others find them shoddy or ugly. The spread runs from qualified disappointment to outright exasperation, with no favourable dissent. ### Reviews we read (12) - **Screen Daily** (40/100, inferred): The review finds the sequel's approach of adding family elements only partially successful, with unimpressive effects and kiddie-level humor that limits its theatrical appeal. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/son-of-the-mask/4021958.article) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Crust (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the sequel digs an impossibly deep hole by lacking a compelling story or interesting characters. It singles out the tedious, derivative baby sequences and wasted special effects as especially dull despite visual overstimulation. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-feb-18-et-mask18-story.html) - **Time Out**, Nigel Floyd (25/100, inferred): The critic criticizes the late sequel for misjudging its audience, with in-jokes for adults but gross-out and syrupy elements insulting to older viewers, calling it arriving "a decade late. And way too soon." [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/son-of-the-mask) - **Empire**, William Thomas (20/100, inferred): The critic calls the film joyless tedium and a long-overdue sequel that fails to recapture the original's energy. They single out the excessive focus on the cartoon baby and crude jokes for complaint. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/son-mask-review/) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (20/100, inferred): The critic deems this a dismal sequel that fails even by the low standards of follow-ups to bad movies, targeting young children with a frantic, CGI-heavy assault that borders on the experimental. The only elements singled out are the return of the creepy computer-animated dancing baby and the unconvincing efforts of Alan Cumming as Loki. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/son-of-the-mask-1798200486) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (15/100, inferred): The critic finds the film fails basic cartoon logic and consists of nonstop manic behavior without rules or a sane baseline. He singles out the shape-shifting baby sequences as especially unpleasant and unamusing. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/son-of-the-mask-2005) - **Slant Magazine** (0.5/4): The review calls the film a dreadful sequel that squanders any potential premise and is remarkably inept, with a heroically bad script that prioritizes parent-child themes over humor. The only faint praise goes to a few clips from old cartoons and Jamie Kennedy’s occasionally lovable stupidity. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/son-of-the-mask/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (10/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a profoundly unfunny, hyperactive sequel without Jim Carrey that induces a migraine-like headache. It singles out the baby's morphing effects and the pretensions to Tex Avery-style genius as particularly misguided and stupid. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,4267,1409869,00.html) - **The New York Times**, Dana Stevens (10/100, inferred): The review calls the film an irredeemable mess and computer-animated Punch and Judy show without wit or heart. It singles out the ugly computer animation effects and lack of memorable performances for complaint. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/18/movies/computeranimated-mayhem.html) - **The Times**, Wendy Ide (10/100, inferred): The critic deems this a cheap and nasty sequel lacking the wit and style of the original Jim Carrey film. It singles out the shoddy effects and misguided appeal to any age group as making it a criminal waste of screen space. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/son-of-the-mask-d8hv8hsqg7g) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (10/100, inferred): The review deems the film a manic and mindless exercise that is a truly numbing experience. It singles out the polished but derivative special effects and the best 90 seconds belonging to a Warner Bros. cartoon clip. [Read](https://variety.com/2005/film/markets-festivals/son-of-the-mask-1200528055/) - **Eye for Film**, Gator MacReady (10/100, inferred): The critic calls the film an embarrassment that starts promisingly but quickly becomes one of the worst movies ever made, with appalling CGI baby effects and a focus on the infant instead of the mask. They single out the incoherent, childish plot and lack of humor for complaint while noting the potential in the premise and Jamie Kennedy's performance was wasted. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/son-of-the-mask-film-review-by-gator-macready) ## Details - **Director:** Lawrence Guterman - **Director:** Lawrence Guterman - **Screenplay:** Lance Khazei - **Writer:** Lance Khazei - **Cinematography:** Greg Gardiner - **Editor:** Malcolm Campbell, Debra Neil-Fisher, John Coniglio - **Music:** Randy Edelman - **Production design:** Leslie Dilley - **Costume design:** Mary E. Vogt - **Producer:** Erica Huggins, Dae Won Cho, Scott Kroopf - **Cast:** Jamie Kennedy as Tim Avery; Alan Cumming as Loki; Traylor Howard as Tonya Avery; Kal Penn as Jorge; Steven Wright as Daniel Moss; Ben Stein as Dr. Neuman; Peter Callan as Museum Redneck; Liam Falconer as Alvey - **Runtime:** 1h 34m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 18 February 2005 - **Genres:** Fantasy, Comedy, Family, Adventure - **Budget:** $84 million - **Box office:** $60 million ## Where to watch in the US - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AT, AU, CA, CL, CO, DE, FR, GB, IE, IT, MX, NZ, RO, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Mask* (1994): The same magical mischief, with a comic lead who can control it. - *Who Framed Roger Rabbit* (1988), Fi1m 89: Human actors and cartoon bodies share jokes with timing, rules and consequences. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/who-framed-roger-rabbit.md) - *The Witches* (1990): Family fantasy that makes its bodily transformations frightening for a reason. - *A Town Called Panic* (2009): Domestic chaos builds through precise visual jokes, however absurd things become. - *The Mitchells vs. the Machines* (2021): Another family overwhelmed by technology, with enough affection to steady the commotion. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/son-of-the-mask