Review: French-made children's film 'SamSam' is a superhero story without any oomph

If you’re in that group of parents who think children’s movies shouldn’t be actively harmful to your children’s brains — for the same reason you don’t give a kid a toy car with jagged metal sticking out of it — you will want to give a wide berth to the French animated crapfest called “SamSam.”

On a small planet where everybody has a superpower, little SamSam — whose parents are superheroes — isn’t sure what his superpower is. This makes him unusual at Cosmic Hero School, where every kid practices their superhero.

Enter a new student, Mega, who wants desperately to fit in. She befriends SamSam, using some well-intentioned trickery to fool SamSam into thinking he’s found his superpower. The reason Mega wants to be liked is that her father, King Marchel, is the evil ruler of their neighboring planet, where children are banished — and where Marchel, with his evil-scientist henchman, is developing a monster that will obliterate the sound of children’s laughter.

“SamSam” is adapted from a book by French author and illustrator Serge Bloch, known for his whimsical pen-and-ink drawings. There’s little of that whimsy in the animation style of director Tanguy de Kermel, which looks more like a practice run for a Dr. Seuss knockoff by people who used to work on the “Minions” franchise. 

The screenplay, by Valérie Magis and Jean Regnaud, has some offbeat touches — like when King Marchel’s gloom monster strikes SamSam’s planet, causing all the adults to become gray and depressed. But too much of the plot feels cribbed from “Sky High,” “Monsters, Inc.,” and a dozen better movies, and just remind the viewer of how less-than-super “SamSam” is.

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’SamSam’

★1/2

Opens Friday, July 24, at Megaplex Theaters and the SLFS@Home virtual cinema. Not rated, but probably PG for mild peril and rude humor. Running time: 77 minutes.