This movie is the ultimate time capsule of 2007. We are talking about the peak of the "tough guy doing a pirouette" comedy subgenre. If you are browsing our list of the 10 Best Dwayne Johnson Family Movies Ranked by Age, you will see this sits right in the middle of his transition from a wrestling icon to a global movie star. He is carrying the entire production on his back here. It is a performance that relies entirely on his ability to look slightly confused while holding a small dog or wearing a tutu. It is charming, sure, but it is also a reminder of a very specific era of Disney filmmaking that prioritized broad gags over nuanced storytelling.
The Madison Pettis factor
The real engine of the movie isn't the football or the championship stakes. It is the chemistry between Johnson and Madison Pettis. Before she became a Gen Z powerhouse, she was the prototype for the precocious Disney kid who exists solely to humble a grown man. She hits the marks perfectly. The friction for an adult viewer comes from the sheer predictability of the script. You know exactly when the selfish bachelor phase ends and the devoted dad phase begins. For a six-year-old, that predictability is a comfort. They aren't looking for a subversion of the genre. They want to see the big guy fall down and the kid win.
A dated brand of humor
The 28% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes might seem harsh, but it reflects how tired these tropes felt even two decades ago. The jokes about Joe Kingman’s ego and his obsession with his own brand were meant to be satirical in 2007. In the current era of social media influencers, those moments just feel like a Tuesday afternoon on Instagram.
The "tough guy doing girl stuff" trope also feels a bit dusty. We have moved past the idea that a professional athlete doing ballet is inherently hilarious. If your kid is used to the more modern, earnest humor of recent animated hits, they might find the punchlines here a bit thin. However, the father-daughter bonding moments still have a genuine warmth that keeps the movie from being a total slog.
When to press play
This is a "Saturday afternoon while folding laundry" movie. It requires zero mental heavy lifting. If your kid liked the fish-out-of-water energy of Moana but wants something set in the real world, this is a safe bet. It is also a decent pick if you have a child who is just starting to get into sports and wants to see a movie that treats the game with some level of reverence, even if the plot is pure fluff. Just don't expect it to spark a deep cinematic discussion. It is a movie that knows its job is to entertain a second-grader for a couple of hours, and it does that job with a very bright, very white-toothed smile.
