Beloved classic children’s books can also be adapted into delightful family friendly movies. The gold standard is the 2014 film Paddington and its follow up 2017’s Paddington 2 based on the Paddington Bear series. 2022’s Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile aspires to copy this formula. While most critics agree Lyle falls short of the gold, it does take home the silver providing an enjoyable movie watching experience.
“It’s not quite up to the “Paddington” level of movie adaptations of classic children’s books. But it is a warm-hearted family film with great musical numbers that will make another generation of kids hopefully search the attic on the chance that they might find a singing crocodile,” wrote Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com.
This leads audiences to ponder if there will be a sequel. It’s a natural follow-up question after all. Sequels are an interesting beast. Sometimes they just are not necessary and come off as a simple cash grab for movie studios wanting to monopolize on an established intellectual property. It’s cheap and easy. In other cases, sequels can be a wonderful continuation of the story, sometimes even surpassing the original. Before we get into if we can expect to see more of Lyle. Let’s take a look at the creatives, cast, and plot of the first film to determine if it’s even possible.
The creative team
The film Lyle, Lyle Crocodile is based on the children’s books Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and The House on East 88th Street by Bernard Waber. There are seven other books in the series which have not yet been made into films. It was directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon with a screenplay by William Davies. The musical film features original songs by the award-winning duo Justin Paul and Benj Pasek. Pasek and Paul assembled an incredible songwriting team to help them, which included Ari Afsar, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Mark Sonnenblick, and Joriah Kwamé. It helped to have an amazing cast to write for.
The cast
Pasek, Paul and the whole team were very excited when singer Shawn Mendes got cast as the voice of Lyle. They knew they could do so much with his voice. “When the voice actor became Shawn Mendes, that really informed a lot of the style and what we were going to write for,” explains Pasek. “The aim was to create something with his voice.”
The cast also include Academy Award winning actor Javier Bardem as Hector P. Valenti. Hector owns the house on East 88th Street and has raised Lyle since he was a young croc. As always, Bardem shines in this role.
Rounding out the cast are Constance Wu as Mrs. Primm, Winslow Fegley as Josh Primm, and Scoot McNairy as Mr. Primm. The Primms move into the house and discover Lyle. Josh has to convince his parents that Lyle isn’t so bad, and Brett Gelman plays Alistair Grumps, the mean neighbor to the Primms.
The plot
The film’s plot centers around a new family moving into the house on East 88th Street. Hector had to move out because he used his home as collateral so his singing crocodile named Lyle could perform, but Lyle got stage fright so Hector lost the home. Lyle cannot talk, but only sing, which is an issue when one has stage fright. The Primms move in and the son Josh discovers Lyle. Lyle and the Primms quickly develop a deep friendship. Hector moves back into the home and all seems well, but a mean neighbor named Grumps starts to notice the noise. He turns in Lyle to the authorities. Lyle cannot sing his way out of this and explain he’s not dangerous because of his stage fright. All ends well, though, because a judge ultimately releases Lyle from the zoo. Hector makes a new friend named Malfoy, who just so happens to be a beatboxing rattlesnake.
Sequel?
There are several reasons a sequel is very plausible. Commercially, the movie did well, grossing $104 million worldwide so far on a budget of $50 million. The film also received generally positive reviews. The source material also has an additional seven books to mine from. The plot of the film also lends itself for more. At the end of the film, audiences meet another musical animal. Think of the duets a beatboxing rattlesnake and crocodile could do. All, of course, written by Pasek and Paul. While no official announcement has been made, it appears there is more of Lyle to come.