The summer’s best family film isn’t from a big-box studio. Nor does it have an over-inflated budget or a trending TikTok star. And it doesn’t try to pump audiences up with high-energy pop tunes, just in case attention spans wander.
Instead what director/screenwriter Seth Worley’s enormously entertaining debut “Sketch” brings to the table are key ingredients for making a great film: an original, inventive plot, a cast of talented actors — veterans and up and comers — and numerous knock-you-out-of-your-seat special effects and action set pieces.
Each factor helps make “Sketch” one of the most unexpected surprises of 2025. The fact that the Angel Studios release also addresses grief — and how to overcome it by channeling emotions in a cathartic, creative manner — elevates it above what we so often find in punch-the-numbers family fare.
Emmy-winning actor Tony Hale (“Veep,” “Inside Out 2”) stars as caring and sad single dad Taylor Wyatt; and once again proves he is adept at both comedy and drama, giving a non-showy but quite effective performance that rushes in and unexpectedly breaks your heart. His Taylor is in a tough predicament no one wants to get stuck in, struggling with his own grief over the death of his wife while trying to help his two children, Amber (Bianca Belle) and Jack (Kue Lawrence), cope with often out-of-control feelings.
The more interior Amber cuts herself off from others and finds an outlet by funneling all her hurt and rage into crayon and chalk drawings. What spews forth sometimes raises a red flag, especially one creation featuring an annoying friend (Kalon Cox). All her raging monsters are sprung loose after her sketchbook falls into a magical pond. Her monsters create mayhem wherever they go along with tense showdowns with humans, including a too-close encounter between a gigantic googly-eyed, glitter-spewing purple monster thingie and a packed school bus (one of the film’s many imaginative and suspenseful sequences). It’s a high point, but do expect to also be captivated by the invasion of “Arachnophobia-like” buggy critters that bedevil the Wyatt’s home.
Worley’s background in FX (check out the VFX and Chill YouTube channel he’s a part of) influences “Sketch” in a most significant way and his vision comes to life thanks to the tutelage of a top-of-the-line special effects team. They’ve created unique monsters big and small to roam the world like the dinos from “Jurassic Park.” Worley has called his film a mashup of “Jurassic Park” and “Inside Out 2,” and that’s an apt description.
His trio of young actors are equally adept at chasing and fending off monsters while tapping into genuine emotions, and his screenplay helps by giving them dialogue that never feels like some older guy wrote it. While Danville native D’Arcy Carden’s role as Taylor’s sister Liz, a Realtor who has a heck of a time showing her brother’s house, is indeed small, she imbues it, per her high standards, with a lot of heart and impeccable comedic timing.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.
‘SKETCH’
3½ stars out of 4
Rating: PG (some scary action and violence)
Starring: Tony Hale, Bianca Belle, Kue Lawrence, D’arcy Carden
Writer/director: Seth Worley
Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes
When & where: Opens in theaters Aug. 6
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