Ramona and Beezus's core problem is it doesn't know what story it wants to tell. It's everywhere! The main focus of the books were always Ramona's struggles growing up, something the film does a fairly good job at communicating. At the same time, it tries to pack everything it can into the story, leading to loads of stray plot points and a faulty narrative structure.
Ramona Quimby (Joey King) is the very definition of what a little kid should be. She's creative, has a wild imagination and is curious about everything. It's enough to annoy her older sister, Beezus (Selena Gomez), and gets her into trouble while trying to navigate the daily struggles of elementary school.
Ramona's world is thrown into a complete panic when financial issues begin to impede on the Quimby household. Like any kid, Ramona decides to do everything she can to help the family out. This is also where the movie begins to lose steam. Rather than focus on one or two Ramona stories, the film instead cherry picks elements from nearly every book on the shelf. As a result, the main story gets tossed around, eventually losing the core idea to what amounts to a series of madcap adventures through Ramona's literary history. At times, it feels as though the writers knew they had one shot at a Ramona movie and decided to toss in everything.
The one constant throughout the entire film is Joey King. She's a spot-on interpretation of how I always pictured Ramona. She's not a troublemaker, just a kid with a big imagination and bigger ideas. Her flights of fancy are some of the best parts of the entire film. Selena Gomez also deserves credit for her role as Beezus. Ramona's the real focus here, but she manages to stand out.
The young star is the focus of one of the Blu-ray's feature extras, "A Day in the Life of Joey King." The feature shows a lot of what sets are like for younger actors and shows a surprisingly informative look at how films are made. The process is further explored in "Show & Tell Film School," where director Elizabeth Andrews breaks down everything it takes to make a movie for younger viewers. Though targeted towards a younger audience, the feature never seems to talk down to viewers and is loaded with information.
My favorite feature of the bunch is "My Ramona with Beverly Cleary," which focuses on the author and her literary history with the Ramona Quimby books. Beverly Cleary was a big part of my childhood, so I obviously would have liked a longer feature, but I'll take whatever I can get.
The Blu-ray transfer is great, though this isn't a movie you'd want to pick up based solely on visual quality. It looks just as good on DVD. The sole exception would probably be when Ramona's imagination springs to life. The big perk for buying the Blu-ray version is the inclusion of both the DVD and Digital versions, ensuring a version of the film for nearly every electronic video-capable device you may own.
Were it not for the jam-packed, listless plot, Ramona and Beezus would be a much better movie than it is. It's still enjoyable, though I have a feeling it'll appeal more towards parents who grew up with Ramona, but is fun enough to appeal to younger viewers who've yet to share in Ramona's adventures.
