Review - Holes (2003)

           Hey guys, Chuck here. Does anyone else remember this movie? It's been nearly twenty years since Disney released this one in theaters, and it almost seems like a forgotten gem from the studio. So, let's dive into Disney's 2003 film Holes, based on the 1998 children's novel by Louis Sachar. 

          The movie tells the story of Stanley Yelnats IV, whose family has had a string of bad luck throughout the generations, with Stanley's grandfather constantly blaming the family's bad luck on Stanley's Latvian great-great grandfather Elya Yelnats. One day, while walking home from school, gets hit on the head by a pair of shoes that fall from the sky, and is arrested for stealing the shoes, as the shoes belonged to Stanley's favorite baseball player Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston, who donated the shoes to a homeless shelter. Stanley, despite telling the truth in court, is given a choice between going to jail or spending eighteen months at Camp Green Lake, a desert camp where troubled youth build character. 

         At the camp, which is in the middle of the desert, Stanley meets Mr. Sir, who informs him that every day, he'll be digging a five-foot deep hole in the desert. Mr. Sir also informs Stanley of some local wildlife, including scorpions, rattlesnakes, and the fictitious Yellow-Spotted Lizards, one bite from which leads to a slow, agonizing death. Stanley then meets his camp counselor Dr. Pendanski, who informs Stanley that he'll be staying in D-Tent, and introduces him to the other boys in D-Tent: Rex aka X-ray, Alan aka Squid, Theodore aka Armpit, Jose aka Magnet, Rickey aka Zig-Zag, and a boy named Zero. 

          As Stanley's time at Camp Green Lake goes on, we see that his great-great grandfather, Elya, went to a local fortune teller named Madame Zeroni one day, who initially advises him to leave Latvia behind and go to America, where he'll find a better future than with Myra Menke, a local farmer's daughter with whom Elya is infatuated. However, another farmer, Igor Barkoff, offered Myra's father Morris Menke a fat pig for Myra's hand in marriage. Madame Zeroni gives Elya a piglet, and tells him to take the piglet up the local mountain to drink from the mountain stream while singing the Pig Lullaby to the pig. Madame Zeroni also instructs Elya to, after giving the pig to Morris, to carry the fortune teller herself up the mountain and sing while she drank from the stream, warning him that he and his family would be cursed for eternity if he forgets to return. So, after it's revealed that both pigs are the same weight, Myra can't decide between Elya or Igor, with Elya telling her to marry Igor. Elya then leaves for America, but forgot to return to Madame Zeroni, ensuring the Yelnats family curse.

         While at Camp Green Lake, Stanley finds two items while digging holes. The first is a fossil of two fish, and the other is a golden tube, which he gives to X-ray to use as a means of getting the next day off. The fossil reveals that there was once a lake where the camp is now located, as well as a town called Green Lake, Texas. In this town lived onion seller Sam, local business magnate Trout Walker, and school teacher Katherine Barlow, who is known for her famous spiced peaches. One day, Sam offers to use his skills as a handyman to fix the leaky roof of the school house, as well as the window and door, to which Katherine agrees. Sam and Katherine begin to grow closer, despite the law forbidding such romance at the time due to their ethnicities, and also enrages Trout who fancies Katherine, who has no interest in him. 

         One night, the township of Green Lake burns down the school house, and kills Sam as he rows on his boat on the lake. The next morning, Katherine kills the local sheriff, kisses him, and goes on a crime spree as notorious outlaw "Kissin' Kate" Barlow. She then robs a stagecoach with Stanley's great grandfather, Stanley Yelnats Sr, as a passenger, leaving him in the desert, where he finds refuge on a rock formation called God's Thumb. Kate later buries the treasure somewhere in the desert remains of Green Lake, and allows herself to be bitten to death by a Yellow-Spotted Lizard, telling Trout Walker, who caught up with her after many years, to start digging up the desert landscape to find the treasure. 

       Back in the present, Stanley, who has gained the nickname Caveman, meets the Warden of Camp Green Lake, Louise Walker, granddaughter of Trout Walker, and learns that Zero's real name is Hector Zeroni, making him a descendant of Madame Zeroni. After a series of escapades, including Mr. Sir getting scratched up by the Warden for wasting her time over a stolen bag of sunflower seeds, Stanley teaching Hector how to read, and a fight between Stanley, Hector, and Zig-Zag, Hector runs off into the desert, and the Warden, Mr. Sir, and Pendanski decide to wipe Hector's records from their system. Soon after, a new kid named Twitch, who got sent to camp for joyriding joins D-Tent, and convinces Stanley to hijack the water truck while Mr. Sir is busy. Stanley drives the truck right into a hole, and runs off, eventually finding Hector under an overturned boat, carrying jars of spiced peaches that Hector calls Sploosh. Stanley and Hector then head towards a rock formation that looks like a thumb: the formation that his great grandfather called God's Thumb. 

         Hiking up the formation, Hector passes out from heat exhaustion, and Stanley carries him the rest of the way on his back. Eventually, the two find water an a field of onions, and the two relax, drinking water and eating onions, while Stanley sings the Pig Lullaby. Back at home, Stanley's father finds the cure for foot odor: peaches and onions. Back in the desert with Stanley and Hector, the two then decide to head back to camp, digging up the hole that Stanley found the golden tube in, ultimately finding the treasure chest: the chest that the Warden had the boys digging up the desert to find. The next morning, Stanley's lawyer, who was turned away days before for arriving without a court order, shows up with a few members of Texas law enforcement, and it's revealed that the treasure chest belongs to Stanley, and it has his name on it. This was the treasure that "Kissin' Kate" Barlow stole from Stanley Yelnats Sr. years before. The law enforcement officers take control of the camp, Mr. Sir, whose name is Marion Sevillo, is arrested for parole violation, and Stanley and Hector are taken home from the camp with the treasure. Stanley's family agrees to split half of what's in the chest with Hector, which includes a lot of gold, as well as savings bonds that are worth millions. Hector uses the money to hire private investigators to find his missing mother. 

          The two families move in next door to each other in new lavish houses, and Stanley's father launches his new foot spray product, named Sploosh, after the spiced peaches that Hector and Stanley ate back in the desert. Camp Green Lake is closed, with the boys in the camp being released and sent to actual counselors, with the boys of D-Tent enjoying a barbecue at the Yelnats' house, watching the first commercial for Sploosh featuring Clyde Livingston and his wife, ending the movie.

         As a movie, Holes is pretty entertaining. The main actors who portrayed the D-Tent boys, including Shia Labeouf as Stanley, Khleo Thomas as Hector, Brenden Jefferson as X-ray, Byron Cotton as Armpit, and so forth were all great. Some of the adult cast, including Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Tim Blake Nelson, Patricia Arquette, Dule Hill, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, and Henry Winkler, were also great. 

         Now, the timeline jumps throughout the movie are accurate to the book, but there are some changes. For example, in the book, Stanley was overweight, and shed a lot of his weight while at the camp. In the movie, however, Stanley is not overweight at all. However, that's a minor change, and doesn't affect the movie very much. One thing I enjoyed about this movie, aside from the fact that Stanley's father is literally played by the Fonz, is the music. A number of songs, like "Keeping it Real" by Shaggy, were a lot of fun to listen to throughout the movie. The big breakout song of the movie was "Dig It," performed by the actors playing the D-Tent boys. This song was everywhere at the time, with it getting tons of airplay on Radio Disney at the time.  

        I also really liked the interactions between the D-Tent boys in the movie. While there isn't an overabundance of profanity in the movie (it is a Disney film after all), the boys do act the way teenage boys typically act in reality. One creative choice that was made was in bringing the Yellow-Spotted Lizards to life. Aside from CGI, the filmmakers painted eleven yellow spots on the backs of bearded dragons, which I thought was a neat means of giving actors actual lizards to interact with on set.

       Overall, this rarely discussed Disney gem deserves a bit more love. It's definitely worth a watch, and it's currently streaming on Disney+. I give Holes a rating of 5/5. This is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time. And yes, I still plan to review South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut this Friday.