'Judy Moody' has the benefit of Exceptional Minds

Adapted from the bestselling children's novels by Megan McDonald, the new film "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer" sees its precocious young heroine conquer the threat of a dull season out of school with the help of her fun-loving aunt and her mischievous little brother.

But the movie, which opened in theaters Friday, also represents the first big job for the Sherman Oaks-based nonprofit Exceptional Minds. The organization that completed the end title sequence for "Judy Moody" comprises a group of autistic young adults who are gifted in animation, graphic design, visual effects and editing.

"The premise of what we're trying to do is take the exceptionality and strengths of the kids and then put them in an environment where we can actually have them work and become a productive part of society," said Amit Bernstein, Exceptional Minds' founder, director and board president.

Bernstein — who couldn't read until he was in fifth grade due to dyslexia — was working as a special education teacher when he founded the Media Enrichment Academy, a multimedia program for children with disabilities, in 2007. Many of the autistic students displayed remarkable talent, which inspired him to create Exceptional Minds.

Finding meaningful work for autistic individuals is often difficult. According to the Exceptional Minds website, 10% of autistic adults have an occupation, 4% live independently and 95% report having no friendships. At the same time, autistic individuals can possess unique skills.

Lloyd Hackl, the autistic son of "Judy Moody" post-production supervisor Robert Hackl, needed only three weeks to learn how to operate Adobe Illustrator, a software program for composing and editing sophisticated graphics. The 19-year-old served as chief layout artist for the end titles on "Judy Moody."

"Ever since I was little, I've loved movie credits and have memorized the end titles of all my favorites," he said. "Getting to type my own name into the crawl and then seeing it on the big screen is just so awesome. This was a great experience — one that I hope will help me reach my dream of being a graphic designer."

Hackl worked closely with Exceptional Minds instructor Isabel Maramba throughout the process.

"I'm very proud of our contribution," she said. "Professionally, this was a tremendous achievement for Exceptional Minds. We were able to develop some very marketable skills and demonstrate how young artists with serious social disabilities can have a meaningful place in Hollywood."

"Judy Moody" production house Smokewood Entertainment plans to continue using Exceptional Minds for all of its upcoming projects.

"It's a collective group of young individuals with exceptional minds that are able to do something pretty extraordinary and deliver us a real service as a vendor," said executive producer Bobbi Sue Luther. "It's a win-win."

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer Movie Review

The start of the summer has always marked the beginning of countless adventures for children across America. The new Relativity Media family comedy movie ‘Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer,’ which was released just in time for the start of many kids’ vacations, aims to show what thrills and excitement they can unfold. However, the movie, which stars Australian newcomer Jordana Beatty in the title role, unfortunately doesn’t live up to its full potential and expectations, which were created by the successful book series it’s based on.

‘Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer’ follows the title character, a Virginia girl who just finished third grade, who’s determined to make this summer the best one yet. She creates a thrill chart so that her and her friends can compete to get the most thrill points; to get points, they must complete the scariest things they can imagine. However, Judy’s plan immediately goes awry when she finds out her best friend Rocky (played by Garrett Ryan) is going to circus camp, and their other best friend, Amy (portrayed by Taylar Hendler), is traveling to Borneo with her mother. Judy becomes even more upset when her parents tell her that they’ll be traveling to California and she’ll be stuck home with her brother Stink (played by Parris Mosteller) and their Aunt Opal (portrayed by Heather Graham), who she doesn’t remember. But Judy is still determined to earn thrill points, despite her other best friend, Frank (played by Preston Bailey), who stayed home with her, seeming less than excited to complete their challenges.

Despite the fact that ‘Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer’ is based on the nine books in the Judy Moody book series, penned by the movie’s co-writer Megan McDonald, the film unfortunately fails to deliver a developed plot-line solid conflicts. McDonald deserves credit for striving to branch out into a new area of writing, but Judy is underdeveloped, especially given the large amount of source material she’s based on. While Judy puts in her best efforts to find exciting things to do, such as ride a roller coaster or learn how to surf, and she becomes annoyed that both Rocky and Amy left her for the summer, Judy doesn’t overcome any major personal or external conflicts.

Even though many of the thrills Judy, Frank, Rocky and Amy embark on throughout the movie are unrelated and fail to uphold a cohesive plot-line, director John Schultz made a good choice in hiring Beatty to play the adventurous main character. Producer Sarah Siegel-Magness has rightfully said that because the books are “both character-driven and extremely visual, we felt it was important to find kids who looked exactly like the book characters.” After she asked McDonald what her image of Judy was, the writer found Beatty on-line, and pushed to have her cast, even without meeting her. McDonald’s faith in Beatty paid off, as she not only looked like the character as illustrated by Peter Reynolds in the books, but she also perfectly carried every scene.

Beatty was convincingly able to portray Judy as being upset and neglected that she was being left behind by her friends and her parents for the summer, something many kids feel when they are left alone. Kids will also be able to relate to Judy when she wanted to lock herself in her room until September because her thrills weren’t going as well as she hoped. But Beatty proved that bad situations can always be turned around; the actress said that her character, like herself, “is a fun-loving person who always has a plan (But) most of the time, her plans don’t go the way she wants them to, but afterward she realizes she’s had a good time anyway.”

Children, particularly those who have read the Judy Moody books, will certainly like and appreciate the humor and characters in ‘Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer’ the most. As McDonald has said, the children are the ones who discovered the book series, as their teachers never heard of them until their students started reading them. McDonald truly cared about catering to her core audience when she wrote the script, which is rare in Hollywood, where many people solely care about reaching as many people as possible to make more money.

'Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer' adds to the winter of our discontent

There isn't much to say about "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer."

It is, like so many other children's book-to-film adaptations, exactly what it appears to be -- another excuse to show kids doing disgusting things, getting in trouble and whining all in the hopes of eliciting laughter.

Unfortunately, "Judy Moody" is light on comedy and heavy on disgusting antics. When third-grader Judy (Jordana Beatty), gets puked on while riding a roller coaster, or is about to take a bite out of a poop smeared sandwich, I wanted to walk out of the theater, not laugh.

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