Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard wants to make it very very clear that he is not, in any way, shape, or form, glad for the COVID-19 pandemic.
But one small silver lining he took from the unexpectedly years-long delays to The Bob’s Burgers Movie — originally slated for release in 2020 before eventually coming out Memorial Day Weekend in 2022 — was that it gave the creative team time to spend the time they needed to make it “the best movie we could make,” Bouchard told Consequence over Zoom.
And to their credit, The Bob’s Burgers Movie is the most Bob’s Burgers thing you could imagine, a feature-length extension of the long-running animated sitcom about a working-class family stumbling to make ends meet in their little burger joint in a sleepy seaside town. All the ingredients of a good Belcher adventure are there, from the fast-paced jokes to the corny burger puns.
But the slice of American cheese on top is the show’s use of music, with Bouchard, co-writer Nora Smith, and a host of others having crafted a robust songbook of quirky, offbeat songs that are charming in their simplicity and deceptively catchy hooks. (They’re also, naturally, incredibly funny.) Of course, the tradition continues in the film, with a select roster of big musical numbers that fit the show’s distinctly approachable brief.
In the below interview, edited for clarity and length, Bouchard opens up about the show’s uniquely wholesome fanbase, explains the key to a good Bob’s Burgers song, and breaks down each major number in the movie. Oh, and we get to find out what spawned Gene’s weird napkin-rubber-band-fork instrument — the one that will “revolutionize American pop music.”
The Bob’s Burgers Movie has had a very, very long road to release, 12 years into the show’s run and enduring delays due to COVID. How does it feel for you now that it’s out in the world?
I’m so glad to live in a time of social media, because I not only get to read the reviews, but also hear from fans directly. That’s a really nice place to be, you know? To be able to pick up my phone and have dozens and dozens of fans giving me their reaction from the theater, or even as they walk in. It’s the moment we imagined all these years while we were doing this, and here we are.
I’ve also been doing this long enough that I know what it’s like to do animation in a time before the Internet, and it’s quiet.
