Welcome to Thanks, I Love It, our series highlighting something onscreen we’re obsessed with this week.
Bob’s Burgers has always known that the devil is in the details. From the changing storefront names in the opening credits to the restaurant’s punny burgers of the day, the show constantly rewards fans for taking a closer look.
That attention to detail follows Bob’s Burgers everywhere it goes, even as it makes the jump from TV to the big screen. With the release of The Bob’s Burgers Movie coming soon, eagle-eyed fans have noticed that Bob’s Burgers has been cleverly foreshadowing one of the movie’s plot points — something that Kristen Schaal, the voice of Louise Belcher, has also hinted at on Twitter.
The trailer for The Bob’s Burgers Movie reveals that a sinkhole opens in front of the restaurant, causing trouble for the Belcher family. However, this sinkhole won’t be an out-of-the-blue development. As several users of the Bob’s Burgers subreddit have pointed out, the sidewalk in front of Bob’s Burgers has been deteriorating throughout the show’s currently airing twelfth season, and even a bit through Season 11. Basically, the movie’s sinkhole has been forming under our noses this whole time!
However, the Bob’s Burgers team didn’t just put a crack in the sidewalk and call it a day. They’ve also changed how characters interact with that portion of the sidewalk. Instead of just walking smoothly over the pavement, background characters trip and stumble, sometimes even glancing down at the crack to draw attention to it. These are subtle moments, but for Bob’s Burgers viewers, who are so used to checking out the background for any extra jokes, these quick stumbles speak volumes.
Trouble’s brewing on Ocean Avenue.
Credit: Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
In a Zoom interview with Mashable, Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard spoke about the crack hinting to a cave in.
“Once you knew [when the movie was coming out], you could start looking at the episodes on a schedule and say, ‘Okay, these are the episodes that are going to come up before the movie.,'” Bouchard explained, “What can we drop in that will speak to this timeline for the fans, and what kind of breadcrumbs might we want to see?'”
The Bob’s Burgers Movie releases May 27, just days after the Bob’s Burgers Season 12 finale. So, fans of Bob’s Burgers can jump straight from the Season 12 into the movie and enjoy a sense of continuity, even through something as seemingly small as a sidewalk crack. Bouchard said, “If you’ve seen the last several seasons, we wanted to make sure that any information we had in the series linked up nicely with the movie.”
“The things that the fans like to find are the things we like to put in.”
Yet Bouchard believes you do not need to have seen any of Bob’s Burgers in order to enjoy The Bob’s Burgers Movie, as it definitely functions as a standalone film. Still, there’s something lovely about the inclusion of the sidewalk detail in the TV show — and about viewers’ theorizations about how it links to the movie. It’s proof of Bob’s Burgers‘s committed fanbase, and the creative team’s excitement to engage with them.
“The things that the fans like to find are the things we like to put in,” said Bouchard. “We have a good relationship in that way.”
The Bob’s Burgers Movie hits theaters May 27; Bob’s Burgers is now streaming on Hulu.
