Dennis the Menace (1993) poster
1993 · family · comedy

Dennis the Menace

Directed by Nick Castle1h 36m1993
ElsewhereIMDb5.769kRT28%Metacritic49
  • cosy
  • brisk
  • gentle
  • redemptive
  • tender
  • funny
Movie DNA

Cosy, kinetic, gentle family / comedy, grounded in texture. Redemptive, mid-stakes, tender, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Mr. Wilson's ever-present annoyance comes in the form of one mischievous kid named Dennis. But he'll need Dennis's tricks to uncover a collection of gold coins that go missing when a shady drifter named Switchblade Sam comes to town.

Our read · Dennis the Menace (1993) reads as a cosy, kinetic, grounded family · comedy entry — gentle in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, tender in temperature, redemptive in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Dennis the Menace

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want slapstick kid chaos and grumpy-neighbor comedy with zero edge.

ends warmyou’ll feel glowing aftergrabs you earlygrips from the openattention 2/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightNonstop prank energy, cartoon violence, or 90s family formula grates on you.

If Dennis the Menace is your film
Home Alone (1990)
Kid-driven slapstick chaos overwhelming exasperated adults
(Holiday setting is mandatory tonight)
The Sandlot (1993)
Neighborhood kid mischief with nostalgic warmth
(You want louder pranks)
Problem Child (1990)
Mischief kid testing every adult's last nerve
(Meaner brat humor repels you)
DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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