It tells the story of an anxious kid named Greg Heffley who wants nothing more than to be popular among his peers, especially since he is starting middle school, but his constant misfortunes, not helped by his dysfunctional family and goofy best friend Rowley Jefferson, seem to make this ambition a pipe dream.
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The film was followed up by a sequel called Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, released on December 2, 2022.
Provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: Manny seems to join Greg and Rowley on Halloween right up to when they encounter the teen bullies when in the book, Manny was taken home before this happened.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: The movie features George Deveney, a character that appeared first in Double Down, the eleventh book of the series.
- Adaptational Heroism: Mr. Underwood. In the book, Greg only manages to avoid eating the Cheese like Rowley did because he lies and manages to convince the teenagers that he’s allergic to dairy, and the teenagers drive away afterward scot-free. Here, however, Greg is saved by the timely arrival of Mr. Underwood, who not only calls out the teenagers and chases them off but runs after their truck after making sure the boys are okay.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Like in the live-action films, the entire Heffley family seems to get this:
- Greg a bit. While the book jumps straight to the next day after he accidentally breaks Rowley’s wrist, with him feeling little to no sympathy and just trying to cash in on his friend’s pain, the special adds a scene where Greg is confronted by his mother about it and GENUINELY expresses regret for what he did, a desire to be a good kid, and a willingness to accept whatever punishment she’s willing to dole out for it. This causes him to come off as less of a selfish, entitled, little twerp and more of a kid who has a good heart but a bad habit of letting peer pressure and a desire to be somebody cloud his judgment. On Halloween, he also carries Manny home after he gets tired.
- While Rodrick isn't exactly nice, he doesn't actively bully Greg as much as he did in the books or in the first live-action film. He also gives genuinely useful (if taunting and intimidating) advice to Greg on some of the pitfalls to avoid falling into in middle school, such as don't use the second-floor bathroom, as it has no stalls (a lesson Rowley concedes after he learns it the hard way), and don't touch the infamous cheese or you'll get the Cheese Touch.
- Though Manny is still a bratty baby whom Greg considers a nuisance, throwing a meatball on one of his clean shirts and actively takes advantage of his Karma Houdini status as a 3-year-old, he also gives a large candy bar to Greg after the elder brother complains about how the toddler gets disproportionately large amounts of candy that he can't properly eat while they are trick-or-treating and lets Greg and Rowley use him to get more candy, something that neither book Manny nor film Manny would have done.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- The student population and school faculty (save for Mr. Underwood) of Westmore Middle School is a lot more vicious than they were in the books or the live-action movies. In the books, while they could be mean occasionally, they mostly left Greg and Rowley alone unless something either really embarrassing or really cool happened to them. In this movie, they start shoving the main characters around almost as soon as they walk in the doors and seem to take every opportunity to bully them. In particular is their reaction to Greg's "Creighton the Cretin" comic strip that was changed by teachers to "Creighton the Curious Student"; in the book, they just didn't think it was funny, while in this movie, they start booing Greg and throwing food at him in the cafeteria, calling him a nerd and a teacher's pet.
- The teenagers who force Rowley and Greg to eat the cheese are much crueler than in the original book, where Greg falsely states that he is lactose-intolerant and the teenagers let him off. Here, even if Greg lies about being lactose-intolerant, the teenagers don’t let him off and force him to eat the cheese, until Mr. Underwood intervened.
- Adapted Out:
- George Deveney replaces Bryce Anderson as the most popular kid in school.
- Colin, Rowley's replacement friend after he and Greg break out, is absent here. Chirag Gupta takes his place.
- American Gothic Couple: A picture of a couple in Fregley’s house (presumably his relatives) parody this iconic painting.
- Art Shift:
- The opening introduction is done in the style of the illustrations of the book.
- Rodrick's explanations of getting through middle school, as well as his explanation of the tale of the Cheese, is also depicted in a style that is similar (but not identical) to the book illustrations.
- Ascended Extra: The unnamed bully from the first book only occasionally appears in two of Greg's Imagine Spots in the books. Here, he's a recurring, real antagonist who occasionally shows up to harass Greg (and, to a lesser extent, Rowley).
- Bag of Holding: Manny's tiny little trick-or-treat pail is somehow able to hold tons and tons of candy.
- Brain Bleach: When Fregley shows Greg his "secret freckle", Greg says to Rowley that he has been scarred from looking at it.
- Brick Joke: When the teenagers confront Greg and Rowley in the woods they try to ruin their candy by getting it wet via spraying them with a fire extinguisher only for Rowley to block it with the shield on his costume. When they get home, Greg's dad douses them with water from the roof of the house, ruining the candy, just like in the books.
- Call-Forward:
- Posters for Tower of Druids and Net Kritterz (a graphic novel and a video game, respectively, that are relevant to the plot in the sixth book) are seen in Greg's room.
- Greg and Rowley discussing the Goat Man while they're in the woods is taken from the 13th book, The Meltdown, and is also brought up in Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid (which came out even later).
- Compressed Adaptation: The movie is less than an hour long, with a running time of 58 minutes, so a lot of the plot points from the book, like the safety patrol debacle and the school play, have been Adapted Out.
- Cuteness Proximity: On Halloween, the adults think Manny's pirate costume is adorable. Greg and Rowley exploit it by having him go up to their doors and get loads of candy.
- Deadpan Snarker: Susan seems to be one as she sarcastically compliments Rodrick's "advice" to Greg about starting middle school.
- Demoted to Extra: Rodrick only appears at the beginning to give Greg advice about surviving middle school.
- I Got a Rock: The adults in Greg's neighborhood think he's too old to trick-or-treat, so he gets very little candy while Manny gets loads.
- Kids Are Cruel: As with the books, Greg is a manipulative jerk and the student body of the school enforces the cruel and mean Cheese Touch tradition that turns anyone who touches the cheese into a pariah.
- Mythology Gag:
- Greg and Rowley exploiting Manny's Cuteness Proximity to get tons of Halloween candy? In the books, Rodrick did the same thing with Manny to sell chocolate for his school fundraiser, which Greg approved of.
- Fregley has a ventriloquist's dummy in his room, referencing the movie version of Rodrick Rules when he entered the middle school's talent show with one.
- Race Lift: In the live-action movies, Chirag was Indian. In this movie, he appears to be African-American.
- Setting Update: Compared to the original book, which was published in 2007, this movie has more references and technology more casually used since the mid-2010s, such as wireless headphones, smartphones, credit cards, etc. Rodrick wears AirPods instead of headphones, and when the lead bully is talking about making Greg and Rowley "pay", another bully asks him if he means actual money, since not everyone carries cash nowadays.
- Truer to the Text: This version has Greg create Zoo Wee Mama along with Rowley just like in the book, while the live action film had Rowley fully come up with it, the Wizard of Oz play is mentioned to take place in winter like in the book, unlike the live-action film which had the play take place in spring, Abe Hall is the one to take the cheese touch with him unlike the live action film where it was instead a German exchange student named Dieter Muller, and it had much more involvement from Jeff Kinney, the author of the original books.
