I don’t know why but “Under Wraps” is one of those DCOM’s that slipped right by me as a kid. I loved the DCOM’s when I was a kid and I still watch them to this day if they interest me. Despite having seen most of them, “Under Wraps” never crossed paths with me. That’s a shame since Greg Beeman’s film is pretty much peak Disney Channel TV movie entertainment. There are cameos from Disney channel stars, a reliable child cast, and a lovable monster. There’s also the Halloween back drop that completes the full circle turning the movie in to a mini-Halloween classic.
A local museum curator and grump, Mr. Kubat (Ed Lauter), dies and three twelve year old children Marshall, Gilbert and Amy decide to see what weird stuff the old guy had in his basement. They find more than they bargained for when there’s a mummy named Harold lurking in his sarcophagus. As he ventures out from his confines, he befriends the trio, all of whom race to return to him to his resting place by midnight on Halloween or he will never find his long lost love.
“Under Wraps” is one of the very first DCOM to hit the small screen and it’s considered something of a lost classic that doesn’t get nearly enough attention. And it’s shocking considering it’s slightly edgier than a lot of the other Disney original Halloween-centric movies that would follow. It’s not many kids movies that begin on a fake out of a low-fi horror movie insinuating a gruesome death. The collective cast of Mario Yedida, Adam Wylie, and Clara Bryant are very good, working well together and against Fagerbakke.
Bill Fagerbakke (a few years before “Spongebob Squarepants”) pulls double duty as the film’s lovable mummy Harold and potential step dad to Marshall, named Ted. Fagerbakke looks pretty neat in his make up and suit, allowing him to be creepy, but also kind of lovable in a Frankenstein’s monster kind of way. Fagerbakke is the film’s real star (nyuk nyuk!), working wonderfully through his heavy make up and ghoulish visage, and he allows for a sympathetic movie monster through the very end. I’m still partial to “Halloweentown,” but “Under Wraps” is a fun and unique concept that celebrates the horror lover in all of us.