REVIEW: ‘Once Upon a Deadpool’ delivers for families of fans

“Once Upon a Deadpool” is a revised PG-13 rated frame narrative of the title character acclaimed “family film” “Deadpool 2.” This special cinematic event seeks to celebrate the Deadpool franchise among a younger audience and their elder Deadpool fans.

The 12-day event will run from Dec. 12-24, with FOX pledging $1 from each ticket sale to benefit “F*ck Cancer,” which has temporarily changed its name to “Fudge Cancer” in alignment with the censored family-friendly nature of the “Once Upon a Deadpool” remake. The organization maintains efforts assisting in cancer prevention, early detection, support for patients and survivors.

While the concept may turn off fans of the original, it is an intriguing offering which beckons fans toward the theater to find out what a Deadpool film looks like without the usual R rating. In many ways, this release comes as a surprise solely based on the anticipations and hopes of fans for an R-rating on the inaugural Deadpool film, which at one point was rumored to attempt a PG-13 rating to the dismay of many fans online.

If you’ve already seen “Deadpool 2,” this is likely to be a mostly disappointing reframing of the original movie with some short interjections from the Deadpool and Fred Savage frame narrative, which is absolutely hilarious and worth seeing, especially for those who have already seen the film.

Overall, if audiences are looking for a slightly more family-oriented interpretation of the “Merc with a mouth” to share with their younger family members, this very well could be it. While many aspects of the film surprisingly passed for PG-13, it’s mostly just an edited version of the original cut with lots of bleeps and blurs to slightly preserve the titular character’s naughtiness, just in time for the home-stretch of this holiday season.

Scenes involving sexual references have been properly removed from this version, although Deadpool refers comedically to these references missing in the rework himself. “Once Upon a Deadpool” also cuts most of the blood, gore and action which make the fight scenes all the more appealing for audiences of the “Maximum Effort” mercenary, most notably the climactic battle against time (and a group of pedophiles) to save Russell’s soul.

“Once Upon a Deadpool” is a strong reminder of why fans and filmmakers alike fought hard for the original “Deadpool” film to receive an R-rating. The character is raunchy, raucous, and rude. Even with bleeps, blurs, and bad editing to accompany the already hokey “family film” story-arc, Deadpool is a crude and outrageous anti-hero who deserves to express himself as he truly is.

Unfortunately, for someone who is a huge fan of the original film and its sequel, this version leaves a lot to be desired. Although the movie is not bad, it is certainly missing elements which even the younger audiences will be able to infer are missing from this particular installment, and will likely leave them wanting the real thing too.