Disney has taken Kate DiCamillo’s 2013 Newbery Award-winning book “Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures” and made it into a second-rate movie (shortened to “Flora & Ulysses”) that will only appeal to kids who have pretty low standards. There’s a cute little girl (Matilda Lawler), a fuzzy squirrel (created from choppy CGI), and a story that throws in a handful of positive life lessons, but the slapdash action scenes, dumb pratfalls, and dull storytelling combine to form a family film with an unredeemable lack of magic.

Flora (Lawler) is an avid comic book fan and cynic, who is having... read the rest.