Sometimes when I take my daughter to a movie, I have to grit my teeth at the end when she talks about how she liked it. I don’t question her taste. I just know how some films don’t quite reach the bar of entertaining both youngsters and adults.

As we left “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days,” the third installment of the franchise, I did not have to lie one bit. I don’t know if I liked it as much as she did, but I really enjoyed the film.

That doesn’t surprise me much because I enjoyed both of the first two “Wimpy Kid” films, even though the second one did not get a ton of critical acclaim. I really appreciate the way the films stay as true as possible to the cartoon nature of Jeff Kinney’s books while not using that tool as a crutch. By not getting too heavy handed and focusing on the awkwardness of growing up, the trilogy provides quality escapism. My daughter also told me that they stayed fairly true to the book, which makes me feel pretty good for some reason.

With Greg and Rowley preparing to enter eighth grade, they really did a good job showing how pursuit of the cute girl in their class can get boys to do pretty silly things. By paralleling his older brother’s similar pursuit, the script truly exposed the timeless nature of some things.

But the best change from the second to the third movie came in how the story focused more on Greg’s relationship with his father, mainly because I’m a sucker for Steve Zahn zaniness. I also don’t enjoy the way the mother, played by Rachael Harris, is oblivious to how her actions bother her son. I know they need to exaggerate that a little, but it makes her pretty unsympathetic. Zahn’s Frank Heffley, on the other hand, really gets how things just aren’t working with him and Greg, leading to the eventual happy ending.

As evidenced by how much Zachary Gordon has grown between films (although most of the other kids haven’t changed as much), I think we may see the end of the films mirroring the progression of the book series. “Dog Days” was the fourth book and the seventh will come out later this year. That timeline only gets the characters to February of their eighth grade year. Wikipedia says that the fifth book is being considered for a movie with the sixth book possibly lined up for an animated holiday special. Kinney says he’s open to anything and understands the difference between keeping the character timeless on the page and dealing with the actors getting older for the films.

Hopefully he and the producers can find a way to walk that line and keep both going because they have managed to entertain through both mediums.