Release Date:
12/25/2004
If you had a gaggle of children and were willing to acknowledge them, Fat Albert would be a great movie to get the family together forthere are no hurt words, no violence, and no double entendres you'll have to explain away on the ride home. But if you're not ready for fatherhood, there's no need to run out and spend $10 on a ticket.
When a lonely teenager named Doris cries into her remote control, Fat Albert hears her pleas and literally jumps out of his 1970s cartoon world to help her make friends. The rest of Fat Albert's gangRudy, Mushmouth, Bill, Bucky, Dumb Donald, and Old Weird Harolddive headlong into the real world of right now. And like the Brady Bunch movies from a few years back, most of the comedy stems from the fact they're hilariously out of date with their funky Technicolor doodads and unfailing cheerfulness.
As Fat Albert, Saturday Night Live's Kenan Thompson (your illegitimate kids will know him from Nickelodeon's Kenan & Kel) takes a mean pratfall and twinkles his eyes, moral goodness personified in a role model everyone looks up to, even if his girth blocks out the sun. A holdover from a different time, Fat Albert holds open doors, says please and thank you, and fends off bullies with rap songs and snappy comebacks instead of a Tec-9. Cynical adults can laugh at Fat Albert, while their still-innocent children can laugh with him, and that's why it's the kind of movie everyone can enjoy together.
Ultimately, Fat Albert works as a kiddie flick because it's neither pretentious nor sleazy, borrowing heavily from the happy magic Bill Cosby worked during the '70s. By the end of the movie, you'll have heard the "naaa-naaa-naaa, gonna have a good time!" theme song so many times, it will be stuck in your head like an inoperable brain tumor. But hey, hey, hey, that's OK. Fat Albert is wholesome fun for the whole family, but nothing to take a paternity test over.
When a lonely teenager named Doris cries into her remote control, Fat Albert hears her pleas and literally jumps out of his 1970s cartoon world to help her make friends. The rest of Fat Albert's gangRudy, Mushmouth, Bill, Bucky, Dumb Donald, and Old Weird Harolddive headlong into the real world of right now. And like the Brady Bunch movies from a few years back, most of the comedy stems from the fact they're hilariously out of date with their funky Technicolor doodads and unfailing cheerfulness.
As Fat Albert, Saturday Night Live's Kenan Thompson (your illegitimate kids will know him from Nickelodeon's Kenan & Kel) takes a mean pratfall and twinkles his eyes, moral goodness personified in a role model everyone looks up to, even if his girth blocks out the sun. A holdover from a different time, Fat Albert holds open doors, says please and thank you, and fends off bullies with rap songs and snappy comebacks instead of a Tec-9. Cynical adults can laugh at Fat Albert, while their still-innocent children can laugh with him, and that's why it's the kind of movie everyone can enjoy together.
Ultimately, Fat Albert works as a kiddie flick because it's neither pretentious nor sleazy, borrowing heavily from the happy magic Bill Cosby worked during the '70s. By the end of the movie, you'll have heard the "naaa-naaa-naaa, gonna have a good time!" theme song so many times, it will be stuck in your head like an inoperable brain tumor. But hey, hey, hey, that's OK. Fat Albert is wholesome fun for the whole family, but nothing to take a paternity test over.