Fat Albert (2004)

Hey, Hey, Hey...This Movie Is Really Okay!

Call me a nostalgic old-coot, but I like revisiting my childhood. This "continuation" of the classic 1970's Bill Cosby-created cartoon is actually not half bad. First, the casting of the gang are pretty much spot-on, with Kenan "SNL" Thompson heading-up as Albert. The rest of the cast features young black actors most of us saw while changing channels on the likes of UPN, the WB, and the like. It seems in cartoon-land, the characters do each episode every time exactly the same until one day a young girl crying over her remote creates a porthole into Fat Albert's world while watching the re-run. He and gang, always looking to help whoever needs it, goes through, and boom, there they are. The storyline isn't complex, but towards the end when Albert looks up ole Cosby himself to try to figure out what to do, it pays off in the end as to why he ended up there in the first place, and actually is sorta touching in the process. Not kidding, really.

But that's not to say the film doesn't have it's own set of flaws. The animation is updated losing alot of it's Filmation charm. Even with a 2.35.1 widescreen, they had no room for Russell (the littlest one, Bill's brother), Kenan while able to do the "Hey, Hey, Hey" bit well, can't sing his way outta a paper bag, the "Mushmouth" accent is done horribly here, and finally, the coolest character "Rudy" dressed like a pimp with sarcasm dripping in the cartoon, seems too nice now and needed to stand out more instead of being like all the rest.

But I've seen alot of my childhood shows brought back with mixed results, but unlike say "The Brady Bunch" who didn't realize that they were stuck in the 70's, "Fat Albert" knows it, and knows why they have to go back. A decent kids movie & a nice trip back for the ones that formerly were.
(RedSabbath Rating:7.5/10) June 21, 2008

Was the best movie ever.

I have to say that this movie is one of the most funny and best movies ever. I'm glad that I purchased it because I really truly love Omarion especially since he is the love of my life and the man of my dreams. I love the way he played his role as Reggie in the movie. He is so fine and sexy all over. Overall, the entire movie is great and hilarious. I'll recommend this movie to the entire family to watch together. May 18, 2008

Could Have Been Better But still fun

Growing up I was enjoyed Fat Albert, when I first heard they were making a movie I was a bit excited, until I saw the set photos and heard about the plot. Little did I know when I went to see the film this past Christmas I would actually enjoy it. The movie starts out almost promising enough- with a Fat Albert cartoon. Only it's animated with current technology, and has the obligatory CG in it, since all cartoons these days need CG. Fat Albert and the Junk Yard Kids are playing a game of Buck Buck with the rival kids. Cut to the main character- Doris, a girl in highschool who isn't invited to a party. And it's understandable with a name like that. She goes home and watches Fat Albert, still crying over not getting invited, and one of her tears hits the remote. Somehow, this sends the tear into the TV, where Fat Albert and the gang sees it. Albert sees Doris is upset, and...jumps out of the TV to help her out. The gang follows, and Doris is left wondering what the heck just happened. She says that she's sad because she can't find her backpack. They see it on the couch, and she thanks them and tries to get them to go back into the TV. But, the show's over, and they can't. Yes, they realize they're cartoon characters, which is actually a good touch on the writers' part. I'm sick of movies where they don't understand that they're not "real". But, she's stuck with them until the show's on again, which isn't until the next day at 2:30. They follow her around town, where they find out that she's sad because she doesn't have any friends. When they follow her to school, they make sure to say this in front of the whole class, and tell people to be her friend. This happens a few more times, and keeps embarrassing her. Fat Albert starts to get puppy love for Doris' foster sister (who is a lot like Shannon Elizabeth- she looks decent, but talks awkwardly and can't act). A guy who has a crush on her from school, played poorly by *sigh* Omarion, doesn't like this, and tries to one-up Albert from time to time, failing miserably. Along the way, not much happens, and I think we all know how much Albert will want to go home after getting Doris' sister to like him.

Yes, the plot is predictable, but it's also pretty boring. Don't get me wrong, I tried to like this movie and accept the charm from the characters. But it just wasn't there. The only Junk Yard Kids that do anything are Mushmouth and Dumb Donald. I swear, Bill served no purpose aside from completing the gang. Old Weird Harold had his moments, but never did much else when they were over. Bucky was there to look creepy (he looks like Dave Chappelle fused with Beetlejuice from Howard Stern), and I honest to god don't remember Rudy doing anything important. Yeah, I know the title of the movie is Fat Albert, but why include the gang if you're not going to use them equally, if at all? And the "problems" Doris faces aren't anything big. We don't find out what her real problem is until later on, and I don't get how someone as good looking as Kyla Pratt could have self-esteem issues. Either way, it was a chore for me to sit through the whole movie. You know things are bad when you think it's almost over, then check the time to see that it's only 15 minutes into the movie. A lot of the acting was terrible as well. Kyla and Kenan were the only ones that gave any effort. Omarion was horrendous, giving weird facial expressions I haven't seen since this one koala ran head-first into a parked jeep on Animal Planet. But, while Kenan did look just like Fat Albert, his voice could've used work. Some scenes had him talking like Albert, others had him talking like Kenan. And what was with all the cameos? The umbrella guy who runs around with Andre 3000 was here, a certain ponk band's lead singer, Aaron Carter with his giraffe-neck, and a few others showed up for a few quick minutes. I'll give the movie one extra star for a great ending sequence. The final moments were touching and a nice tribute. It's not something to not show the kids or anything, but it was a nice bit of respect April 2, 2008

bad copy

Fat Albert is a good movie. I didn't give it a low rating because I didn't like the movie. The disk I got from Amazon had several skips in it. I ended up throwing it away and getting another copy from Best Buy. There are two parts of this movie that just thrill me every time I watch it. One is when they go to the mall and stumble upon some professional jump ropers. Albert and the girl they came to help danced together while they jumped rope. The other is a group song / rap and dance at a high school student block party.
All the characters did a good job and the story was well written. March 15, 2008

Fat Albert on VHS

The tape played beautifully. I was extremely excited. I will continue to purchase things from Amazon. March 6, 2008

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