Slappy and the Stinkers

Stinker is right. I have been assured that a five-year-old acquaintance watches this repeatedly, but even at a low price, I cannot in good conscience give my seal of approval to this lowest-common-denominator fiasco. The Stinkers are a group of mischievous misfits who run amuck at upscale Dartmoor Academy. So strained is their precociousness they make the Olsen Twins look like Emma Thompsons. Their nemesis is the pompous schoolmaster (memo to B. D. Wong--change agents!) who is the butt of their well-intentioned hijinks. Stealing a page from Free Willy, the Stinkers band together to foil illicit plans to ship a sea lion off to a Bulgarian circus. Too bad it couldn't have been the Stinkers instead. Not recommended. (K. Lee Benson)