Fat Albert

The Fat Albert cartoons of the '70s were fairly sweet and fun, but this bizarre big-screen adaptation is like a morality play mounted by simpletons with no real understanding of human behavior. Worse, the whole sorry endeavor seems to have been slapped together for no reason other than to promote a slew of DVD releases of the original episodes...DVDs that, in a display of crassness almost unprecedented even in vulgar Hollywood, actually appear here in the movie in a video store window, oohed and aahed over by Fat Albert's posse, who jump out of the TV into the "real" world of fake Hollywood city-street backlots in the year 2000-something. Director Joel Zwick's film features no real story, just a demented lurching from one un-humorous set-piece to another after Fat Albert (Kenan Thompson, whose "performance" consists of weird empty stares meant to be beatific) and his homies are summoned from TV by the tears of lonely young Doris (Kyla Pratt), whom Albert helps with her friendless problem. Doris is also conveniently amnesic about a family member with whom she was very close, and a predictable end-of-the-movie "surprise" revelation that is treated as something of momentous psychological import, while the only real "surprise"--hey, hey, hey--is that this mess was given the green light in the first place. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include both widescreen and full screen versions, audio commentary by director Joel Zwick and producer John Davis, a “Fat Albert: Behind the Band” featurette (10 min.), two short extended scenes, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a dud film.] (M. Johanson)