Tyler Perry's Madea's Tough Love

Tyler Perry's loud and obnoxious Madea character (featuring playwright and filmmaker Perry in drag as a heavyset elderly woman) gets animated in this film that opens with a live-action bridge in which Madea presses a “Do Not Push” remote button and enters a cartoon world. Immediately, Madea harangues a young brother and sister who zoom past a senior trying to cross the street, which leads the youngsters to respond with a simple request: “Just shut it, old lady.” Of course, Madea's special brand of Tough Love doesn't allow remarks like this to go unpunished, so she takes off after the kids in a skateboard/shopping cart/property-damaging rampage through the neighborhood, attracting full pursuit by the “po-po.” After her arrest, Madea is sentenced—by a “stupid judge” that she calls a “sneaky lil' frog-lookin' toad”—to community service at the local Moms Mabley Youth Center, where she runs across the same brats, who turn out to be homeless and appeal to Madea's softer side. Also featuring an evil mayoral candidate who wants to destroy the youth center, a gaming competition that Madea coaches the Moms Mabley kids on winning (using the acronym for Passion, Endurance, Empowerment, or P.E.E.), and cameos from Perry characters Aunt Bam and Uncle Joe, this is a coarse, shrug-worthy attempt to cash in on the popular live-action film series. Optional, at best. (J. Williams-Wood)