Movie Title: The Little Rascals
Genre: Comedy, Family, Romance
Director: Penelope Spheeris
Writer: Paul Guay, Stephen Mazur, and Penelope Spheeris
Starring: Travis Tedford, Kevin Jamal Woods, Jordan Warkol, Zachary Mabry, Ross Bagley, Courtland Mead, Sam Saletta, Blake Jeremy Collins, Blake McIver Ewing, Juliette Brewer, Heather Karasek, Brittany Ashton Holmes, Bug Hall
Review: The "He-Man-Woman-Haters" are back! And when Alfalfa (Bug Hall) begins wooing Darla (Brittany Ashton Holmes), Spanky (Travis Tedford) and the boys make it their mission to breakup this romance but good.
I can remember many a fond afternoon of my childhood watching shorts of The Three Stooges and The Little Rascals on TV. Seeing this movie years ago was silly fun, but now, through much older eyes, this version of the pint-sized punks is a rather awkward experience.
Most of the kids in this movie look uncomfortable, unfocused, and unaware of the task of film-making, which is totally cool because they're kids. But when 95% of your cast is children, they better be able to carry a movie or an hour and twenty two minutes is gonna feel like an eternity...and this movie does.
Some of the jokes are funny, some of the celebrity cameos are entertaining (For my money, George Wendt has the best cameo and joke in the movie), and the classic "Rascals" gags from the original shorts work, but it's kind of an unfocused mess that probably was a funny script and idea, but the awkward performances from the kids and sloppy editing that is used to splice together what was deem most usable makes a "family" movie that's really hard to sit through.
For the majority of the running time I just felt bad for the kids and wish they all would have just left the movie set to go be regular kids and play and have fun instead of saying and doing things that they didn't want to or understand so hopefully this would launch them into superstardom, and make mommy and daddy a lot of money, then crash and burn so that by now they would be front and center on Celebrity Rehab right next to Andy Dick. Man that came out of nowhere.
The Little Rascals is not a fun movie to watch. I know some will watch and love the silly antics of the jocular juveniles, but I'd say skip this one. Do it for the kids!
Fun Fact: Before filming each day, director Penelope Spheeris would hug each child actor to ensure closeness and trust in the group.