NA, NA, NA, GONNA HAVE A GOOD TIME: Various thoughts after having seen Fat Albert yesterday, arranged in numbered paragraphs to disguise the fact that I have no transitions between some of them:
1. Let's start with the central decision that sets this movie apart from all its peer movies over the past decade that also remade favored television shows of the past -- The Brady Bunch Movie, Scooby-Doo, Starsky and Hutch, etc. Those movies existed primarily to mock the original characters for their squareness and reward the hipster-viewer for his superiority, that You Are Better Than This Now And Wasn't It All Silly? They take a cynical, deconstructive view of the original tv shows, treating their primary attractions as dismisible kitsch.
This is defiantly not so with Fat Albert. Yes, there are a few cultural dislocation jokes ("What's a divduh?" upon seeing a DVD poster), but the absolute essence of the movie is that the values that Fat Albert and the Junkyard Gang carried in the 1970s remain relevant today: Believe in yourself. Don't let fear stop you from caring about someone. And most all all, if a friend has a problem, reach out and help.
Not once does this movie condescend to its characters, and our contemporaries within the movie who mock their sweetness and good intentions are treated with scorn.
2. I should explain the plot for a moment, and I will assume that even if you're still planning on seeing the movie, no spoiler I can tell you here will ruin your enjoyment. (If I'm wrong, click here to skip ahead.)
So, Fat Albert and his friends are in the animated junkyard, conscious of their status as characters on a television show. From the edge of their universe, they see a teenaged girl crying on her remote control, and Albert is moved. He forces himself through the portal into the "real world" of "North Philadelphia" (see #3), his friends all following (except little brother Russell, who's left behind to fend off some bullies.)
Cultural immersion. Confusion from the girl. Giggles from the False Friends Who Don't Get It. Trip to the mall, where Albert visits a Big & Tall menswear shop. Problems are gradually solved. Fun is had. Members of the Junkyard Gang start overcoming their own problems -- Mushmouth learns to speak clearly, Weird Harold becomes not so weird, and Dumb Donald not so dumb -- and they all have to make a difficult decision about whether to stay in our world or return to their own.
3. Okay, so it's not exactly North Philadelphia. Half the people there are white, the high school seems well-funded, and there are no poor people. (Indeed, aside from one background in a carnival scene and a few WDAS-FM signs, no actual Philadelphia exists in this movie.)
I grappled with this for a while during the movie -- shouldn't FA&TJG be addressing contemporary problems of urban poverty, addiction and crime?
But that would be a very different movie, and one which inevitably would mock the kids for their sincerity and simple solutions in a world of seemingly intractable problems. No good could come of having Dumb Donald donating his ski mask to a homeless person. Bill Cosby didn't want to make that movie, and I didn't really want to see it.
4. Minor quibbles: in the original series, Rudy is the mack-daddy-playah-in-waiting. Here, he's just a nice, sweet guy. The Brown Hornet only appears as a logo on Bill's sweatshirt, not otherwise coming to life. There could have been a little more early introduction to the characters, so that you understand that Bill's the level-headed one, Weird Harold is clumsy, etc. Also, the animated portions are done in a modern, 360-degree-swirling style, and not the beloved low-tech flat style of the original. That was disconcerting.
5. Is it "Fat Albert and the Junkyard Gang" or "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids"? This is the Bluto v. Brutus of our age.
6. Back to the sweetness. There is not one in-joke in the movie designed to take the audience out of the frame, not one wink to the viewer, not one note of sarcasm. The movie practically bludgeons you with its sincerity, and that's a good thing. All the performances work, esp. Kenan Thompson's genial take on Big Al.
7. The meta thing, and here's where it gets interesting. Because I also saw Ocean's 12 yesterday, and it was tired and unambitious. The only interesting notes in it were the meta-moments -- disruptive hotel guest Topher Grace being admonished by the Brad Pitt character for "pulling a Muniz" in his room, with Grace noting that he had half-assed his way through "that Dennis Quaid movie" he just finished, and then Tess (Julia Roberts) being asked to pose as pregnant actress Julia Roberts to help pull off a heist, only to be confronted by the real (?) Bruce Willis who starts talking to her about Tallulah and Taos. It's trying to be in-jokey, but because it's the only thing that's alive in the movie, it's not as enjoyable as it could be.
Now back to Fat Albert, where the meta augments and deepens the story, instead of being the whole thing. Frustrated with the dilemma of whether to return to the animated world, Fat Albert visits the home of Bill Cosby. And William H. Cosby Jr. Ed.D., very much looking his 66 years, after getting over the initial shock of greeting his creation starts to ask Albert about the teenage girl he was helping. Albert explains that her name is Doris Robertson, that she lives in North Philadelphia and that she had been sad since her grandfather passed away.
Her grandfather? Oh dear, says Cosby, and it all comes together: Doris Robertson's grandfather was Albert Robertson, one of Bill's real-life childhood friends, on whom Cosby based the 'Fat Albert' character. That's why you were able to see her cry, Cosby explains. There's a mystical connection.
8. And then there's the big whammy. (big emotional spoiler alert)
When all is said and done and the problems are all solved, the gang heads back into the tv. We're left in a cemetary, at Albert Robertson's gravesite. And there's Bill Cosby. And Russell Cosby, his brother, whom he slept with. And the real-life* Weird Harold, his afro balded with age, and Mushmouth, and Dumb Donald and Rudy, the older gentleman shown on the screen with the animated character each inspired.
(*from here, I'm just hoping these are the real guys, not actors, because the credits didn't say beyond Russell Cosby.)
It's a really moving scene, with these old men honoring their fallen friend. But they will all live on forever through television and DVD, and that's something.
9. So I'm not saying that this movie was brilliant or anything. But it's a very good family movie, with solid lessons to impart, and for us Gen X-ers looking for an uncynical two hours of warm nostalgia, it's time and money well spent. Thanks, Bill.
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