Hommage

In an eariler blog entry, I discussed the argument between Brother Darkness and I about paying hommage to our childhood by watching Fat Albert. As some of you may or may not know, a movie was recently produced based on the 70's cartoon Fat Albert. Tonight we went to see that movie. I was accompanied by my mother and son; 3 generations familiar with the old school cartoon.
The movie began with a modern version of the cartoon and based on some issue of the main character, Fat Albert and the Gang enter into the real world. This impossibly made the movie ridiculous beyond any means. And to add insult to injury, the casting was poor at best. Men in their late 20's and early 30's were cast as the Cosby Kids; Mushmouth had mtits (man tits) and Fat Albert had razor bumps. Storyline-wise, there was a love interest for Fat Albert, a sexy young boricua. Hmmmm....how did that happen?
The silver lining of the movie is that it paid hommage to itself. I'll try not to reveal too much of the ending, but as weak as the movie was, there was a reference to the creation of the the cartoon that linked to the Cosby Kids entering the real world. I'm glad I went sporting my old FUBU black and charcoal Fat Albert shirt with my son so that he could get an idea of what the cartoon meant to my childhood. Unfortunately, the movie didnt do that, but did provide a bridge from that era to the present day. So, no thanks to Bill Cosby's short-sightedness, the only way for my son to feel that Fat Albert vibe is to get that good box set.


(Hmm....maybe that was Cosby's idea in the first place, huh? Make a bad movie to make more money, sounds like a good idea to me!)