I remember watching the Fat Albert cartoons as a child with my brothers. They were harmless fun. I liked them because they were poor kids who hung out in a junkyard of all places. Nearly every one of them was noticeably flawed. There is dumb Donald, Mush Mouth, Weird Harold and of course Fat Albert. But no matter what they lacked they still had each other as friends. Many cartoons have since copied this formula such as Arthur and Recess, but none have done it better.
The film version starts with a girl, Doris, watching the cartoon. She is sad because she has no friends. Fat Albert and gang jump through the television in to "real" life to help Doris out. They hangout with her for a couple of days. They are from the 1970s so they are surprised by cell phones and DVDs. The movie attempts a few time travel type jokes but few work.
Thompson is fine as Fat Albert. He has all of the hey hey hey's down pat, but it is Mush Mouth who gets all the laughs. His mumbling had my sons and I laughing. However, the movie has a toddler teach him how to speak correctly and thus the film loses its best source for jokes.
Fat Albert is good clean fun. No one swears, does drugs or even refers to sex. The movie is very squeaky clean. Too clean. A few subtle adult jokes thrown in by superfluous characters could have helped. Or perhaps some jokes about just how innocent these guys act could have helped.
Still, the theme song is just as catchy today as it was thirty years ago. My sons spent the rest of the day singing "nah nah nah goin have a good time. Hey hey hey."
