To impress his new girlfriend Jamika (Vanessa Bell Calloway), a man, Robin Harris (Faizon Love), agrees to take her and her son to Fun World. But on the agreed day is horrified to find out the trip will include looking after her friend Bebe's kids, only to find that they are uncontrollably rambunctious.
Released in 1992, the film directed by Bruce W. Smith and written by Reginald Hudlin was based on the stand up routine of late comedian Robin Harris who died two years before the movie was released. The standup routine basically follows the same general idea as the film of Harris being roped into looking after misbehaving kids belonging to his girlfriend's friend with superficial details changed for copyright reasons. The movie is sporadically funny, but it's pretty evident that the material is too thin to justify a feature length film.
In terms of plot, imagine if you took 40% of Boomerang, 60% of Home Alone and structured it within the climax of the first National Lampoon's Vacation movie and that's basically what we have. The movie follows a loose narrative device of Robin being depressed and telling his story to a bartender about the Havoc Bebe's Kids unleashed upon the amusement park intermittently cut between scenes of Robin and Jamika with occasional misunderstandings as per third act fallout rules. Once we get to the amusement park there's really not much that can be done with it, so the movie basically manufactures bizarre setpieces such as Bebe's Kids being put on trial by park Animatronics, a team of park security personnel who look and act like the Secret Service for no real reason, and a number of song sequences that don't really stand out all that much.
The movie's loose structure is compounded with the creative choice to pace and frame the movie like a 90s music video. It's an obnoxious movie that revels in being loud and grating and it's clear it has no real direction to go other than leading Bebe's Kids from cutting one swath of destruction to another. And to add insult to injury the trio of violent, foul mouthed, misbehaving brats are made out to be sympathetic in the final five minutes of the movie for valid enough reasons in terms of social commentary I suppose, but if the kids live in such neglected squaller then why is Jamika even friends with Bebe?
Bebe's Kids is not a good movie. It's a meandering, directionless mess built upon material far too thin and focusing on characters too unlikable or uninteresting. The animation has a certain level of style to it and there were occasional moments I got minor laughs or brief chuckles but it really should have stayed as a standup routine.
Released in 1992, the film directed by Bruce W. Smith and written by Reginald Hudlin was based on the stand up routine of late comedian Robin Harris who died two years before the movie was released. The standup routine basically follows the same general idea as the film of Harris being roped into looking after misbehaving kids belonging to his girlfriend's friend with superficial details changed for copyright reasons. The movie is sporadically funny, but it's pretty evident that the material is too thin to justify a feature length film.
In terms of plot, imagine if you took 40% of Boomerang, 60% of Home Alone and structured it within the climax of the first National Lampoon's Vacation movie and that's basically what we have. The movie follows a loose narrative device of Robin being depressed and telling his story to a bartender about the Havoc Bebe's Kids unleashed upon the amusement park intermittently cut between scenes of Robin and Jamika with occasional misunderstandings as per third act fallout rules. Once we get to the amusement park there's really not much that can be done with it, so the movie basically manufactures bizarre setpieces such as Bebe's Kids being put on trial by park Animatronics, a team of park security personnel who look and act like the Secret Service for no real reason, and a number of song sequences that don't really stand out all that much.
The movie's loose structure is compounded with the creative choice to pace and frame the movie like a 90s music video. It's an obnoxious movie that revels in being loud and grating and it's clear it has no real direction to go other than leading Bebe's Kids from cutting one swath of destruction to another. And to add insult to injury the trio of violent, foul mouthed, misbehaving brats are made out to be sympathetic in the final five minutes of the movie for valid enough reasons in terms of social commentary I suppose, but if the kids live in such neglected squaller then why is Jamika even friends with Bebe?
Bebe's Kids is not a good movie. It's a meandering, directionless mess built upon material far too thin and focusing on characters too unlikable or uninteresting. The animation has a certain level of style to it and there were occasional moments I got minor laughs or brief chuckles but it really should have stayed as a standup routine.