Review of Bebe's Kids (1992) by Joshua D — 18 Jul 2011

If you all can recall, I am predominantly of African-American descent, but despite all that I act nothing like an African-American. I mean c'mon, have you ever heard of a black person that collects insects, listens to classical music and/or likes to use infrequent words like sycophant, fastidious, or ubiquitous? Well, I'm sure there is someone black that acts somewhat like me, but the bottom line is that I'm much different than my demographic. I still show my African-American pride by watching films like The Color Purple, Boyz in Da Hood and Lilies of the Field, but when I saw this film I felt like it was a bit of a demotion. This film has the distinction of being the first animated film to feature an entirely African-American cast, and was directed by Bruce W. Smith, creator of the show The Proud Family and animation supervisor for The Princess and the Frog. I have somewhat of a respect for this guy, but he wasn't doing us any justice when he made this film. He could have made a richer and timelier film than what he eventually did dish out, but instead he had to resort to making a film that featured so much unnecessary elements it would have Hattie McDaniel rolling in her grave.

No animated film would be perfect without amazing animation, and this film has a level of animation that is fairly middling. Especially compared to the animation of the time, it still could have been much better than it was. The one thing that I hated about this film was its plot and story. Other films that center on African-American subject matter often focus on themes such as racism, discrimination, culture or the struggles that blacks have faced and currently face. This one on the other hand had a story about a man who tries to win the heart of a woman by taking her child and three other children of the woman's friend to an amusement park for the day. How ineffectual can you be? I would have liked to see a film with a much more grand story and a well-executed plot to help that story articulate (oh wait I've already seen that film; it's called In the Heat of the Night). The simple plot and story are what make this film such a downer, and had more thought been put into them then we may have received a much more appetizing treat. Next comes the humor, if there was any to begin with. I may have chuckled at a few jokes and whatnot, but other than that the film was not funny at all. Not to sound derogatory or anything, but African-Americans tend to be some of the funniest people around. Yet with this film the humor is either to a lesser extent or void in the film. Not only that, but the humor seemed like it wanted to cater to both adult and child humor but couldn't fulfill both aspects because it strayed too close to the middle. I don't suspect that any of you would give this film the light of day, not because the majority of you aren't African-American but because the film is a total waste. Everyone can enjoy an African-American oriented film, but no one should enjoy this.