A podcast I listen to has mentioned this movie a fair amount. One of the hosts of the show grew up watching a VHS copy of it. I didn’t have any strong expectations of it.
It’s not bad… but it’s not that good either. There are a few good gags, but much of the humor feels weak and predictable. I can’t blame this on having a cast that is largely children, either, since Shelly Long is the main character. In fact, I didn’t feel like the girls were developed all that much. Most of them were interchangeable.
I realized that this was the equivalent of The Mighty Ducks to another person. It’s a slobs-vs-snobs story (although cleverly inverted this time) that has lots of kids having fun and acting cool. There are a few differences though, in that Ducks had the adult storyline, but shifted it far into the background, and even then, tethered the adult relationship to an adult/child relationship. In this, the adult storyline is pushed further into the foreground, and it was hard to feel invested in the children.
Most of the humor is a one-note kind of thing. I don’t know what I think of that, since stuff like The Brady Bunch Movie is also a one-note story… but it’s done well. I think the humor of this may have just been wasted on me. I understood it was intended to be funny, but I simply didn’t care.
This didn’t prevent me from enjoying the movie. It gets a little more fun as the story builds, even if it’s a formulaic approach.
If I saw this when I was younger, there’s a good chance I would have liked it. If I were a young girl, I almost definitely would like it.
The weirdest thing is the occasional use of the word ‘shit.’ Doesn’t seem like it fits with the tone of the movie.
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