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STUDIO: Disney
RATED: TV-G
MSRP: $29.99
RUNNING TIME: 91 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Alternate, Extended Ending
• Penny’s Driver’s Ed. Game
• "Shorties" – Animated Shorts from the series
The Pitch
"It’s Rugrats Go Wild, mixed with a little bit of Kim Possible, throw in some Don’t Be a Menace and we got ourselves a movie!"
The Humans
With Kyla Pratt (UPN’s One on One), Tommy Davidson, Soleil Moon Frye, Orlando Brown, Phil LaMarr, Arsenio Hall and Omarion, among others, this is actually somewhat of a star-studded cast.
"Wha-eva! Wha-eva! I do what I want!"
The Nutshell
Penny Proud is about to turn 16 and, as such, acquires the mindset of every single sixteen-year old ever – "I’m old enough to make my own decisions." Of course her choices are met with extreme resistance from her father, causing a rift in the family and leading the Prouds on a vacation that puts them in the center of an insanely off-the-wall adventure, including rappers, extreme basketball, peanut people and clones.
The Package
Artwork showcases the main charaters waterskiing. It’s original art, which is good, but it’s boring. It does, however, fit into the tone of the movie and accurately (for the most part) depicts what’s to be seen. Not bad but nothing special. As a matter of fact, the exact same thing could be said for practically everything I’d cover in this section. The video and audio are ok, with a Dolby 5.1 track backing up a 1.33:1 fullscreen transfer. The only thing of note is the animation, which is showcased in a dance scene later on in the movie. The synchronization is dead-on and the fluidity of the movement is pretty impressive. Everything else, however, is pretty dull.
Oscar was proud to start his new job. His first assignment – deliver that case to Mr. Wallace.
In the features department, there’s an alternate ending that doesn’t do anything to serve the story (or de-rail it either), so I’m not entirely sure why it was excised, unless it was to shorten running time. There are also some animated shorts taken from the series that do a little more to highlight the pretty much overlooked infant characters and, finally, a set-top game. Penny’s Driver’s Ed. Is one of the worst set-top games ever made. I don’t know who programmed it but they must have been drunk. I tried it 15 times and I couldn’t complete it. I can’t imagine any kid being able to do this.
The Lowdown
This is a bizarre movie. At it’s core, it’s a coming-of-age tale, with Penny having just turned 16 and being at odds with her father’s strict guidelines. And actually, through the first act, that’s what you expect the entire movie to be about (that is if you missed the opening with the scientist and the peanut guy). The entire first act is devoted to Penny’s aspirations to be a dancer in rapper Fifteen Cent’s halftime show at the Extreme Basketball Championships. Apparently, being a rapper’s backup dancer is something totally appropriate for a 16 year-old to do in this world. So Penny auditions against her father’s will and ends up falling for Fifteen, who she ends up kissing. Daddy catches her, grounds her and cancels her 16th birthday, which sets up the conflict for the rest of the movie which takes place on Legoom Island and puts our titular family in the middle of a mad scientist’s plot to make Super Soldiers out of peanuts. And, believe it or not, he succeeds. It kind of felt reminiscent of another TDC original series, Kim Possible, insofar as young Penny Proud is the one who has to save the day.
"Hehehe…glaucoma! That’s the ticket!"
All-in-all it wasn’t a bad movie. The lessons were apparent but not that heavy-handed and the story was interesting enough to keep me from wanting to turn it off. That’s not to say there weren’t some negative elements, however. I’m not entirely familiar with the show, but from what I’ve seen this movie goes way beyond the boundaries set in the series. I know, usually that’s a good thing for these types of movies, but here it just didn’t seem natural. From what you see in the show you just can’t picture these characters getting into a situation like this. Oh – and the characters. Never have I seen a more stereo-type laden show for children. The only "normal" character is Penny, who, even while speaking modern hip-hop lingo doesn’t come across as too far on one side of the fence. The rest of them? Well, there’s the overly strict father who freaks out over the slightest thing, the polar opposite mother who wants to let Penny do whatever she wants, the street speaking Granny who’s into extreme sports (and wouldn’t surprise me at all if she lit up a joint), the rich friend who’s a bitch, the ghetto-esque friend who is a carbon copy of Kim Parker (watch Moesha or The Parkers if you’re unfamiliar), the thuggish kid who wears his pants way to low and doesn’t show any interest in education, the token white friend who’s smart, wears glasses, is bean-pole skinny and has braces and the lower class girls who wear nothing but overalls and apparently are so ashy that they’re actually colored in gray.
Cast shot of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present & Future, from Berry Gordy’s A Christmas Carol
And it also bears to mention that in this universe, the only music available seems to be hip-hop and everybody loves it. Black, white, male, female, young and old. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s obvious who this show is aimed at and even though they try to make it accessible to the non-target audience, they don’t always succeed. But like I said earlier, pound-for-pound it isn’t all bad and who knows? Your kid may actually dig it.
5.0 out of 10