Grande Albert

I really had a good time watching this movie. We all remember the 70's cartoon heroes named Fat Albert and the Cosby kids who came from the genius created mind of Bill Cosby. Each week Fat Albert and his gang would help people and solve problems. Now it's 2004 and Doris come home from school after having a bad day she turns on Fat Albert and begins to cry and Fat Albert the cartoon hears her cry and jumps out of cartoon land and into reality to help Doris with her problem and the Cosby kids follow him. But what they are going to discover is that their world and this world are completely different. Like Garfirld and Scooby Doo, another great cartoon character comes to life. It was a fascinating idea by Bill Cosby for the famous cartoon characters to jump into reality. I really enjoyed this movie, it was pure fun.

The story of what happens when Fat Albert and his gang cross into the real world is a mixed bag. Some of it works, some of it doesn't and some of it just sort of lays there and does nothing.

Part of the problem is that Bill Cosby was allowed to write the script. Bill is a very funny man, is wonderful here playing himself, but he can and often does climb up on a high horse and moralize about life and behavior. This moralizing, lesson teaching, and need to be a "family film" hobbles the movie since everything has to have a point or to need to have a message. Its not bad, but it takes away from what could have been a funnier comedy.

Is it worth seeing? Yes, especially if love the old series. But wait to rent it or see on TV since it plays very much like a TV movie anyway.

5 out of 10

This movie was pretty much forced into being, and horribly so. I never watched "Fat Albert" as a kid, but I concluded that I would watch the movie based upon the cartoon's reputation. Had I known that Fat Albert and the gang would lunge through the television from cartoon town to real life, I wouldn't have even watched the opening credits.

It was a feel good story with a good message, but it was terribly done. A lot of the scenes in the movie seemed as though they were for occupying space and time more than for aiding the plot. Fat Albert can do it all, and even though he's fat, he's super cool. That is about what I got out of the bulk of the movie.

This is a typical Hollywood made American made piece of crap. The famous cartoon from 1972-1984 had the right formula to amuse kids. This film has a bunch of hip-hop crap, and the worst is that its not animated anymore. The acting is decent. I just wonder how Bill Cosby material has sunk this far. So to those of you whom have kids, buy the original animated series from Time/Life Books and videos. This film would have much more wider appeal had it been down with a 70's style music score without all of the 21st century effects. The scenes in the school are preety funny, the script is shallow and unworthy of a Bill Cosby stamp of approval. There are a few funny scenes. But unfortunately the 2004 setting is very lame and flat compared to the original 70's format.

What a disappointment this movie was ... one of the most original and brightest cartoons of it's time deserved a lot more than this poorly-written, unimaginative effort - the characters were more two-dimensional than their original cartoon counterparts!

The acting was OK, it was the script that was the real disaster - where was Fat Albert to help out with *that* particular problem ?

the 'plight' of Doris and her sister barely raised enough concern in the audience to sustain a half-hour cartoon, let alone a feature film - with the long list of issues and concerns facing adolescents these days, the producers chose the softest possible interpretation of what Fat Albert was all about - kids sticking together and helping each out when problems arise - the 'problems' facing Doris were barely worth addressing - even the problems in the cartoon-within-the-movie ('Danielle' running away and leaving school) where more pressing ...

The whole 'cartoon's come to life' scenario was pretty lame - either do a full feature cartoon or make a movie about the characters as if they were real people - combining the cartoon world with the real world just didn't work in the hands of these writers - they could barely muster a single gag in what was supposedly a light-hearted comedy ffs ...

the characters were tampered with in a most displeasing way - Rudy was robbed of his original personality to be made more 'P.C.' - the makers of the original cartoon gave Rudy a cocky, smart-ass attitude to balance out the saccharine righteousness of Fat Albert and Bill Cosby - the gang didn't need anymore 'nice guys', and there could have been a lot of fun to be had with Rudy's character had he retained his original 'edge'. Russell's non-appearance in physical form was puzzling and uneccessary ... where the hell was Mudfoot ?!? ... only the tiniest reference was made to the Brown Hornet - surely something more imaginative could have been written with such an integral and fun character ?

Fat Albert the Movie was a by-the-numbers waste of celluloid and cellulite ...