PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 12/22/04)

Hey, hey, hey . . . the best bet would be to avoid this film on Christmas Day.

The absolutely ridiculous plot starts out simple enough, a misfit teenager Doris (Kyla Pratt) gets all weepy when she is dissed by the popular crowd while her beautiful foster sister Lauri (Dania Ramirez) fits right in. Doris' drippy tears are shed on her remote and suddenly there is a portal between her TV and the cartoon she is watching. Fat Albert and crew jump through the set to help boost her confidence, but they can't stay long because the animated characters will eventually disintegrate in the human world.

It is entirely baffling how this script got past the initial development stage. Especially since the '70s 'toon "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" isn't really retro enough to be hip. One of the most annoying issues with the film is that Fat Albert has a gang of friends from the junkyard and they are never really introduced. If you don't have a basic knowledge of the series then it is unlikely you'll know the characters names until at least halfway through the film - i.e., there's a tall skinny guy known as Weird Harold but we're never told precisely what makes him weird, he just is. You may need a refresher course, which is convenient since the filmmakers not so subtly point out several times that the DVD set is available in stores. But watching the old cartoon about a group of teens who enjoy some good-clean fun only serves to make Fat Albert's transformation to the hipper "Big Al" and icky attempts to woo the lovely Lauri only more appalling.

—Angel Cohn