Bébé's Kids

Infobox Film
name = Bébé's Kids

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caption = Movie poster
director = Bruce W. Smith
producer = Willard Carroll
Thomas L. Wilhite
writer = Robin Harris (characters)
Reginald Hudlin (screenplay)
starring = Faizon Love
Vanessa Bell Calloway
Marques Houston
Nell Carter
Tone-Loc
Tom Everett
Rich Little
Louie Anderson
music = John Barnes
cinematography =
editing = Tim Ryder (documentary segment)
Lynne Southerland
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = July 31, 1992 (USA)
runtime =
language = English
budget = Unknown
gross = $8,442,162 (USA)
preceded_by =
followed_by =
mpaa_rating = PG-13 for mature content
imdb_id = 0103783

"Bébé's Kids" (released to VHS and DVD as "Robin Harris' Bébé's Kids") is an animated feature produced by the Hudlin Brothers and Hyperion Pictures, directed by Bruce W. Smith, and released on July 31. 1992 by Paramount Pictures. The first ever animated feature to feature an all-Black main cast, the film is based upon comedian Robin Harris' "Bébé's Kids" stand-up comedy act. It features the voices of Faizon Love, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Marques Houston, Nell Carter, and Tone-Loc. Tom Everett, Rich Little and Louie Anderson also lend their voices. The movie plays on BET on occasion as of 2006.

History

Original stand-up version

In the original act, Robin's prospective girlfriend asks him to take her and her son to Funland, but when he agrees, she shows up with three more kids belonging to her friend Bébé.

As it turns out, Bébé's Kids are extremely rambunctious, misbehaved, ill-tempered, and flat-out "bad". They terrorize Rats, cut off Alligator's feet, try to steal Robin's 8-track/radio while he's listening to it, and make a general menace of themselves. Their reputation is so bad that even the police refuse to mess with them.

In a second act, the Kids and his girlfriend picks up Robin from a bar and make him take them to Las Vegas. Pee Wee picks up a power cord and the power goes out.

Animated film version

"Bébé's Kids" was the first animated feature film targeted toward a black audience. The film made a few changes to the original story, reducing the number of Bébé's kids from four to three, and moving the location from Funland to a generic amusement park named "Fun World," which is totally demolished by the kids' antics.

Plot

The plot of the film features an animated version of Robin Harris (voiced by Love) recounting his disastrous first date with the beautiful Jamika (voiced by Calloway). Tagging along for the date are Jamika's mild-mannered son Leon (voiced by William Collins, Jr.) and her best friend Bébé's three (in the words of Harris) "bad-ass kids": Kahlil (voiced by Houston), LaShawn (voiced by Jonell Green), and Pee-Wee (voiced by Tone-Loc). The kids, Harris remarks, are so bad that "even a circus can't train those kids! I thought the devil was through when he made "Rosemary's Baby", but ohhhhhhh no! Oh no! Now we got..."Bébé's Kids!"

The group decides to take a trip to the Disneyland-esque Fun World, where they find more trouble than fun. Harris attempts more than once to get rid of the kids so that he and Jamika can be alone, but there is no escaping or besting the kids. "We don't die," says Pee-Wee, "we multiply." Also causing trouble are Harris' alimony-demanding ex-wife Dorthea (voiced by Myra J) and her best friend Vivian (voiced by Carter).

Release and reaction

Featuring a hip hop-inspired art style and soundtrack, "Bébé's Kids" was underpromoted by ParamountFact|date=August 2008 (they didn't know how to market it, to the point where the tagline of the film was simply "It's Animation!") and did not do very well until it resurfaced on home video and HBO in 1993Fact|date=August 2008. Since then, it has gone on to be a cult classic and was released on DVD on October 5 2004. It was discontinued by Paramount in March 2008.

The film was also released as a video game on the Super Nintendo that was hugely unsuccessful and is considered one of the worst beat-em-ups of all time; it holds the distinction of being the only game ever to receive a score of zero in Nintendo Power.Fact|date=October 2008

External links

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