The Little Rascals (film)

The Little Rascals

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Penelope Spheeris
Produced by Bill Oakes
Michael King
Gerald R. Molen
Written by Paul Guay
Stephen Mazur
Penelope Spheeris
Mike Scott
Robert Wolterstorff
Story by Paul Guay
Stephen Mazur
Penelope Spheeris
Based on Our Gang 
by Hal Roach
Starring Bug Hall
Travis Tedford
Brittany Ashton Holmes
Kevin Jamal Woods
Zachary Mabry
Ross Bagley
Sam Saletta
Blake Jeremy Collins
Blake McIver Ewing
Jordan Warkol
Courtland Mead
Juliette Brewer
Heather Karasek
Music by William Ross
Cinematography Richard Bowen
Edited by Ross Albert
Peter Teschner
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates
  • August 5, 1994 (1994-08-05)
Running time
 82 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $67.3 million

The Little Rascals is a 1994 American comedy film produced by Amblin Entertainment, and released by Universal Pictures on August 5, 1994. The film is an adaptation of Hal Roach's Our Gang, a series of short films of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s (many of which were broadcast on television as The Little Rascals) which centered on the adventures of a group of neighborhood children. The film, with a screenplay by Paul Guay, Stephen Mazur, and Penelope Spheeris – who also directed – presents several of the Our Gang characters in an updated setting, and features re-interpretations of several of the original shorts. It was the first collaboration by Guay and Mazur, whose subsequent comedies were Liar Liar and Heartbreakers.

A sequel, The Little Rascals Save the Day, was released as a direct-to-video feature in 2014.

Plot

Spanky is the president of the "He-Man Womun [sic] Haters Club" with many school-aged boys from around the neighborhood as members. Alfalfa, Spanky's best friend, has been chosen to be the driver for the club's prize-winning undefeated go-kart, "The Blur", in the upcoming Soap Box Derby go-kart race. Unfortunately, when the announcement is made at the club meeting that Alfalfa is to be the driver, it is discovered that Alfalfa is nowhere to be found.

The boys go to find Alfalfa and they discover him in the company of his sweetheart Darla, whom he is forbidden to be in love with because she is a girl and that is against club rules. Alfalfa invites Darla on a picnic, and to prove his devotion to her he agrees to have the picnic inside the He-Man Womun Haters Clubhouse. Unknown to Alfalfa, his fellow club members find out about his plans. At the picnic, Alfalfa and Darla think they are alone, but the other club members secretly pull several silly pranks from behind the scenes to sabotage their romantic date. When they finally reveal themselves and demand to come inside the clubhouse, a frantic Alfalfa tries to convince Darla to hide in the closet, which causes her to be offended, thinking that he is ashamed of her. In the frenzy, a candle flame gets out of control, eventually causing their beloved clubhouse to burn down. Darla, having been mistakenly led to believe Alfalfa feels ashamed of her, dumps him and turns her attentions toward Waldo (played by Blake McIver Ewing), the new kid in town whose father (played by Donald Trump) is an oil tycoon. Because Alfalfa burned down the clubhouse and also fraternized with a girl, Spanky, Stymie, and friends punish Alfalfa by assigning him to guard the club's prized go-kart day and night until the day of the race. Until that day comes, Alfalfa makes several attempts to woo back Darla, including sending her a fake love note. When that attempt fails, Alfalfa decides to pay her a visit in person at her ballet recital. Spanky accompanies him, but only to try to convince him to permanently break it off with her. While trying to find Darla so they can speak with her they are pursued by the neighborhood bullies, Butch and Woim. The only way they can hide from them is by dressing up in costumes and pretending to be girls in the ballet recital, which causes them to turn the performance into a complete disaster and be laughed off the stage. Butch and Woim end up chasing Alfalfa all over town in his underwear.

At the carnival talent show the day before the race, Alfalfa once again tries to win Darla back, this time through song, being that Darla mentioned after she dumped him that the only thing she ever really missed about him was his voice. Waldo however, Darla's new boyfriend, spoils Alfalfa's attempts to serenade her by putting soap in his drinking water, causing him the embarrassment of burping out very large bubbles all throughout his song.

The boys try to fund-raise $450, the cost of the lumber needed to rebuild their burnt-down clubhouse. The youngest club members, Porky and Buckwheat, have unwittingly come up with $500, not realizing that their method for earning the money was not exactly honest. Their school teacher, Miss Crabtree, finds out about the scheme and confronts them, but Spanky convinces her to donate the money to be given as first prize in the go-kart derby.

Due to Alfalfa's carelessness, "The Blur" is eventually stolen by Butch and Woim, so that now, in addition to having to rebuild the clubhouse, the boys now need a new set of wheels. They band together to build "Blur 2: The Sequel," and prior to race day, Spanky and Alfalfa reconcile their friendship and decide to ride in the two-seat go-kart together. They hope to win the prize money and the trophy, which is to be presented to the winners by the greatest racer of all, "A.J. Ferguson."

Butch and Woim make several sneaky attempts to stop Alfalfa and Spanky from winning the race. Waldo and Darla have also entered the go-kart race, however they eventually become annoyed with each other, and Waldo (seemingly) kicks Darla out from his car midway through the race. In a wild dash to the finish, and despite the many scrapes and crashes throughout the race, "The Blur 2" crosses the finish line ahead of the pack in a photo-finish between "The Blur and "The Blur 2" literally by a hair, due to Alfalfa's pointy hairstyle. After the race, Butch and Woim are angry and jealous towards Alfalfa because he won the trophy and the prize money. They attempt to beat him up, but Alfalfa finally stands up for himself and punches Butch in the face, knocking him into a giant pool of pig slop. Woim then gets scared and jumps into the pig slop willingly.

Along with first prize. Spanky, meanwhile, is shocked at the trophy presentation when he finally meets his favorite driver, A.J. Ferguson, who turns out to be "a girl!" (Reba McEntire). Spanky confesses to Darla that he and the boys pulled the pranks on her at their picnic lunch, not Alfalfa. After the club house is rebuilt, the boys collectively have a change of heart towards membership and they decide to welcome Darla and friends as well as other girls into the club, adding a "Women Welcome" sign onto the front door.

Cast

Production

Bill Thomas, Jr., son of the late Bill Thomas, who played the original Buckwheat, contacted the studio and was invited down to visit the set, but got the impression that the filmmakers did not want him or any of the surviving original cast members involved in any production capacity. The surviving cast members saw this as especially hurtful, in light of the fact that director Penelope Spheeris had previously made a point of including Buddy Ebsen, from the original Beverly Hillbillies, in her 1993 feature film adaptation of that series. Eugene Jackson, who played the original Pineapple from the silent Our Gang comedies, and tried unsuccessfully to contact the studio to be a part of production, stated, "It's real cold. They have no respect for the old-timers. At least they could have recognized some of the living legends surviving from the first films."[1] Filming took place from January 11, 1994 to April 6, 1994.

Release

Critical reception

The film received mostly negative critical reviews upon its original release; it currently holds a 25% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[2] Despite the mostly negative reception, the film had scored a 70% audience rating and Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a thumbs up.

Box office

The Little Rascals earned $10 million at the North American box office during its opening weekend.[3][4] The film grossed a worldwide total of $67,308,282.

Repurposed scenes and situations

Many of the gags and subplots in the film were borrowed from the original Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts. These include:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Spiller, Nancy (August 6, 1994). "Not All 'Our Gang's' Here". Los Angeles Times.
  2. ↑ The Little Rascals at Rotten Tomatoes
  3. ↑ Fox, David J. (1994-08-08). "A 'Clear' Triumph at Box Office : Movies: The Harrison Ford thriller seizes the No. 1 spot with estimated ticket receipts of more than $20 million.". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-01-06.
  4. ↑ Welkos, Robert W. (1994-08-16). "Weekend Box Office". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-01-11.

External links

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