The reviews I've read for Fat Albert have been disheartening and for the most part, non-reflective of this movie.

Too many critics cannot put aside their pretentiousness and evaluate this and other movies of the genre for what they are...children's entertainment.

From this standpoint, Fat Albert stands above most of what I have seen with my kids in recent years. Beside a wonderful dose of nostalgia for boomers, this is a movie packed with humor, solid entertainment, decency, and important lessons about life. To me, that's what children's entertainment is about.

And there were bonuses for adults as well...

I thought the cast suceeded in capturing what we loved about the cartoon characters. Dumb Donald, Mush Mouth, Fat Albert were all on target and delivered more to love in their human form.

I also appreciated the movie's ability to laugh at itself. I cracked up when The Cosby Kids were waiting outside the girl's apartment the morning after they met. They didn't need to sleep, eat, or go to the bathroom...because hey hey hey, they're cartoon characters.

Lastly, the connection to the girl's grandfather Al was a lovely tie-in and the scene at the cemetery where the grown up Cosby gang paid tribute to their friend was sentimental without being sappy.

Can I pick apart small things about the movie? Absolutely! However, this movie provided my family and myself with such good feelings, smiles, and conversation afterwards that there is no need to bother.

Compare this with other kids movies that are chock full of scatological humor and impending sexuality and you will see that Fat Albert stands far and above.

This movie was funny, thoughtful, and brought back many a wonderful memory. Go see it.

I work with troubled teens and decided to invite a student over break to go to the movies with my 4 and 9 year old. He suggested "Fat Albert"--I am so glad he did! The film was absolutely wonderful in its innocence and charm. My teen liked it because of the "fantasy to reality" twist...as well as the cute girls and the great music. He also liked the idea of someone looking out for the "lonely" kid. My little kids thought the jokes were funny, the guys were funny, the music and dancing were"the bomb" and even the plot was even a little suspenseful for a little kid. I loved it because I grew up on the "Fat Albert" series and was just so happy to see and instantly remember all of my old pals. And the hilarious group scenes where the actions so fundamental to the cartoon were just ridiculous to the real life settings were so clever and delightfully funny--I was so pleased! If you're looking for an all-around, no crass or innuendo laden, truly sweet family film--this is the one!!

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 ...