"Our Gang" best known as the "Little Rascals" are one of the funniest comedy shorts for kids of all time. They were funny, clever, cute it was the "Rugrats" of it's time and still is today! Yeah, you can argue about the stereotypes of all kids (Not just African American kids) and their stereotypical humor, you can call it dated, you can call to violent for kids, you can even say most of it doesn't have any morals but here's the thing, just like The Looney Tunes and the Merrie Melodies cartoons for example it's still going to be around forever whether you like it or not. It showed how different groups and races got together to become great friends, it got people through the depression, people still talk about them, the jokes are still funny and even an OK film was made to expose modern audiences to these films! Even the African American kids strongly defended this franchise and to me that's saying something. Whether you love them or hate them, they'll still be an iconic short film franchise that won't be forgotten any time soon. To celebrate this series I'm going to review a volume from the Cabin Fever video collection which are uncut and are hosted by Leonard Maltin. Instead of making you wait for a year for me to review the next one. Oh and by the way if you expect me to nitpick every stereotypical joke, well all I'm going to say is if it's not a major theme or if it's just done briefly I'm going to pass on it because I'm just reviewing the whole entire picture instead of just looking for flaws (Expect that when I review cartoons of the time).So with that out of the way welcome to my review on...
THE LITTLE RASCALS VOL.1
FLY MY KITE
The kids spend time with their grandma who tells them stories and plays with them, however a greedy and mean man wants to kick her out and wants her Bonds that are worth a lot of money, however, not knowing that the Bonds mean something the kid uses it as the tail for their Kite. This is a really good short. The relationship with the Grandma and the kids is cute, the comedy is great and the climax is brilliantly funny. After watching this episode, I realized that there are so many violent things going on for comedy that you'd never ever see it in a kids film today! Watching this episode is like watching a live action cartoon (Like "The Three Stooges" for example) and it's one of the funniest short films from the series of all time.
RATING 5/5
HONKY DONKEY
RATING 5/5
BEGINNERS LUCK
Spanky is forced by his Mother to be in a talent show for 10.00 dollars as the prize. Spanky doesn't want to be in it, so he hires his friends to trash the show. However, a little girl wants the money really bad and feeling sorry for the girl, Spanky tries to win the money to help her. Spanky is usually the tough guy of the gang but here we actually see him do something right then being a tough guy. While the episode focuses on the talent of kids in the show which is done as filler, when Spanky gets up on the stage that's where things get extremely funny. By the way, we also see the actor who plays Alfalfa before he became the character. While some of it is filler, it's still nice to see a carrying side of Spanky with a humorous climax.
RATING 4/5
REUNION IN RHYTHM
Former members of the gang and new members of the gang come together to watch the new members perform a talent show. While it's nice seeing the original members together with the new members it's more of a musical episode then a comedy episode. The episode is really not that great it's just as cutesy as watching your kid in a talent show. Obviously the kids aren't great dancers or singers (Especially Alfalfa) but it's still cute watching them put on a show and perform for the former gang. Overall it's not funny or one of their good ones but it's still cute and watchable.
RATING 2/5
And that's Volume 1, hope you enjoyed the review and stay tuned for Volume 2.
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