Fat Albert MPAA Rating: PG Entertainment: +2 Content: -1/2

Based on Bill Cosbys stand-up comedy acts and his cartoon of the 70s, Fat Albert brings us this live-action version of Fat Albert (Kenan Thompson) and his friends (Jermaine Williams, Alphonso McAuley, Marques Houston) growing up in Philadelphia. They occupy the local junkyard and spend their time singing and rescuing other adolescents in trouble. Life is normal in the cartoon world until the day a teardrop falls from the eye of a real-life viewer into their junkyard. Fat Albert and the gang jump through the TV set into the living room of a teenage girl (Kyla Pratt) who is lonely and friendless. The boys determine to solve her dilemma but can only survive for a short time in reality. Through hip-hop parties, mall jump roping, track races and Fat Alberts girl crush, the gang is close to resolving her loneliness but is running out of time.

Fat Albert sends positive messages that are rare in todays film industry. The adolescent boys in this family-friendly film say things like, If you try to become something youre not, youll lose the essence of who you really are. They work together as a group of kids to encourage the heart of a disheartened girl sending a message to kids today to be kind and strong for the unaccepted and rejected. This peppy, hilarious film is without much of the vulgarity that inevitably ends up in comedies, but unfortunately a couple of crudities and one s-word find their way onto the screen, preventing a wholehearted recommendation from Preview. Also present are small bits of violence and some cleavage shown on women with low-cut tops. But the positive messages and content of the film far outweigh the negative. Overall, Fat Albert is refreshingly entertaining film that most will enjoy.

Preview Reviewer: Troy Dandrea
Distributor: 20th Century Fox