Bebe's Kids

Bébé's Kids (released to video 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 Robin Harris' popular "Bébé's Kids" stand-up comedy act. It features the voices of Faizon Love , Vanessa Bell Calloway, Marques Houston, Nell Carter, and Tone-Loc.

History

Original stand-up version

In the original act, Robin's prospective girlfirend asks him to take her and her son to Disneyland, but when he agrees, she shows up with four 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 Mickey Mouse, cut off Donald Duck's feet, try to steal Robin's 8-track radio (while he's listening to it!), and make a general meanace of themselves. Their reputation is so bad that even the police refuse to mess with them.

In a second act, the Kids kidnap Robin and make him take them to Las Vegas. He tries to get a lion to eat them, but even the lion has heard of them and refuses to even try.

The name Bébé's Kids (alternately pronounced/spelled Bay-Bay Kids) has come to refer to any group of misbehaved children.

Animated film version

Bébé's Kids was the first animated feature film targeted toward an African-American 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 Disneyland to a generic amusement park named "Fun World", which is totally demolished by the kids' antics.

Plot

The plot of the film finds an animated version of Robin Harris (voiced by Love) recounting his disasterous first date with the beautiful Jamika (voiced by Calloway). Tagging along for the date were 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": Kahill (voiced by Houston), Leshawn (voiced by Jonell Green), and Pee-Wee (voiced by Ton-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...Bebe's Kids!"

The group decided to take a trip to the Disneyland-esque FunWorld, 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 Paramount, and did not do well until it resurfaced on home video and HBO in 1993. Since then, it has gone on to be a cult classic and was released on DVD in 2004.

Bundled with all releases of the film (theatrical, TV, home video) was an animated short subject, Itsy Bitsy Spider, which later became an animated series for the USA Network.

A video game based upon the movie was released on the Super Nintendo. This game is regarded by some gamers as one of the worst games ever made.

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