The Little Rascals

Based on the Our Gang series of short films, The Little Rascals follows the title kids, including Bug Hall’s Alfalfa, Brittany Ashton Holmes’ Darla, and Ross Bagley’s Buckwheat, as they attempt to raise a significant amount of cash to rebuild their prized clubhouse. It’s clear almost immediately that The Little Rascals has been designed to appeal solely to very small children (and possibly fans of the original shorts), as the picture’s been infused with a woefully, aggressively over-the-top feel that prevents the viewer from embracing the material for the entirety of its short-yet-not-short-enough runtime – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by the far-from-talented efforts of a uniformly underwhelming roster of young performers. There’s little doubt, then, that The Little Rascals is really only tolerable in very short-lived fits and starts, with the inclusion of several amusing cameo appearances and a small handful of funny moments (eg some of the kids attempt to take out a bank loan by disguising themselves as two adults) acting as a temporary respite to the pervasive tedium, while the soapbox derby race that closes the proceedings is just about as tiresome and interminable as one could possibly imagine – which does, in the final analysis, cement the film’s place as a mostly intolerable endeavor that’s rarely, if ever, as charming as director/cowriter Penelope Spheeris has intended.

*1/2 out of ****