Travel Inkwell
Something I Said - Bebe's Kids
Something I Said - Bebe's Kids
Dwight Hobbes
Insight News archives
A classic that missed out on making it to DVD, Bebe's Kids never quite got to enjoy much press, certainly not the sort of splash coverage Disney's p.r. muscle, for instance, orchestrated for Alladin, Pochahontas or The Lion King. Nor was it met with a world of praise or, really, much attention at all, from mainstream critics. It simply didn't have a big studio budget behind the scenes. Which meant not having merchandising tie-ins to McBurger Thing to shove it down young throats. All it really had going for it, aside its already catchy title was the fact that it's a fine piece of laugh-loaded, surprisingly thoughtful animated viewing that kids and grown-ups both could sit down and have a ball watching.
Based on characters created by comic genius Robin Harris, Bebe's Kids is a warmhearted, irreverent tour de force of bone-dry wit with several sterling earmarks of quality. Reginald Hudlin's writing is tight, Bruce W. Smith's directing is well paced and the whole experience is chock full of wry humor with a simple storyline and a positive message: the caring difference men can make in the lives of daddy-less children is vitally important. Of course, sometimes it calls for a great deal of patience and a strong store of understanding (these young 'uns, here, are a handful and a half) but the result is way worth it.
The plot deftly includes a priceless subtext, inventively championing the appreciation of cultural diversity without resorting to stale or stilted rhetoric. The dialogue's flavor, snappy and authentic, smacks of black urban homes everywhere, killers lines delivered with hilariously glum deadpan. For example: "I'll smack all the black off you; "You mama's so fat, she's on both sides of the family" and "Go 'head, beat him like he owe you money". Those particular throwaway lines are beautifully executed by Faizon Love, who so faithfully reads Harris' style for the protagonist "Robin", complete with swiss-clock timing, you'd swear it was Harris, himself come back from the grave. The supporting cast of voices features some of the finest professionals in the business - Vanessa Bell Calloway (What's Love Got To Do With It, The Inkwell), stage, television and film veteran Moses Gun, television star Nell Carter, comedian Louie Anderson, master impressionist Rich Little and an hysterically on-target personification by rapper Tone Lōc, laid back and laconic as smallest and smelliest Bebe kid "Pee Wee", who travels with a compliment of flies circling his diaper. Providing the flawless musical backdrop is a hook-strewn, in-the-cut soundtrack with new numbers by, among others, The Ojays and The Emotions. Some of the off-the-cuff language is slightly salty, but 11 kids out of 10 have regularly heard bluer expletives come out of their parents' mouths long before they watched Bebe's Kids so it's not going to warp any young mind. Also, the curvy character Vanessa Bell Calloway voices, "Jamika", is drawn hot as a sunburn (not much unlike the actor, herself), but, again, youngster see more provocatively protruding posteriors (say that five times fast) on Beyoncé videos.
The story is straightforward. "Robin", trying to romance "Jamika", takes her, her son and her friend Bebe's trio of menacing minors to Funworld, where, naturally, all pandemonium breaks loose as these little kids can't behave to save their lives and every time they turn around find something else to get into. Before he can accomplish his libidinous ends, to which baby-sitting the brats is the means, he comes to learn bad kids don't get that way by themselves and to appreciate that, deep down, they ain't necessarily bad, especially if they're paid attention instead of palmed off someone or parked unattended in a hovel. Bebe's Kids makes its point without preaching. It merely tells it like it is, reflecting on the simple, human solution to what still is today a pressing social problem. And, in the process of getting the message across this movie-viewing gem delightfully strikes one uproarious chord after another.
Too bad it's out of print and never made it to DVD, because Bebe's Kids is the quality of family oriented film-making that deserved to be around for a long, long time.
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About the Author
Coming: "Angels Don't Really Fly" EP by Dwight Hobbes & The All-Star Hired Guns featuring Alicia Wiley. The crew: Me, Alicia Wiley, Stanley Kipper, Chico Perez, Jeff "Boday" Christensen, Aaron "Orange A.C." Cosgrove and Yohannes Tona. Singer-songwriter Dwight Hobbes recorded the single "Atlanta Children" (BeatBad Records) and gigged 10 years in the Long Island/NYC area, including The Other End, Kenny's Castaways and My Fathers Place. Fronted the Boston blues band Midlight. In Minneapolis, Hobbes opened for David Daniels at First Street Entry, James Curry at Terminal Bar, sat in with Yohannes Tona, Alicia Wiley at Sol Testimony's Soul Jam, The New Congress at Babalu, Willie Murphy at the Viking Bar and Wain McFarlane & Jahz at Lucille's Kitchen. Dwight Hobbes still drops in at the occasional open mic around town. Dwight Hobbes has written for ESSENCE, Reader's Digest, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, Mpls/St. Paul, MN Law & Politics, Pulse of the Twin Cities, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Women & Word, San Diego Union-Tribune, The Circle, to Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (where he contributes the commentary columns Hobbes In The House and Something I Said. He's spoken his mind over National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio and KMOJ in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Was regularly featured as guest commentator on NewsNight Minnesota (KTCA-Minneapolis/St. Paul) and Spectator (Minneapolis Television Network). His monthly column "Hobbes In The House" in MN Spokesman Recorder comments on domestic abuse and rape. His plays are Shelter - produced at Mixed Blood Theatre by Pangea World Theater, Dues - produced by Mixed Blood Theatre, University of Southern Illinois in Point of Revue, selected for Bedlam Theatre's 10-Minute Play Festival and published by Playscripts, Inc. You Can't Always Sometimes Never Tell - produced by Theater Center Philadelphia, Long Island University, reading at The Kennedy Center and published in the anthology CENTER STAGE, In the Midst - produced by Long Island University, starring Samuel E. Wright. Hobbes spoke on the panel "Farewell To August Wilson" at the Guthrie Theater, broadcast on Conversations With Al McFarlane (KFAI, KMOJ).
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