FAT ALBERT'S HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
Don’t own it? Don’t worry. It’s on Netflix Instant. Enjoy!
Wow, you’ve made it through my list of 12 underrated movies for Halloween, and it’s only a little past 4 pm? You dedicated psycho, I love you! But wait, you’ve got 8 more hours of All Hallow’s Eve to burn. Granted, Daylight’s Saving is a week late this year, so you have a full extra hour of sunlight for trick or treating. But the sun will run down eventually, and you don’t want the creatures of the night to get you (let them rip and tear through those rotten kids with the shaving cream and eggs). So here’s an extra flick for you as you settle down in your comfy chair and divide up the good candy from the bad (peanut butter cups always took precedence over taffy in my bag). But hey, the tricks and treats aren’t over. You’ll be ringing doorbells with one obese kid in FAT ALBERT’S HALLOWEEN SPECIAL.
Fat Albert and his weird looking crew
You kids these days might find this special hokey (oh wait a minute, no kid uses the word “hokey” anymore) or a drag. I say get with the program and put your smart phone and your sophistication. Fat Albert was one of my favorites as a kid (and I wonder if he had anything to do with my love of blaxploitation later in life). He and his ragtag group of inner city buddies were always getting into some exploits, and this time they were out to spook the scary old lady down the block. Along the way, they choose and make their own costumes, pull a prank at a graveyard, and in the funniest moment, are looted by an old man with a sweet tooth for most of their candy. And as usual, Fat Albert and his friends learn an important lesson, this one of the “don’t judge a book by its cover” cliché.
Okay, so maybe it is a little hokey. But it’s fun. More fun than watching computer animated Jimmy Neutron or that Johnny Test kid. Just take it for what it is: good old fashioned fun from a simpler time, when a kid with a pink half mask could walk the streets and not be the subject of ridicule. No, I don’t mean just on Halloween; that’s how one of the kids walked the streets every day.
Scary? Not really, but good clean fun
Being a kid is supposed to be about the simple pleasures in life. Fat Albert brings me back to those times when I didn’t have to worry about making rent, when my mom was still alive and would always put on the best holiday cartoons. Kids today should stop and remember that growing up can happen too fast, and they need to cherish those fleeting moments while they’re still young.
Wow, that sounded so preachy I feel as if I ate a whole bowl of candy, and I’m ready to puke. If you made it through the Fasso Halloween Marathon, make this the topper. If anything, it’s the only Halloween fare you’ll find that stars a kid named Mush Mouth. And you thought Michael Myers was the day’s only M.M.
-Phil Fasso
