Stuff I Grew Up With: The Little Rascals (1994)

It was the summer of 1994 and I was seven years old. My cousin Jonathan and I were staying with our paternal grandmother, whom we all called Nana, for a few days for some reason I've long since forgotten, though it was likely because both of our parents had to go out of town. Though my memory is very hazy, I can remember the three of us going to the movies one afternoon, and I think we'd intended to go see the Lassie movie that had come out recently (anybody remember that?). While hardly a Lassie aficionado, both then and now, that was the movie I was expecting to see, but when we went into the theater, the movie that began playing was... this. I don't know if Nana mistakenly took us into the wrong theater or if Lassie was sold out (which I doubt, since that movie bombed big time) but, either way, it was The Little Rascals we spent the afternoon watching. Now, I knew nothing of the classic Our Gang shorts at the time (to this day, I've barely seen any of them), and I also couldn't even tell you what I thought of this movie when I first saw it, but it must've left some sort of a positive impression, as it became one I rented a good number of times throughout my childhood. In fact, like other flicks such as Jurassic Park, Casper, Space Jam, Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, and a lot of Disney animated movies, it was something I never owned a copy of myself when I was a kid, but I saw it so many times that I may as well have. It really was the perfect movie for someone that age, as it was mostly just about a bunch of kids in that same general bracket getting into all sorts of mischief. And it made me wish I had a group of friends like that, as I was mostly a loner at my elementary school, despite a few friends here and there (who, believe it or not, actually moved away to different countries at the end of the respective school year!), as well as my cousins.

Since I hadn't seen it in a long time, like before I entered high school, I was curious about revisiting it, which I did for the first time in 2023, when it was on Tubi. Having re-watched it again since then, I must say that I still have a lot of nostalgia for it and think it's fun. As an adult, there are things about it that I can criticize, as well as certain aspects that make me kind of go "hmm" in hindsight, but on the whole, I think it's a perfectly enjoyable kids flick, with an old-fashioned sense of charm about it. And also, before we get into it, I want to stress that I'm completely ignorant when it comes to the original Our Gang shorts. Save for some very brief, long forgotten glimpses on this AMC programming block that Frankie Muniz hosted in the early 2000's, I've never seen any of them, and the only reason why I saw that was because it played early on Saturday mornings and I was waiting for NYUK with Leslie Nielsen so I could watch an hour of the Three Stooges. Now, if we were talking about something Stooges-related, like the 2000 TV biopic or the Farrelly Brothers movie, I'd be all over it, but for The Little Rascals, all I know is that a lot of the vignettes in this movie are remakes of some of those old shorts, though I couldn't tell you what they were called. And I also can't really comment on whether or not any of the characters here are originally from those shorts or if they differ from their original portrayals. So, if you're a major Our Gang fan (I know I'm making myself look like a noob just by saying that, since they became known as The Little Rascals when they aired on television), please be kind if I get something wrong or are completely ignorant about certain things, because I know I will be.

Spanky McFarland, the leader of the "He-Man Woman Haters Club," sends his dog, Petey, out with a note gathering all the members at the clubhouse for an impromptu meeting. There he announces that, with the annual Go-Cart Derby at the county fair coming up, it's time to choose the driver for their undefeated cart, The Blur. He picks the name out of a number in Stymie's hat and it turns out to be none other than Alfalfa... who's nowhere to be seen at the meeting. That's because he's with Darla, much to the disgust of the others when they find out. Moreover, Darla invites him to perform with her at the fair's talent show, and he, in turn, invites her on a picnic the next day. However, she insists they have it at the clubhouse, which he agrees to, figuring the others won't be there. Unbeknownst to them, the others sabotage said picnic with various nasty pranks, and the clubhouse ultimately ends up catching on fire and burning to the ground, despite their efforts to put it out. Thinking Alfalfa is ashamed of her and was behind the picnic going south, she breaks up with him and instead hooks up with Waldo, a snobbish rich kid who just moved to the neighborhood. As per his punishment for the fire, Alfalfa is ordered to guard The Blur day and night until the day of the race, and to never speak with Darla again. Meanwhile, the others try to find a way to make the money necessary to rebuild the clubhouse through various schemes, and Alfalfa tries to win back Darla, especially when he learns that Spanky and the others sabotaged the picnic, all to no avail. And when The Blur is stolen by local bullies Butch and Woim, this threatens to not only ruin their chances to win the race but also permanently destroy their friendship.

The Little Rascals was the second modern adaptation of a classic IP directed by Penelope Spheeris, with the first being The Beverly Hillbillies movie the previous year. She also co-wrote the screenplay with writers Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur, who would both go on to write other comedies like Liar Liar and Heartbreakers. This is the only movie of Spheeris' that I've ever seen, as I've never been interested in seeing Wayne's World, as I'm not that big on Mike Meyers, nor are Black Sheep, Senseless, and The Kid & I very high on my pecking order. From what I can understand, it seems as though she wasn't all that keen on becoming the comedy director she did after the enormous success of Wayne's World (although, she does seem to have been frustrated that Meyers kept her from doing the sequel), and is much more proud of her Decline of Western Civilization documentaries. She's said that she wanted to do movies like Leap of Faith and Men in Black, among others, but was denied; at the same time, she also turned down others like George of the Jungle and Legally Blonde because she was desperate to get out of the comedy scene, which she eventually did, basically falling out with Hollywood.

Though a good number of the characters from the original shorts are here, the film focuses mainly on Alfalfa, Spanky, and Darla, and, while a good number of them have their butt-monkey moments, Alfalfa (Bug Hall) gets it the worst. The poor kid is torn between being a member of the He-Man Woman Haters Club and his love for Darla, and often finds himself at odds with both of them. He tells Darla that he's not like the others, that he's a sensitive male, but then, when he invites her on a picnic, she insists that, in order to prove he's proud of her, they have it at the clubhouse. Knowing it's a bad idea, but figuring nobody will be there since the next day is "swimming day," he decides to go ahead with it. Unbeknownst to him, the others overheard and sabotage the picnic, though they're unable to stop Alfalfa from giving Darla a heart-shaped ring he found in a Cracker Jack box, or from the two of them kissing. But then, when they start banging down on the door, demanding he open up, he tries to hide her, insulting her and prompting her to break up with him. Even worse, he ends up accidentally setting fire to the clubhouse, and while Spanky is initially intent on sentencing him to "execution," since he was chosen to drive it, they decide instead to have him guard The Blur, day and night until the upcoming race. And that's just the start of Alfalfa's humiliation, as he has to endure an impromptu sleepover with the guys talking about why girls suck; getting dragged into a ballet recital and having to dance around in drag, with a frog in his tutu; getting chased across town in just his underwear, and momentarily losing said underwear in a swimming pool... in front of Darla and her new boyfriend, Waldo; embarking on a humiliating, failed attempt to win back Darla at the county fair's talent show; and causing The Blur to get stolen. And in the end, he learns that Spanky and the others were the ones who sabotaged their picnic, prompting him to disown him as a friend. However, it doesn't last long, and the two of them make up, admit their respective failings, and agree to drive together in the race, with everyone working together to build The Blur 2.

I kind of feel bad that they made Bug Hall sing a couple of times, as that poor kid cannot carry a tune to save his life. In fact, when he's first introduced, he's serenading Darla with You Are So Beautiful, with his voice cracking constantly, and the same goes for when he tries to win her back at the talent show by singing The Air That I Breathe (his warming up beforehand didn't help whatsoever). Although, I'm positive that's part of the joke, that he can't sing at all, and yet, it works for Darla, who later admits as much.

They also gave him a pair of prosthetic ears that wiggle whenever he's really happy, as well as some funny lines, like his well-meaning but clumsy attempts to woo Darla after he finishes singing, telling her, "Oh, Darla, we're two hearts but with one beat. Two brains but with one thought. Two souls but with one... shoe." Then, when he invites her on a picnic: "The way you feed my soul, I can... feed your face." During the scene when he's being chased around town in his underwear by Butch and Woim, he says to himself, "Things couldn't possibly get any

worse," only to run right into them. To that, he comments, "Oh, then the clouds opened up and God said, 'I hate you, Alfalfa!'" And when he realizes he lost his underwear right in front of Darla and Waldo, he tells the former, "Darla, there's a perfectly logical explanation for this..." only for Waldo's Doberman Pinscher, Fifi, to threaten him. He then adds, "Which I'll make up later," and runs off screaming. Finally, it's really nice to see him grow some balls over the course of the movie, standing up to both Spanky and Butch and Woim during the race, at one point telling Butch, "Oh, bite me!", and punching him out after it.

Though he's Alfalfa's best friend, and has been since they were really little, Spanky (Travis Tedford), as the president of the He-Man Woman Hater's Club, is determined to keep him away from Darla, especially since he's been chosen to drive The Blur in the go-cart derby. When he and the others overhear their plans to have a picnic at the clubhouse, Spanky heads up a plot to sabotage it, and is incensed, along with everyone else, when the two of them kiss regardless. Things only get worse when Alfalfa accidentally burns down the clubhouse. Though delighted when Darla breaks up with Alfalfa and goes off with Waldo, Spanky is initially intent upon on executing him at dawn, but settles for Stymie's suggestion that he be forced to guard The Blur. Also, Spanky takes it upon himself to make sure that, as per his "probation," Alfalfa stays away from Darla, which he does whenever he and the others aren't trying to come up with money to build a new clubhouse. When Alfalfa intends on going against Spanky's orders to see Darla, he drags him to her ballet recital so he can dump her once and for all. But while waiting for the opportunity, Butch and Woim show up, forcing them to take cover in the ballet school and disguise themselves as ballerinas. They then end up in the room where all the girls, including Darla, are waiting for the recital to start, and while Alfalfa tries to talk himself up to hopefully make Darla think well of him, Spanky acts like an old flame of his, saying, "That ugly scum led me on as if he cared, then dropped me like a hot tamale." And just to add insult to injury, he says, "I hear he dresses in girls' clothes," all while Alfalfa glares at him. After they get dragged into the recital, and screw it up because they have no idea how to dance (and Alfalfa has to deal with a frog that Spanky gave him earlier croaking in his tutu), Spanky, showing that he really is a pal, opts to distract Butch and Woim outside, while Alfalfa runs for it. Not that it makes much of a difference, though, as they both get chased.

Things go south between Spanky and Alfalfa when the latter learns that he was behind what happened at the picnic, and when Spanky adds one final insult to his already ruined attempt to woo back Darla at the talent show. They start flinging insults at each other, and when they discover that The Blur has been stolen, Spanky tells him, "I wish I had a club to throw you out of!", and Alfalfa retaliates that he'd quit if there still was a club. There's a brief section after that where the guys all lament this falling out, but, at

Stymie's urging, and despite Spanky worrying about his dignity and pride, he and Alfalfa make up, with Spanky apologizing for sabotaging the picnic and admitting that it makes him responsible for the fire as well. Alfalfa also makes him think that maybe they could be a club because they like something, and then, with Spanky's encouragement, everybody gets back together and works around the clock to build The Blur 2. They also act as copilots during the race and ultimately win both the trophy and the money necessary to rebuild the clubhouse. And after it's all

over, Spanky not only confesses to Darla what he did, adding that he felt like she was trying to take his best friend away and ruin their club, but also gets a surprise when the prize presenter, A.J. Ferguson, his favorite racer, turns out to be a woman. This spurs him and the others to have a change of heart about their club; once the clubhouse is rebuilt, they allow girls in.

I've always had rather mixed feelings about Darla (Brittany Ashton Holmes). While she's cute and all, and I get that she wants to know for sure that Alfalfa respects her, I feel that her insisting they have their picnic at the clubhouse is a bit much, as she should know it would cause him a lot of trouble. And when the other kids are banging down the door, yelling at them, and he tries to hide her in the closet, what does she think is happening? Does she not hear them? Or did she think he actually told them they were going to have the picnic there and there was nothing they could do about it? Either way, she not only leaves the clubhouse by driving The Blur straight through the wall, then watches them desperately trying to put out the fire from afar, but breaks up with Alfalfa and goes off with Waldo, whom she was flirting with when they first met. After that, despite not being able to get him off her mind, and admitting that there are things about him she still likes, Darla spends much of the rest of the movie with Waldo: hanging out with him at his estate, performing in the talent show with him, and being his partner in the race. Alfalfa tries several times to win her back, but they all backfire, with the most egregious one being when he attempts to woo her with his singing at the talent show, which is sabotaged by both Waldo and Spanky. Humiliated by his mentioning her by name during that embarrassing performance, Darla flat-out says she hates him. But during the race, when she realizes how Waldo is not only a pompous and even sociopathic jerk, willing to endanger Alfalfa and Spanky in order to win, but that he screwed with Alfalfa's song when he all but admits to it, Darla tells him that she's not finishing the race with him. And she means just that, as at the end of the race, it's revealed that she kicked him out of the cart and drove the rest of it herself, her identity hidden by her helmet and goggles. After Alfalfa and Spanky win, Darla reconciles with Alfalfa when Spanky admits what he did.

The two members of the club who are virtually inseparable are Buckwheat (Ross Bagley) and Porky (Zachary Mabry), probably because they're two of the youngest. When we first see them during the opening, they're fishing and unknowingly get their lines hooked together, with Porky ultimately getting pulled in; they deliver a supposed "hate-note" to Darla from Alfalfa, screwing up one of his attempts to reconcile with her; and guard The Blur when Alfalfa and Spanky are off getting into mischief at Darla's ballet 

recital. They also prove to be the most naive and careless members. When the clubhouse is on fire, the two of them wait in line at a payphone to call the fire department, only to get up there and not know the number for 9-1-1; they then just shrug and walk off, not seeing that the fire department is literally right behind them. And while they're on their way to the race, they cross the street and Porky absentmindedly turns one of the direction markers, which later causes Alfalfa and Spanky, Butch and Woim, and Waldo and Darla to go off-course. Yet, they also prove to be much savvier than the others realize. While guarding The Blur, the two of them seemingly fall for a decoy that Butch and Woim send their way, only for the two bullies to spring a smelly trap when they try to steal the car. And at the fair, while Spanky's main scheme to get some money falls flat, Buckwheat and Porky acquire around $500 by simply putting up an admission sign outside the entrance to the talent show, which is actually supposed to be free. As for their individual personalities, Buckwheat is the more memorable, as he's livelier and has memorable lines, like, "We got a dollar! We got a dollar! We got a dollar, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!", and, "I have two pickles, I have two pickles, I have two pickles today, hey, hey." He also does say "o-tay," but that's actually a common phrase among the whole group, and he doesn't really have the speech impediment he was famous for in the old shorts. (Also, when I was a little kid, I always thought he was a girl, and couldn't understand why one was part of the Woman Haters Club.) As for Porky, he's just kind of a typical little kid, although he does have the others' general disdain for girls, saying stuff in the opening meeting like, "Women make men miserable!", and that whoever drives The Blur should be, "A he-man so manly that, if he fell off a building, he'd go out of his way to land on a girl."

This is how ignorant I am: I knew that those original shorts had a reputation for often being very politically incorrect by today's standards, but I had no idea that the one kid, Stymie (Kevin Jamal Woods), was named after a racial slur. I figured that by the 90's, they wouldn't have been allowed to get away with anything that was seen as racially insensitive, especially given how both he and Buckwheat are depicted in a positive manner and no attention is ever brought to their race, but I guess I was wrong. Either way, as the club's vice-president, Stymie is actually one of my favorite characters in the film, as he comes off as really cool and street-smart, as well as mature beyond his years (his line, "Wood doesn't grow on trees," notwithstanding). I like how, at the start of the meeting at the beginning, he tells everyone to raise their right hand, but they all raise their left, and he, rolling his eyes, says, "Your other right hand." He does the same thing when he has them repeat their mantra and, instead of each saying their name, like they're supposed to, they copy him and say, "Stymie." There's a moment with him I find really funny, when they're trying to put out the fire and he encourages Spanky, who's carrying the fire-hose to run faster and faster. Spanky then starts running very quickly, to which Stymie exclaims, "Whoa! That is fast!" Even funnier than that is when they're disguised as adults, trying to get a loan, and the loan officer, Mr. Welling, after seeing through the charade, pulls and snaps their fake beards, then tells them, "If you were my kids, I'd punish you!" To that, Stymie retorts, "If we were your kids, we'd punish ourselves!" Similarly, he tries to help out Spanky when they put up a fake attraction at the fair and, when no one's going in, he, acting as a barker, exclaims, "Gimme a quarter! Five dollars! Anything!" Most significantly, when Alfalfa and Spanky are on the outs, Stymie tries to talk both of them into making up with each other, telling them, "All I know is, you only make a once in a lifetime friend." And eventually, it does work out and the gang gets back together.

Froggy's (Jordan Warkol) biggest defining feature is his scratchy voice (provided by E.G. Daily) and love for reptiles, one of which he says he used to get rid of a girl who came over to bis house, as well as his overalls and big, round glasses. Other than that, except for some random lines here and there (my favorite being after Alfalfa's disastrous talent show performance that involved bubbles coming out of every orifice, with Froggy saying, "Well, hello, Mr. Bubbles!"), there's not much to say about him. Then

there's Uh-Huh (Courtland Mead), the club typographer who, throughout the movie, says nothing but that, save for the very end, when he says, "Uh-uh," much to everyone's shock. He then eloquently adds, " Actually, I've always had a rather extensive vocabulary, not to mention a phenomenal grasp of grammar and a superlative command of syntax. I simply chose not to employ them," getting a unanimous, "Oh-tay!" from everyone else. And while they're there as little more than a couple of token animal mascots, you have to mention Spanky's dog,

Petey, with the ring around his eye (he makes me think of Chance the bulldog from Homeward Bound), and Elmer, a Capuchin monkey. While Elmer doesn't do much of note except give the club high sign when everyone is going in at the beginning and hand Spanky a monkey wrench when they're building The Blur 2 (possibly the only reason they even had him in the movie), Petey has some funny reactions to various things, like covering his face with his paw and groaning or putting his paws atop his head. And when the kids are trying to put out the fire, he does his part by peeing on it.

When you first see Butch (Sam Saletta) and Woim (Blake Jeremy Collins) at the beginning of the movie, they watch the kids go into the clubhouse in a manner that suggests they want to be a part of it and are nastily excluded by Froggy when he blows a raspberry at them while doing the high sign. But it quickly becomes clear that they tend to terrorize them, especially Alfalfa and Spanky, the former of whom they decide to beat on to take out the frustration of their first attempt at a go-cart messing

up, and later chase both of them throughout the ballet school and across town just because they can. They also try to steal The Blur, succeeding when Alfalfa leaves it unattended at the fair, and give it a different paint job to make it look more menacing. In the midst of the race, Alfalfa and Spanky take them to task for stealing it, with Butch sneering, "Finders keepers, losers suck!" They also resort to dirty tricks to try to win, like spraying silly string at the racers behind them and throwing a smoke bomb into Alfalfa and Spanky's kart. Between the two of them, Butch is both the meanest and the brains, while Woim is just the typical dumb crony. They both suffer some pretty disgusting punishments for their bullying and attempts to steal The Blur, like getting covered in blue paint, pickle juice, and pig slop, the latter of which is courtesy of Alfalfa when he decides to stand up for himself when they try to beat him up after he and Spanky beat them in the race. Alfalfa punches Butch into it, and when he threatens to do the same to Woim, he saves him the trouble and jumps in himself.

Waldo (Blake McIver Ewing) may come off as refined and sophisticated, but he's really a snobbish rich kid who, the minute he meets Darla, starts flirting with her right in front of Alfalfa, whom he's completely dismissive of and a dick to (and who was almost mauled to death by his Doberman, Fifi). When Darla breaks up with Alfalfa, Waldo immediately swoops in and, not only do the two of them become an item, but they perform a duet of L-O-V-E in the talent show (Waldo proves to be a better singer than Alfalfa). When Alfalfa then enters the contest to woo Darla back through song, Waldo sabotages it by putting liquid soap into his glass of water, causing him to cough and burp up bubbles during his performance. It's also during this moment when it's confirmed that Waldo really doesn't think much of Darla, calling their duet "stupendous," then adding, "She wasn't bad, either." This becomes all the more clear when, during the race, Darla tells Waldo, "I think we have to turn here!", which she's right about it, but he dismissively says, "Girls have no sense of direction." And after that, he resorts to trickery, deploying jagged spikes from either side of his cart's front and repeatedly stabbing into Alfalfa and Spanky side and wheel, sending them off-course. Darla calls him out on this, only for Waldo to sneer, "Just forget about that soap-sucking nincompoop," making her realize he's why Alfalfa's performance was so embarrassing and, as revealed after the race, kicked him out and finished the race herself. The last time you see him, he's in the back of a limousine, threatening Darla with, "You'll be hearing from my lawyers."

You can tell that these were all real, genuine, and very young kids who'd never acted before (and just about all of them would never act in anything substantial again). This is made all the more clear in the bloopers during the ending credits, where you can see them forgetting their lines or cues, and other mistakes like Travis Tedford getting flipped upside down during the fire hose gag, Zachary Mabry not wanting to start a take over (as well as catching the hiccups), him and Ross Bagley missing several high-fives in a row, and

Brittany Ashton Holmes having to be reminded constantly not to look at the camera. There are also moments where they're just being kids, like Jordan Warkol making funny faces, Ross Bagley laughing like Woody Woodpecker, and Bug Hall winding up one of his fake ears. All throughout, you can often hear Penelope Spheeris giving them directions and I have to say, she was a lot more patient with those kids than I know I would've been.

While there are no prominent adult characters, the film does have a number of random celebrity appearances and cameos strewn throughout it. Among the most memorable is Mel Brooks as Mr. Welling, the loan officer at the bank whom Spanky and Stymie deal with when trying to get one. Before they meet with him in their disguises, you see him looking over a submission from someone who's described as such: "Six kids, hard-working father, honest and trustworthy." Welling's decision? "Loan... denied!"

When he looks up and sees them, he immediately knows that something is up, and when they can't come up with an account number, he figures it out and, after pulling their fake beards and snapping them back, tells them to get out. Spanky retorts, "You can't treat people like this, Mister!", and Welling says, "You're not people. You're kids." Lea Thompson appears as Miss Roberts, Darla's ballet teacher, who initially bars Alfalfa and Spanky from going in when the recital is about to start, and later throws them both

out when they end up ruining it, pulling them along by their ears. She does the same thing to Butch and Woim when they break in on her while she's dressing, thinking Alfalfa and Spanky are hiding in that room. Darryl Hannah appears briefly as Miss Crabtree, who's meant to be the gang's schoolteacher, though you wouldn't know that since they're never in school. She admonishes Spanky for tricking people into paying admission for the free talent show, but she goes along with his idea to offer the money as a prize for the race (she says they can't give the money back

to everyone who paid but how hard would it be to make an announcement about an oversight and urge everyone to get their money back?). And finally, there's the always charming and endearing Reba McEntire as the announcer and prize presenter at the race, who happens to be A.J. Ferguson, Spanky's favorite racer. When she presents Alfalfa and Spanky with the prizes, she comments to the former, "Is that a cowlick or are you just glad to see me?", which some may see as inappropriate, but I think is all in innocent fun. And when Spanky, shocked to learn who she is, calls her, "The best driver there is!", she happily responds, "Well, thank you very much, and you didn't do so bad yourself!" She kisses him on the cheek, leaving a lipstick, and then, much to her and everyone else's delight, he asks her to even things up and plant one on the other cheek, which she does.

Other cameos include George Wendt as a guy at a lumberyard whom the gang tries to get some wood from, only to learn that all they can get for the small amount of change they have is a little tiny piece (I looked it up and learned that Cheers had ended the previous year, so Wendt was probably looking for any kind of work); Whoopi Goldberg as Buckwheat's mother, who's in the audience at the race, and is introduced when Buckwheat tells Porky, "Hey, my mom's here!", and Porky goes, "Whoopee," in a very

sarcastic way, for some reason; and, which explains a lot about his behavior, Donald Trump as Waldo's father. Waldo calls him while on his way to the race and his dad tells him, after proclaiming that he's going to win, "Waldo, you're the best son that money can buy." Also, at Darla's sleepover in one scene, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson pop up briefly (not to assassinate anybody; sorry to everyone else who's probably dumbfounded by that, but it's just to placate an idiot friend of mine with an equally stupid inside joke about those two), and at the end of the movie, when they're allowing girls into the club, Stymie is talking with Raven-Symone.

While we're talking about cast members, I must say that it does suck how Universal apparently treated the surviving members of those original shorts like trash. According to Tommy Bond, who played Butch in a number of them, in an LA Times article around the time of the movie's release, he talked with the son of the original Buckwheat and, while he was invited down to the set, he got the impression that the original cast members weren't all that welcome. Another one, Eugene Jackson, said he also contacted the studio but they were cold and dismissive when he asked to be involved. What also apparently made this doubly irritating to them was how Penelope Spheeris had insisted that Buddy Ebsen appear in The Beverly Hillbillies movie. In that same article, Spheeris defended herself by saying that she was unaware there were so many surviving cast members, and that she didn't use the original Butch and Woim because one of them, Bond, was caught up in a lawsuit with King World and MGM, two of the original shorts' rights holders. She also said she felt bad that she'd offended anyone and that she would've done something had she known. So, it seems like it was an issue with the studio rather than her but, regardless, it's a shame that those old-timers were treated like that.

As a kid, I always found this movie's look to be really appealing, as the daytime scenes are always bright and sunny, the surroundings are mostly lovely and green (given that the kids are never in school, as well as the fair, it's likely set during the summer), and it feels like it takes place in a nice, charming, suburban neighborhood, which appeals to me even more by how it's clearly in California (specifically, they shot much of it in Pasadena). Surprisingly, for a movie centering around kids, we don't get much of a glimpse into their home lives. We only see the outside of

Alfalfa and Spanky's homes, as well as Froggy's, a little bit of Waldo's luxurious mansion and grounds, complete with an enormous swimming pool and jacuzzi, and the outside of Darla's home, as well as her white and pink bedroom when she's having a slumber party. Most of the time is spent either at the gang's clubhouse (both before and after it's burned down), which is this old shack on a hillside that they've really made their own on the inside; out on the town streets, especially during the climactic race; and 

at the county fair, which is traditionally quaint and charming, especially the stage for the talent show. Also, during the opening credits, we first see Stymie playing ball at a field, as well as Buckwheat and Porky fishing at a really lovely lake, and when both Alfalfa and Darla are introduced, they're in a rowboat in a picturesque river, with a bridge spanning over it. And when they're building The Blur 2 late in the film, they rummage around a number of houses and back-alleys, looking for parts. It gives you that feeling you had of being a little kid and just going wherever and doing whatever you wanted with your buddies.

However, neither me nor my friends ever had the talent or know-how to build go-carts like those these kids race. We never get to see the original Blur in action, at least not before Butch and Woim steal and repurpose it, but the fact that it's won the derby five years in a row suggests it's quite a piece of engineering, even among kiddy cars. The Blur 2, on the other hand, is a more ramshackle vehicle, giving off that feeling that they threw it together at the last minute, most notably from the guts of a washing machine, though it still proves a worthy opponent for

the others, especially when they activate the "SPIN" cycle. Butch and Woim's Beast II (the first one fell apart during its test run), on the other hand, is just the first Blur repainted and with some additions, namely some rocket boosters that would've worked, had there not been a serious oversight on Woim's part. And Waldo's go-kart is all sleek and silver and red, with a big "W" on the front, very powerful thrusters, and even spikes he can deploy on its sides.

The movie manages to strike a really nice balance of keeping some of the old-fashioned, classic elements of the original shorts, while also placing it within a modern setting. For instance, Alfalfa tends to dress rather formally for a kid, often wearing a bow-tie and suspenders, and Darla's wardrobe is similarly formal and classic in feel, especially that parasol she has during her introduction, while the way Stymie, Porky, and some of the other kids dress probably wouldn't look out of place in those old shorts. Another is Afalfa faking a toothache by tying a handkerchief

around his jaw and over the top of his head. Plus, it's sad to say, but the fact that the kids are outside 90% of the time, rather than staying at home, playing video games or watching TV, definitely hearkens back to a much simpler time. They also make very few references to anything in popular culture that would really date the movie (save for, when Stymie is trying to convince Alfalfa to reconcile with Spanky, saying that the two of them are a team and listing off some other examples, including, "Milli and Vanilli,"). Technology-wise, the most advanced thing you see is 

the old-fashioned cellphone Waldo uses to call his dad while he's on the way to the race, not to mention the slick look of his go-kart and uniform; as for the Rascals themselves, the most advanced thing they ever use is an Etch A Sketch. And the most overtly modern setting in the movie is the bank where Spanky and Stymie try to get a loan (although, the sign out front that generically says "BANK," and the other that says, "Ask about INSTANT LOANS," do feel a bit archaic). There are also some old-fashioned 

filmmaking and editing techniques used here, like comically speeding up the action Keystone Cops-style during the many running and chase scenes, image swipes and spins for transitions, and even split-screen when Alfalfa and Spanky each decide to go make up with each other. And while I don't know if it's intentional or not, when Buckwheat and Porky unknowingly hook each other while they're fishing, the underwater shots of their fishing lines snagging and they're pulling on each other was clearly done in a fish-tank rather than that actual lake, something you wouldn't be surprised to see in those old, low budget shorts.

Speaking of which, as I would assume is the case with those shorts, most of the humor comes about from not only seeing these kids getting into mischief but also their talking and acting as if they're little adults, such as in how they have their own club with specific rules and mantras, with Spanky, as president, personally greeting and shaking the hands of some of the attendees during the meeting; their initially intending to execute Alfalfa for the clubhouse burning down (who knows what they were actually planning to do?), but instead putting him on "probation" by making him

guard The Blur day and night; attempting to buy lumber with what little money they have; Porky offering to give Buckwheat his pickle for a nickle, only for him to ask, "How about two cents?", as well as, "Are these kosher?"; the gang staging their own attraction at the county fair to try to make some money; and, of course, having the know-how to build their own, operational go-carts with no adult assistance. There are also instances of good old-fashioned slapstick, like when Porky gets pulled into the water during the opening, the kids' failed attempts

to put out the clubhouse fire, and the various mishaps that befall Butch and Woim, among others. Some of the jokes and instances of humor have been done many times before, like when Spanky and Stymie try to disguise themselves as grown men by each sitting atop another kid's shoulders, or Alfalfa and Spanky having to dress in drag in order to hide from Butch and Woim, only to get dragged into the ballet recital, but they work within the context of this movie's style and tone. And while some of the jokes are eye-rolling

in how cliche they are, like when, during Alfalfa's trial, Spanky asks him, "How do you plead?", and he says, "Like this: 'Please, oh, please, have mercy! Please!", or when Spanky asks for a monkey-wrench and is handed one by Elmer, other times, it's shockingly clever. What comes to mind is when, at the county fair, the kids claim to exhibit "a four-foot, man eating chicken," and it cuts to inside the tent, where one of the kids is wearing a fake mustache and eating a bucket of fried chicken.

There are instances of humor that's shockingly adult, like when Froggy talks about how he scared off a girl: "I whipped out my lizard!", though he means his pet lizard; when Darla pets down Alfalfa's cowlick, only for it to stick back up with a loud "sproing" when she kisses him, not to mention A.J. Ferguson's comment about it; when Butch and Woim burst in on Miss Roberts just as she's getting dressed; and with how they're attracted to Spanky when he's dressed up in a tutu, which he uses as a means of distracting them. But, while none of that shocks or even really bothers

me, there are some instances of humor that I'm not a fan of. One, which I didn't mind as a naive kid, is when Alfalfa is forced to run around town in nothing but his socks and underwear. Moreover, when he jumps into and swims the length of Waldo's enormous swimming pool, he ends up momentarily losing his briefs when he climbs out the other side. Now knowing how many utter creeps there are in Hollywood (I'm not saying that Penelope Spheeris was one, mind you), I always feel uncomfortable whenever I see something like this in a movie,

especially in how Bug Hall had to do that out on the streets; hopefully, it was closed off during shooting. And then, there are the brief instances of gross-out humor, like how they sabotage Alfalfa and Darla's picnic by putting kitty litter in their sandwiches (I've always hated stuff like that), or, even though they deserve it, when Butch and Woim end up in pig slop after the race. If you know me, you know that I hate that kind of humor, even in small doses in family friendly stuff. Heck, I even kind of cringe when Waldo puts liquid soap in Alfalfa's glass of water, even if the results are utterly cartoonish.

Indeed, while it does come off as a fairly realistic portrayal of childhood (for the most part), there are definitely instances where the movie becomes like a live-action cartoon. During the opening gag with Buckwheat and Porky, they both lean over the edge of the dock well past the point of no return when they're getting pulled, as if their feet are glued to it. When the kids are trying to put out the clubhouse fire, Spanky's attempt to use an actual fire hose proves disastrous when the water pressure is strong enough to lift both it and him up into the air. Alfalfa's attempt at singing

at the talent show after drinking the water that Waldo squirted liquid soap into results in him blowing, burping, and even farting out bubbles. Naturally, once we get into the climactic race, any semblance of realism goes out the window, with everything the kids use to create the completely functional Blur 2, the gadgets that Waldo, as well as Butch and Woim, have built into their go-carts, and the moment where they literally send people flying up into the air by running

into them. And in the brief moments where we see both Spanky and Alfalfa's fathers, they're little more than adult versions of their sons, right down to how they dress, and with Alfalfa's dad even having the same cowlick (he makes me think of Ed Grimley, if anybody remembers that obscure Martin Short character).

The craziest, most out there scene is when Alfalfa has this dream where he and Darla are in medieval times, on this cliff over the seaside, with dark clouds and lightning up above (this is the most clearly artificial setting in the movie, especially with the blue screen and visual effects). Alfalfa says, "I'm off to join Sir Spankus," as the other rascals show up, dressed in suits of armor, horned helmets, and other costumes (Buckwheat and Porky are in kilts and playing bagpipes). Darla, however, doesn't want him to leave, and when he tells her that he won't, the others, who

aren't happy that he's with her anyway, opt to slay him, "Before your forbidden love destroys our manly bond!" They march towards him and force him to the edge of the cliff, chanting, "Choose or die!" Darla even joins in this, and as Alfalfa loses his balance, they blow towards him for that little extra bit of push to send him falling off the cliff, to his "death," as Elmer waves to him from nearby. That's when he wakes up and finds he's in a big tent within the clubhouse while guarding The Blur, and the others have decided to keep him company.

I'm always a sucker for a movie that captures what it's like to be a kid at any point of childhood, be it serious dramas like Stand By Me or more light-hearted stuff like The Sandlot, and while I can admit that, as much as I still enjoy it, The Little Rascals isn't on the level of those movies, I still think it accomplishes that fairly well. While I never belonged to a club, either official or one my friends and I put together, I can remember how it was to have a firm like or dislike for something as a kid and feeling betrayed when a friend, who you thought agreed with you, went

against it. Speaking of which, even though it doesn't last very long here, I can also relate to the sadness of having a falling out with someone you were friends with for a long time, even when you're still kids. And, while Alfalfa and Spanky's reconciliation happens a little too quickly, and the notion of a club being, "Buddies who stick together no matter what," and them simply needing to work together to build a new go-cart, is a tad saccharine, being a sentimental person, I can't help but smile when that scene comes along. I especially like how this movie gets into the

notion of close-knit friends having their own inside jokes and even made-up words, like, "azuga," "spoli-oli," and, "yo-yo-yo-yoy," as well as childish insults that, when looked back on as an adult, are nothing at all offensive. The many spelling mistakes whenever the kids write something, like "womun" and "admishun," give off an additional and relatable sense of charm, and the moment where Alfalfa, upon waking up in the tent during the rainstorm while he's guarding The Blur, finds himself to be soaking is

something else a number of kids can relate to (fortunately for him, it turns out to be a leaking hole in the tent's bottom). And while I don't remember me or my friends doing it, it feels very natural for the kids to scream every time lightning flashes and thunder claps, even if they're not actually scared and are just playing around.

Best of all, the movie gets across how, when you're that young, the opposite sex is just off-putting. Not only is the He-Man Woman Haters Club an outgrowth of the "girls are icky" phase that boys tend to go through, but during the simultaneous sleepovers with the rascals and the girls at Darla's house, we get both sides' viewpoints on each other, with both wondering why the other has to be different. Stymie: "Babes are like a bad song! Once you get 'em stuck in your head, you can't get 'em out again." Darla: "Girls get along with each other." Spanky: "Boys stand up for

themselves." Darla: "Girls share." Spanky: "Boys take what's theirs." One of Darla's friends: "Boys won't listen." Froggy: "All they wanna do is talk." The Olsen Twins: "They like to moon ya!" (It then cuts back to Buckwheat, who says, "No we don't.") Buckwheat: "Bickerin' and gosspin'." A girl: "Fighting and farting." Porky: "Barbies and bracelets." The Olsen Twins: "Boogers and bugs!" Stymie: "Ice-skating." Another girl: "Bungee-jumping." Froggy: "Synchronized swimming." Porky: "And try to get 'em to sit still..." Both sides then say, "Ah!", while making gagging motions about the other, and then agree that the other smell weird.

The only thing I find kind of weird is the distinct absence of most of the kids' parents. I'm sure in the original shorts, they were probably a non-factor as well, and we've seen other media revolving around kids where the parents, as well as adults in general, are non-existent (like the Peanuts or even Ed, Edd n' Eddy), but it feels weird to see a modern-day, live-action movie where kids do things like camp out in the middle of a thunderstorm, set up an attraction at a country fair, or take part in a go-cart race and nearly get killed without their parents' apparently having any

knowledge whatsoever, or not intervening in matters like when Alfalfa is forced to guard The Blur day and night. It's also likely hearkening back to a simpler time where kids were able to just go and do whatever, but even though, as I said earlier, I could relate to a semblance of that kind of freedom, my friends and I still had to let our parents know where we were going. And going back to the race, even though we see both Alfalfa and Spanky's fathers, the only ones who seem to be there are Waldo's dad and Buckwheat's mom.

The movie opens with a very charming scene of Spanky sitting on his front porch with Petey, writing a message with a gray crayon, then sticking it to Petey's collar and sending him out to fetch the gang. He first goes and gets Stymie, who's the catcher in a baseball game. After reading the note, he then has to run to catch a ball, using his hat to catch it when it goes over the fence. Petey next goes to Froggy's house, actually ringing the doorbell, and when Froggy answers and reads the note, he goes off, telling his mom he'll be

back later. Petey then goes to where Buckwheat and Porky are fishing and unknowingly hook each other. Each one pulls and nearly yanks the other into the water, until Petey comes along, grabs the edge of Buckwheat's shirt, and pulls him up, causing Porky to fall into the water. Oblivious to what exactly happened, Buckwheat tells Porky when he climbs back up onto the dock about the note, but when he unknowingly looks at it while it's upside down, he comments, "We gotta learn to read." Petey reacts to that with an affirmative bark. It then cuts to the clubhouse, where Froggy lets kids in when they give the high sign, before doing it and blowing a raspberry at Butch and Woim, who watch nearby.

The following day, Butch and Woim test out their go-cart, The Beast, and it ends in disaster, as their bumper falls off, followed by just about everything else, and they head out of control, down a street. Elsewhere, Alfalfa is on his way to his and Darla's picnic lunch, thinking to himself, "Everything's working out perfectly. The guys are at the swimming hole, and I'm home with a tooth ache. Nothing could possibly go wrong." And at that moment, Butch and Woim come to a stop right in front of him.

Aggravated, Butch, wanting to take out some frustration, asks Alfalfa, "When's the last time we beat you up?" Alfalfa procrastinates, "Well, let's see... today's the 10th, 30 days hath September, April, June, and November. It's not a leap year... y-y-yesterday?", and to that, Butch says, "You're due!" Alfalfa then manages to fool them with the oldest trick in the book: pointing and yelling, "Look!", then running off. The two bullies promptly chase him back up the street they came down. The chase doesn't last long, as they run through an auto-painting shop, and while Alfalfa

comes out unscathed, Butch and Woim get covered in blue paint. When Alfalfa meets up with Darla outside her house, he gives her the flowers he brought for her, but during the chase, all but one lost their petals (not that Darla seems to mind). Then, when he goes in for a kiss, Fifi, the Doberman Pinscher, comes out of nowhere, pins him to the ground, and barks at him viciously, before Waldo's chauffeur calls her off. That's when Waldo introduces himself, much to Darla's delight and Alfalfa's aggravation.

At the clubhouse, Alfalfa sets the atmosphere for their picnic, which includes lighting some candles atop the ironing board they're using as their makeshift table. Unbeknownst to them, the others are watching from outside, and while Froggy reaches in and grabs their bottle of grape soda, Alfalfa sits down... on a whoopee cushion. Embarrassed, he says, "Excuse me. I seem to have a little... farfegnugen." Froggy then puts the bottle of soda back inside and Alfalfa pours both himself and Darla some, only for them to react in

disgust when they taste it and immediately spit it out. Darla remarks, "This tastes like somebody poured it through an old boot!", while outside, Froggy, snickering, whispers, "Actually, it's a sneaker!" Alfalfa says, "Must've been a bad year," and that's when you get to the gross moment where Porky puts kitty litter into their sandwiches, which I won't dwell on (and upon re-watching it, I think I see a "pebble" when Porky scoops it up as well; a few seconds later, Buckwheat comments, "Don't worry, it's pretty

fresh,"). But despite that, they move on to dessert, with Darla finding a heart-shaped ring in it, which Alfalfa calls, "A symbol of my undying 'affliction' for you." After making goo-goo faces at each other, with Alfalfa's ears wiggling, the two of them kiss, much to the others' disgust (although Petey wags his tail at it). With that, they stomp to the door and start pounding on it, as well as yelling. Horrified, Alfalfa quickly blows out the candles, unknowingly missing one of them, and puts the ironing board back into the wall. Under the pretense of giving her a tour of the

clubhouse, he attempts to get Darla to hide in a closet. Irked at this, and feeling that he's embarrassed by her, Darla declares that she's leaving. Alfalfa then ties the rag around his head and walks outside to hold the guys off, acting like he still has a toothache. He says, "The dentist pulled my wisdom teeth," and Spanky comments, "So that explains why you're acting so stupid." Darla then drives The Blur through the clubhouse's back wall and, after they all hear the noise, Alfalfa peeks back inside and not only sees what happened but also sees the fire spreading through the wall. He then closes the door and faints to the ground, while the others realize the clubhouse is on fire.

Stymie sends Buckwheat and Porky to call the fire department, while everyone else runs into a small shack nearby and come running out wearing firemen uniforms and carrying buckets. Spanky even cranks an old-fashioned fire alarm, and they attempt to extinguish the fire any way they can, including launching water balloons at it and passing a bucket of water along, but by the time it gets to the end of the line, they've spilled nearly all of the water out. While Buckwheat and Porky are in line for a payphone,

Petey and Darla watch from a hillside as the gang scrambles about in a panic, all while Alfalfa still lies unconscious on the ground. Buckwheat and Porky, not knowing the number to 9-1-1, just drop the phone and run off, oblivious to the fire department being right across the street from where they are. Back at the fire, Elmer watches the chaos from atop Petey using a tiny pair of binoculars, while Stymie and Uh-Huh run to a nearby building, find a fire house, un-spool it, and Stymie hands it out a window to  

Spanky, who very quickly runs back to the clubhouse with it. When he gets there, he sees that one kid is toasting a marshmallow with the fire. Telling him to get out of the way, he then yells for Stymie to turn the water on. But when Uh-Huh does so under Stymie's instructions, the water pressure not only lifts both the hose and Spanky off of the ground, but he ends up soaking everyone and everything, including the camera lens, except the fire. Afterward, with the clubhouse now a smoldering ruin, Darla breaks up

with Alfalfa, who's still passed out. She leaves the ring on his chest and, after telling the boys to let him know when he wakes up, goes off with Waldo. And when Alfalfa comes to and sees the clubhouse's remains, he clearly wishes he'd stayed unconscious.

Later on, after doing the whole "she loves me, she loves me not" routine with flower petals while guarding The Blur (and covering quite a big spot on the ground with petals), Alfalfa becomes determined to see Darla. When Buckwheat and Porky remind him that would be violating his probation, he decides to send her a "hate-note" and have the two of them deliver it. He talks as he writes, coming up with, "Dear Darla, I hate your stinking guts. You make me vomit. You're scum between my toes! Love, Alfalfa," 

when in reality, he writes, "DEAR DARLA, I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOU... REALLY... I'M NOT KIDDING. YOUR ROMEO, ALFALFA." But when they deliver the note to her, they first have a hard time finding it, with Buckwheat searching every pocket he has, while Porky takes out a piece of paper and blows his nose. As Darla starts to become impatient, Buckwheat remembers that he gave the note to Porky, and he, naturally, just blew his nose on it. "Fortunately," Buckwheat remembers what it "said," and repeats that insulting diatribe word for word.

Darla becomes increasingly angry as it goes on, and when it turns out to be from Alfalfa, she angrily crushes the can of root beer she's holding, much to their shock. After Alfalfa learns what happened, he decides to go explain to her, regardless of his probation. And that's when Spanky overhears him and forces him to come with him to the ballet school, where Darla's recital is going to be held, so he can break up with her. Even when Miss Roberts refuses to let them in, Spanky intends for them to wait until Darla comes out, much to Alfalfa's chagrin.

As Buckwheat and Porky guard The Blur (armed with their fishing poles), Butch and Woim show up and come up with a plan to steal the kart. Some time later, Buckwheat and Porky have fallen asleep, when they're awakened when a duck runs by, a dollar tied to its leg. They promptly chase after the duck, and when they're out of sight, Butch and Woim show up, the latter claiming, "Nothing beats a bucket of duck." But when Butch takes the ignition key out of the Blur, he activates a Rube Goldberg-like apparatus that ends

with a jar of pickles getting launched at them, much to their disgust; elsewhere, Buckwheat and Porky managed to get the dollar, the former singing his, "We got a dollar," song and dancing amongst a bunch of ducks. Back at the school, right after Spanky gives Alfalfa a frog (I guess to keep him entertained since he says he's bored while waiting on Darla), they see Butch and Woim nearby (apparently, all it took was getting splattered by pickle juice to make them give up on The Blur). Alfalfa puts the frog in his pocket

and they both run inside, with the two bullies spotting them. After opening two doors, and getting screamed at by girls, while looking for a place to hide, Alfalfa and Spanky duck into the costume room. Butch and Woim do the very same thing, and when they reach the costume room, Alfalfa and Spanky come out, wearing wigs and tutus, fooling them completely. They then send them to get thrown out by Miss Roberts when they burst in on her, while they wind up in the room where Darla and the other girls are waiting for the recital. And just when they're about to

leave, Miss Roberts comes in and excitedly shuffles them all along to the stage. Next thing they know, they're having to perform in a scene from The Nutcracker, much to their horror. First, they try to get rid of the constantly croaking frog, with Spanky putting it in Alfalfa's tutu, and then awkwardly flail around, not knowing what they're doing. Ultimately, Spanky just starts goofing off, while Alfalfa keeps trying to catch the frog, and the audience starts laughing, as do the other girls, while Miss Roberts is mortified. Once it's over, the two of them run offstage.

Out in the hall, Alfalfa goes behind a curtain to get out of his tutu and catch the frog, when Miss Roberts comes stomping in. Already peeved about them ruining the recital, when she sees Alfalfa's blonde wing fly out from behind the curtain, she tries to make him come out and he does, in just his underwear and socks. She then sends them both to the door, only to get a fright when the wig jumps on the floor, accompanied by the sound of a frog. When they get to the front door, they see Butch and Woim outside,

waiting for them. Spanky opts to distract them while Alfalfa makes a break for it, and does so by acting like a girl again when he goes out the door. He suceeds in distracting them and Alfalfa slips away, but he walks below a low-hanging tree branch, which snags his wig and yanks it off, exposing him and prompting him to let out a very girlish scream. The bullies then chase him into town and he, ironically, ducks into the Boys Club. Fortunately, the man in charge waits until Butch and Woim run past before

throwing him out. Alfalfa, meanwhile, has to endure running through the streets in his underwear, only to run into the bullies near a church. This time, he doesn't even bother trying to distract them; he just starts running again, across the enormous yard of a large estate and ducks inside, passing a maid. Said maid stops Butch and Woim from going in after him, while Alfalfa nearly collides with another maid inside, slipping and falling. Getting up, he says, "I'll let myself out. Thank you," and runs to another door, while that maid comments, "Well, you better!" But

once outside, he gets chased by Fifi, and jumps into and swims the entire length of the huge swimming pool, only to climb out the other side and realize he's... a tad lighter. Worse, he finds Waldo and Darla watching from a nearby jacuzzi, but Fifi chases him again before he can explain himself. He makes it all the way back to the clubhouse, where Porky asks him, "Rough day?", and he answers, "Don't ask," before heading for a nearby shed.

Come the day of the fair, while Spanky and the others are there, trying to make some money to rebuild the clubhouse, Alfalfa, still guarding The Blur, is writing, "I will not think of Darla," over and over again, using up page after page of notebook paper. When he runs out, he has Petey bring him some more (just how many times did he have to write that sentence?), and after the dog first mistakenly brings him a roll of toilet paper, he brings him the only other bit of paper around... which happens to be Spanky's to-do list in

order to ruin the picnic. Enraged at this, Alfalfa hops into The Blur and, along with Petey, drives off to the fair. He gets there just in time to see Waldo and Darla's performance at the talent show, which doesn't make him feel any better, as it was quite good. However, he manages to convince Miss Crabtree to let him perform afterward; unbeknownst to him and the others, who are in the audience, Butch and Woim come across The Blur where he parked it and make off with it. Meanwhile, Alfalfa prepares for his

performance, unaware that Waldo just squeezed some liquid soap into his water. He then goes out onstage and announces, "This is a song about a tragic romance. I once fell in love with a girl, and through schemes and betrayals by my best friend, she came to think I was nothin' more than a he-man woman hater! But I'm a woman lover! So let me raise a toast to the girl I love most in the whole world." While Spanky grows enraged at this, Darla is mortified, saying, "Please don't say my name," right before he does. He then takes a drink of water, makes a disgusted face

upon tasting the soap, but shakes it off and starts singing The Air That I Breathe. First, everyone grimaces at his bad singing, and then, bubbles start popping out of his mouth, shocking both the guys and Darla, while the rest of the audience starts laughing. Spanky decides to put Alfalfa out of his misery and goes backstage, while the audience starts enjoying the bubbles, with Alfalfa literally burping an enormous one that floats towards and pops in a guy's face. During this whole time, Alfalfa, while utterly confused, keeps on with his singing. Spanky then

lowers a crescent moon prop that's part of the background, snags the back of Alfalfa's suspenders on its edge, and lifts him up, causing his voice to break even worse than it already has been, before dropping him. Naturally, this performance bombed with Darla and she storms out of the audience, leaving Alfalfa crestfallen.

Things get worse afterward, as Alfalfa and Spanky get into an argument, the former calling him "Benedict Arnold" and "Judas priest," and both trading insults (childish ones, like Spanky calling Alfalfa a "muzak-warbling wimp" and Alfalfa retorting by calling him a "double-crossing mud-muncher"). It comes to a head when they realize The Blur has been stolen and Alfalfa outright offends Spanky by calling him a "sewer-swinging slimeball" and saying he'd quit if there still was a club, before stomping off, and farting out another bubble.

Following the reconciliation, the gang gets together to build The Blur 2, with Stymie drawing the designs on an Etch A Sketch and everybody else heading off to find various parts, like hubcaps, the innards and controls of a washing machine (Alfalfa and Spanky make a huge mess out of that), various cages, a trophy that they put on the front as a hood ornament, a plastic trashcan that they use as the front, and so on. The day of the race, Alfalfa and Spanky are at the starting line, next to Butch and Woim in the repurposed original Blur. Elsewhere, while on their

way to the race, Buckwheat and Porky unknowingly sabotage the race by casually turning one of the arrow markers on the road. Waldo and Darla show up and park next to Alfalfa and Spanky just a few seconds before the race is about to start. Alfalfa takes the opportunity to attach Darla's handkerchief, which he's had ever since the scene at the ballet school, to their cart's trophy hood ornament, telling Spanky, "All knights ride into battle wearing the colors of their lady fair," while Spanky just goes, "I'm not hearing this. I'm not hearing this." Right after Buckwheat and

Porky arrive, A.J. Ferguson tells the drivers to start their engines and the race begins, with the carts heading down the street. At one point, Butch tells Woim to, "String 'em!", and he deploys a number of canisters of silly string in the back of their cart, spraying several of the karts and causing them to veer off-course and into people's yards and driveways. They then overtake many of the other racers and get alongside Alfalfa and Spanky. They, along with Waldo and Darla, take the wrong route, before an 

official realizes what happened and points the arrow back in the right direction. While everyone else continues on the course, the other three carts head through a small neighborhood and into a grocery store parking lot. Alfalfa and Spanky end up on the walkway right in front of the store's door, knocking people into the air, including an older man with a cane who, after landing on his back, sits up and yells, "You little rascals!" The carts then rejoin each other in the parking lot and head back onto the street. There 

Waldo activates his cart's turbines and he and Darla speed off down the street. Alfalfa and Spanky activate their own version of turbines by activating the SPIN cycle, causing them to spin around wildly in place, before zooming away. Butch and Woim try to follow suit with their rocket boosters, only to then realize that Woim installed them backwards and they fly off back down the street, yelling at the top of their lungs.

Alfalfa and Spanky catch back up with Waldo, when he activates the spiked blades in his kart and repeatedly stabs into their left side, eventually sending them down another path. While Spanky tries to figure out where they are, Darla decides she's had enough of Waldo, who seemingly kicks her out of the cart to finish the race by himself. Both carts end up getting back into the actual race, ahead of all the others, including Butch and Woim. In retaliation, Butch tosses a smoke bomb that lodges itself into their hood ornament and spews blinding, choking

smoke in their faces. Unable to see, Alfalfa swerves all over the road, both of them coughing, when they get some unexpected help. By all appearances, Waldo pulls up alongside them and sprays the bomb with water, extinguishing the smoke, much to the bullies' consternation. Spanky thanks "Waldo," and with the finish line coming up, they, along with Butch and Woim, are neck and neck, when Darla's handkerchief comes loose from the hood ornament. Determined not to finish the race without it, Alfalfa has Spanky take the wheel, while he climbs across the hood and

reattaches it, coming close to falling off when he does. Laying across the hood, screaming in terror, and yelling at Spanky to hold his feet, this ends up being what clinches the race in their favor. It's a photo finish, with all three carts crossing the finishing line at about the same time, but Alfalfa's cowlick determines their victory; Buckwheat's mom exclaims, "Winner by a hair! Yes!" The rest of the gang is ecstatic and run over to congratulate Alfalfa, when Butch and Woim, being sore losers, especially since

they lost even after stealing The Blur, come in to beat him up. Having had enough of their crap, Alfalfa tells Butch, "I'm usually a lover, not a fighter, but in your case, I'm willing to make an exception!", and whacks him, sending him through a fence behind him and into the pig pen. He ends up face-first in the mud, and Woim, rather than getting punched in there as well, jumps in of his own accord. After that, everything wraps up, with Alfalfa and Spanky learning that Darla was the one who helped them, Spanky admitting he sabotaged the picnic, Alfalfa and Darla getting back together, and the club opening up to girls.

Whenever it's been shown on television, both back when I was a kid and nowadays, The Little Rascals has often been padded out by a few minutes to make it fit into the time slot, since it's a very short movie, at just 82 minutes. (I also vaguely remember reading somewhere that this is actually the original theatrical version but Universal decided to pare it down for the home video release. Don't quote me on that, though.) Sometimes it's rather superfluous, like a little bit of extra dialogue in the first meeting at the clubhouse and between Alfalfa and Darla in the boat, where the

latter compliments him on his singing voice and he, unironically, says, "And I never took a lesson," but other times, it adds just a bit more meat. For instance, in that latter scene, Darla also tells Alfalfa that she sometimes feels like he doesn't want to be seen with her, giving a little more context to why she asks him to have their picnic at the clubhouse. Also, after he bombs at the talent show, Darla confronts Alfalfa about it and he accidentally reveals that he was the "girl" at the ballet recital when he brings up how she said she liked his singing. On top of that, Waldo then

reveals that he's in the race, which is never revealed beforehand in the regular version. Some additional moments lead to gags, like at the beginning, when Buckwheat deciphers from Petey's barking that it's an emergency meeting or when, before their first attempt to steal The Blur, Butch says, "This'll be like stealing candy from a baby," and Woim whines, "Last time we stole candy, we ended up with the chicken pox." There's also a payoff to the scene at the bank, where Spanky and Stymie, after their scheme to get a loan

has failed, pass by two Amish men who look exactly like them in their disguises. They set them up by asking them to, "See the man at the desk in the back," and when they do, Mr. Welling, thinking it's another trick by the kids, pulls on their beards. Outraged, they take their intended $2 million deposit elsewhere, much to Welling's shock. Right before Alfalfa learns Spanky was behind what happened at the picnic, he tells Petey that he should probably forget about love, adding, "All it's ever gotten me is conviction,

probation, a frog in my leotard, and a butt naked chase." And when he initially tries to enter the talent show, Mrs. Crabtree tells him they're booked up, only for him to say that his great-great aunt from Bulgaria is in town, is on death's door, and doesn't want to die before she hears him sing. This convinces her to let him in.

The music score is by William Ross, who did the music for Look Who's Talking Now and went on to score films like Thumbelina, The Amazing Panda Adventure, Black Sheep (working again with Penelope Spheeris), and My Dog Skip, and it's one of those scores that fits the movie perfectly, retaining the old-fashioned feel of the original shorts. The piece that always sticks with you is Ross' awesome orchestration of the Good Old Days theme, which they were clearly proud of, as they play it a good number of times throughout the movie, in different variations, and rightly so. It just fits these characters so well, and does hearken back to the feel of the simpler time period that they originally stemmed from. The same goes for the chase music, which is wonderfully kiddy and energetic, a soft, piano piece for the quieter and more solemn moments, a slow, kind of dimwitted theme for Buckwheat and Porky (the former's "We Got A Dollar" song is even scored with a little upbeat ditty all its own), and a bit of a creeping one for Butch and Woim, though their first real scene, when they test out The Beast, is scored to a rocking piece. The latter, as well as another rock-centric theme which you hear during the montage of them building The Blur 2, were the work of another musician, George Foster, whom worked with Spheeris before on Wayne's World and The Beverly Hillbillies. Getting back to Ross' work, Alfalfa's dream while he's guarding The Blur is scored in a very traditional, bigger than life, orchestral manner, fitting with the tone of that scene, and the race is scored to be traditionally exciting and even kind of suspenseful at moments. Other parts of the race, including the beginning, are scored to the William Tell Overture, with The Storm section playing when Waldo attacks Alfalfa and Spanky with his cart's spikes. And in addition to the two songs that Alfalfa sings, you have Short People by Randy Newman, which plays when the kids first go looking for a way to get money, Love Has No Pride by Rosanne Cash during the montage following Alfalfa and Spanky's falling out, and You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby by Dr. John during the first part of the ending credits.

If you're a fan of the classic shorts, the 1994 Little Rascals may come off as something of an affront, and I will admit that there are some things about it that I'm mixed on, like some of the character choices and portrayals, some of the humor, and a section that I can't help but feel uncomfortable about. I can also agree with you that there isn't much of an actual plot, as it's made up of a bunch of vignettes remade from the shorts, with a major one as the climax. But, that said, I can't help but still enjoy this little film. A lot of that is nostalgia, but I also think, on the whole, this is a good-natured, entertaining, and ultimately warm family movie, with characters that are easy to like and are well-acted, considering how young they are; a very appealing visual aesthetic and setting; a good number of genuinely funny moments and bits; many memorable sequences; a wonderful music score; and an endearing sense of old-fashioned charm that I think is hard to resist. Plus, it's one of those movies that manages to capture what it's like to be a kid, both at any age and during any time period. It's probably not the most popular version of the Little Rascals, but for those of us who grew up with it, if nothing else, it's ours.