| The Little Rascals | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Penelope Spheeris |
| Produced by | Bill Oakes Michael King Gerald R. Molen |
| Written by | Paul Guay Stephen Mazur Penelope Spheeris Robert Wolterstorff |
| Starring | Bug Hall Travis Tedford Brittany Ashton Holmes Kevin Jamal Woods Zachary Mabry Ross Bagley Sam Saletta Blake Jeremy Collins Blake McIver Ewing Jordan Warkol Courtland Mead Juliette Brewer Heather Karasek |
| Music by | William Ross |
| Studio | Amblin Entertainment KingWorld Filmed Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 5, 1994 |
| Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $67,308,282 |
The Little Rascals is a 1994 American comedy film produced by Amblin Entertainment, and released by Universal Pictures on August 5, 1994. The film is an adaptation of Hal Roach's Our Gang, a series of short films of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s (later broadcast on television as The Little Rascals) which centered around the adventures of a group of neighborhood children. The film, with a screenplay by Paul Guay, Stephen Mazur, and Penelope Spheeris — who also directed — presents several of the Our Gang characters in an updated setting, and features re-interpretations of several of the original shorts. It was the first collaboration by Guay & Mazur, whose subsequent comedies were Liar Liar and Heartbreakers.
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"The He-Man Woman Haters Club" is a club of local school-aged boys, all of whom refuse to play with girls. The boys are entering their go-cart, the "Blur," in the annual go-cart race which the neighborhood bullies, Butch and Woim, are determined to win. Alfalfa, club member and best friend of president Spanky, is selected to drive the Blur in the race. However since Alfalfa had apparently skipped the meeting, the boys search for him and find Alfalfa in the middle of a romantic boat ride with his girlfriend, Darla. Since Alfalfa's relationship with Darla interferes with the club's rule of forbidding a club member to play with or have a romantic relationship with girls, the other club members try to spoil Alfalfa and Darla's romantic boat ride in hopes of breaking them up. However, their plans fail, and Darla and Alfalfa schedule a romantic picnic in the clubhouse.
Alfalfa is chased by Butch and Woim, who end up being spray-painted, and runs into Darla and Waldo, a rich kid who has just moved into town. Alfalfa and Waldo immediately form a rivalry because they both want Darla.
Soon after, the other He-Man Woman Haters secretly spy on the couple during their picnic, and make several attempts to ruin it like putting kitty litter in their sandwichs and pouring their juice out of a dirty sneaker, until Alfalfa notices and quickly brings his date with Darla to an early end, and he makes Darla hide in the clubhouse until he can convince the other boys that he and Darla were not doing anything in there. But Darla thinks that Alfalfa is ashamed of her, so she tries to escape the clubhouse by driving away in the Blur and crashing through the clubhouse walls. Alfalfa left a candle burning trying to end he and Darla's date and in forgetting he has done so, causes the clubhouse to burst aflame. The boys quickly try to put the fire out (Buckwheat and Porky, the youngest club members, were sent to call the fire department, but neither one of them knew the number for 9-1-1, so the club did not get any professional help from fire-fighters). Alfalfa faints after the clubhouse catches on fire, and while he is passed out the other boys finish putting out the fire. As Darla tosses the ring Alfalfa gave her earlier back to him before leaving with Waldo, who previously tried to win her over with near success, she says " I never wanna speak to you as long as I live, tell him when he comes to guys." After Alfalfa regains consciousness, the other club members punish him by forcing him to guard the Blur every night and day until the day of the race. On the first night. Alfalfa has a nightmare where he is with Darla (who likes him) and Spanky blows him off a cliff and he wakes at that moment where the He-man Woman haterz club convinces him that girls are no good while Darla's friends do the same on the same night and they all scream (also in dream) when there's thunder However Alfalfa doesn't take their rules and still loves Darla. In order to win her back, Alfalfa pretends to write Darla a hate note but really writes her a love note for Porky and Buckwheat to deliver to her. Well they lose the note on the way to Darla's house but Buckwheat remembers what Alfalfa told them the note "said" and recites to Darla, who hates Alfalfa even more. Alfalfa tries to win Darla back by going to her ballet recital and writing a love letter, but a mix-up happens and he only makes Darla more upset.
Alfalfa is taken off duty of guarding the go-cart, so Porky and Buckwheat are assigned to do so instead. However, Butch and Woim lure the two young boys away from the Blur by tying a dollar bill to a duck's tail and sending the duck right past the go-cart. Even after setting off a booby trap involving a pickle jar being dropped on them both.
The He-Man Woman Haters try to raise money to afford both a new clubhouse at a local fair, and they try to come up with at least $450. However, Porky and Buckwheat manage to raise $500 by putting up an "Admisshun $3" sign at the free talent show, but the boys' schoolteacher Miss Crabtree finds out soon and scolds them for tricking people. However, Spanky suggests using the money Porky and Buckwheat raised as prize money for the go-cart race, which their teacher agrees to.
During the talent show, Waldo and Darla sing a duet which was first supposed to be sung by Alfalfa but when Darla got mad at him she decided to sing it with Waldo. Alfalfa drives the Blur to the talent show and sees them on stage together and he gets really upset and decides to enter the talent show and sing to her. Spanky ruins his talent by moving things around on the stage and Waldo also puts soap in the water that he is drinking before he sings, causing him to burp bubbles during his song. Darla is ashamed of the performance and gets up and leaves.
Woim and Butch manage to steal the Blur so they can use it for their own benefits in the go-cart race. Once the He-Man Woman Haters discover that the Blur has been stolen, Spanky gets into a fight with Alfalfa, and the two end their friendship. Later, after some prodding from the other club members, the two reconcile.
The boys manage to build a new go-cart in time for the race, and Alfalfa is the driver, as originally planned, with Spanky riding along. Woim and Butch have repainted the Blur and pass it off as their own go-cart, and try to cheat their way to winning during the race. Darla, who is racing with Waldo, eventually gets tired of Waldo's attitude and starts to yearn for Alfalfa, who still wants her back, more, so Waldo appears to abandon Darla in the middle of the race and takes off. Eventually, the He-Man Woman Haters win the race, much to the chagrin of Waldo, Butch, and Woim. Alfalfa stands up to Butch by punching him into a pile of pig slop and Woim jumps in to avoid being hit. Darla reunites with Alfalfa, and their romantic relationship starts all over again. When being awarded their trophy and prize money, Spanky gets to meet his favorite racer, A.J. Ferguson, who turns out to be a woman. She kisses Spanky's cheek (Spanky then asks for another kiss one other cheek), though Spanky himself does not mind it, his opinion about females stubbornly has not officially changed, though the rest of the club members besides Spanky also gain girlfriends after the race. And finally, Spanky gives in to his now girl-loving friends, and "Welcome Women" is added to the new clubhouse sign (thus repealing the No Women rule), for the club members have managed to purchase a new clubhouse with their prize money. Then Uh-huh(one of the club members who always says uh-huh) learns a new word.
The film was not well received with critics upon its original release. It currently holds a 27% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
The Little Rascals earned $10 million dollars at the North American box office during its opening weekend.[2][3] The film grossed a worldwide total of $67,308,282.
Many of the gags and subplots in the film were borrowed from the original Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts. These include:
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