Bebe's Kids

365 Films

Entry #13

Bebe’s Kids (1992)

Directed by Bruce W. Smith

My first encounter with Bebe’s Kids came from copious amounts of HBO watching that occupied the majority of my youthful idle.  The situation in my household growing up was one of extreme liberalism regarding the content to which I subject my young, impressionable eyes.  I saw Last of the Mohicans and Schindler’s List, and Pulp Fiction when I was nine and subsequently ten years old.  Ratings didn’t mean a whole lot to my parents and I am incredibly grateful to them for that.  As a result, the ascendance of HBO meant plentiful access to all kinds of scandalous material.  I’ll let you make your skinemax joke on your own time…have you made it yet? Good. Let’s move on.  As far as I can remember, I’ve always had a fascination with “subversive” animation.  Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Entry #1), The Simpsons, Cool World (1992, NOT on this blog), Beavis and Butthead, Ren and Stimpy, the list goes on and on.  And I don’t mean subversive in the literal sense (none of these things were that offensive, for fuck’s sake), just in the idea that they broke from the conventions of children’s animation in very explicit and gleeful ways.  Ten-year-old Ethan felt like he was getting away with something watching Bebe’s Kids (felt like being the key operative phrase there).  I haven’t seen the film in god knows how many years and I’m sure it is incredibly tame compared to an equivocal episode of South Park.  Thinking back on it, what’s most shocking is the fact that an animated film, which was based on the stand-up routine of a successful (but not earth-shatteringly so) black comedian eventually got made at all, let alone into a theatrical release by Paramount Pictures.  Did I mention it was also the first animated film to have an all-black cast?  Bebe’s Kids remains, to this day, a fascinating oddity.  The grotesqueries of the more extreme moments clash with the blandness of the overall design of the animation.  This is by no means intended to be a slight, for I think it represents what is unique about the entire film in and of itself.  It’s an anecdote stretched out to feature length, but infused with the radiant life of Mr. Harris’ wit and the collective aspiration to finally get away with something bold, innovative, and new.

              PS: My two favorite sentences from the wikipedia plot summary of Bebe’s Kids

 “…Meanwhile, Dorthea and her food-loving friend, Vivian, attempt to sabotage the growing relationship between Robin and Jamika, but are thwarted by Robin's mother insults…”

And

…”The kids win their freedom through the power of rap, then celebrate their victory by stealing a pirate ship and crashing it into an ocean liner…”