It’s a rare occasion for me to come across a Disney-related project that I just truly don’t care for, but with the release of the 100th Disney Channel Original Original Movie (DCOM), ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING, I’ve come into a place that I always dread – a movie that I genuinely just don’t like.
A loose remake of the 1987 Chris Columbus-directed film, one of the most glaring issues for me is that the original film was a very gritty, Chicago-set tale (though filmed mostly in Toronto) that had a very “big” feel when I watched it as a kid… a kid that actually lived in the Chicago suburbs, where the characters were supposed to have lived. In the update, one babysitter (originally Elisabeth Shue) is swapped for two (Sabrina Carpenter and Sofia Carson), and the countless perils of the big city are replaced by nods to new technology and a pair of bumbling crooks more akin to “The Wet Bandits” of the HOME ALONE movies as the rival sitters have to team up, kids in-tow, to track down an “escapee” that headed for a concert in the unnamed big city
Generally when I’m watching family content, I keep an open mind and try to consider all angles – particularly that of kids watching these things, and with that I found something interesting about ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING in that our girls didn’t even really like it much. Unlike last year’s DESCENDANTS (a great movie that’s still in regular rotation), ‘BABYSITTING took two viewings to get through with the kids – despite “that girl played Evie!”
Still, despite my own thoughts, I can still see why some kids (the ‘tween crowd) will like this, but in my opinion it plays like a 22-minute episode of a TV series that’s been stretched-out too long… an episode that falls pretty flat on all notes.
Since Disney now owns MARVEL, it also missed a really cool opportunity to throw THOR back into the mix a la ’87, but in a completely authorized form.
Disney’s ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING is available now on DVD and DigitalHD.
