Movie Type: Children's Fantasy, Family-Oriented Adventure
Themes: Authority Figures, Runaways, Escape From Prison
Main Cast: Gary Busey, Miranda Richardson, Ice-T, Mark McKinney, Max Morrow, Maury Chaykin, Maury Chaykin
Release Year: 1998
Country: CA
Run Time: 96 minutes
Plot
Based on noted Montreal author Mordecai Richler's classic children's adventure of the same name, the film is about a boy named Jacob (Max Morrow) who has to say everything twice to be heard, simply because he is the youngest of five children. Desperately needing to be taken seriously, he offers to go to the grocery store for his Dad, embarking on his first solo journey. The quest goes horribly wrong when he loses his nerve and runs off, only to bump into a ten-pound hanging salami. He wakes up to find himself in court charged with insulting a grown-up. The Singing Judge sentences Jacob to the children's prison on Slimer's Island. The fog-bound and crocodile infested prison is presided over by the fearsome Hooded Fang (Gary Busey). Help is supposed to be on its way in the form of the heroic Child Power Masters. When that is delayed, Jacob Two Two hatches a cunning plan to take on the Hooded Fang himself. Fraught with childhood fantasies and fears, the film encourages children to feel strong in the threatening world of adults. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
Review
There's an effort here to be amusingly threatening in the manner of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but there's too much gothic Annie-in-the-orphanage tension to be the breezy yet significant children's movie its makers intended. Still, for tweeners -- those between ten and 15 (perhaps the most underserviced demographic in all of filmed entertainment) -- Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang isn't bad, and it could be a lot worse. The cast has something to do with what success there is. Gary Busey, of all people, camps it up as the disguised titular villain that young Jacob (adorable but limited Max Morrow) must defeat in order to get himself and dozens of other imprisoned children off the creepy Slimer's Island. Miranda Richardson and Mark McKinney play Miss Fowl and Mr. Fish with clever costume appliances -- hers a beak, his gills and a fin in the back of his head -- with just the right note of playful menace. Ice-T, perhaps the last performer one might expect in a family film, plays his sequence as the rapping judge as though he's in a music video, which is not all bad in this context. The movie sports enough teen-fantasy references -- motorized skateboarding and a Power Rangers knock-off among them -- to make young viewers hurry their homework so they can tune in. But just once -- this film doesn't have the addictive juvenile charm required to make it a perennial hit or to make Jacob Two Two a household word. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
