Birthday Blues

This film begins with Dickie and Spanky's mother becoming quite upset. First, her jerk-face husband forgot all about her birthday. Second, instead of apologizing and being a man about it, the jerk-face then bellows and screams like someone giving birth to a 25-pound baby! You really have to wonder if maybe the writers overdid it in making the father so nasty. It gets worse, as late in the film the dad starts smacking Dickie after he and his friends try to earn money to buy mom a present--and make a HUGE mess in the process. And, in the end, the dad seems a bit repentant and not so nasty...and you can only assume he finally got medicated or lobotomized.

I know I sound harsh, but this film really missed the mark. Had they made the father the least bit nice and in control of his anger, it might have worked. However, instead of me noticing the humorous middle portion, all I could think was that someone should call Children's Services! A rare failure and too dark for my taste.

By the way, another negative about this one were the annoying cake sound effects. Cakes shouldn't make noises. And, if they did, they'd sound NOTHING like this one!