Parchís: The Documentary

The Parchis (name based on a game similar to Ludo...) were a Spanish child band of the late 70's and early 80's who were absolutely massive in Latin America - Argentina and Mexico especially. Spain produced a number of these child bands, another one was La Pandilla that rocked the Latin music world back in those days and inspired the evolution of Puerto Rican super group 'Menudo'.

It charts the assembling of the group and the touring and mischief, the good times and the bad and the eventual acceptance and peace of what became of them - they made some people lots and lots of money but they saw little of it. Tragedy befell the main heartthrob 'Tino' but the others settled back into a more mundane life - seemingly happy with what they accomplished as children and philosophical of the missing fortunes and other wrong turns that came about during their lives.

A good little documentary and though I knew nothing about them before watching it, it was still an eye opener - well worth a watch if you are into the 'rise and fall of' pop bands.

With my mother being a huge fan of Parchis back in the day (she had a crush on Tino like most girls at that time in Mexico) and me personally interested in the story of this group, if found this to be a pretty enjoyable documentary.

Outside of some clever editing and the "photo album" bits, the presentation was nothing to rave about and standard, although well made. The music (outside of Parchis's own songs) was good, although again not amaizing. And overall they did a pretty good job of getting you in the context of these people's lives and the world at that time and place. The whole "legal and money issues" part of the film was a bit confusing but i assume that's because the whole situation was also confusing and a complete mess.

I wouldn't say this is a great documentary or anything, as most of the entertainment comes from this crazy story of a bunch of kids and business men surrounded by unexpected and gigantic success. The honesty of all the interviews really does make this worth while, however, and if you're the least bit interesting in this, you won't be disappointed.