Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this movie features a teen girl at the height of her parental rebellion, and her parents (who engage in non-stop insults to each other on the side) are unwilling to just go along with her whims. Penny's biggest dream is rather small: to become a backup dancer for a rapper, along with her three friends. The rapper's lifestyle is meant to be enviable, with his Hummer and yacht, but humor defuses the image to some extent. Cloning is a major theme, but any discussion of ethical or moral implications is absent.
Families can discuss Penny's frustration with her parents over the dance tryouts. Why does she want to go, and what are her parents worried about? Consider the cloning that goes on there -- would the Proud family's clones emerge as babies or adults? What does Penny learn about her family over the course of the movie?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Nancy Davis Kho
Based on the TV series of the same name, THE PROUD FAMILY MOVIE wins points for its depiction of a close-knit African-American family comprised of original and very funny characters. However, the plot of this movie, which includes cloned talking peanuts and a secret Kicking Donkey Stabilizing sauce, is so strange, and parts of the film are so slow moving, that the viewer may prefer to watch the shorter and pithier TV episodes.
Penny Proud (voiced by Kyla Pratt) is just about to turn 16 when she learns that rapper Fifteen Cent (Omarian Grandberry) is holding open auditions for his "Spare Change" backup dancers. Penny is determined to try out, while her father Oscar (Tommy Davidson) is just as determined to stop her. Mother Trudy (Paula Jai Parker) is the calming voice of reason, trying to maintain the peace between her outspoken daughter and slightly hysterical husband.
Rounding out the family -- literally -- Oscar's mother Suga Mama (Jo Marie Payton) is on a perpetual prowl for men, interrupted only by her sharp but very funny insults directed at her son.
The family gets pulled into the scheme of crazy inventor Dr. Carver (Arsenio Hall) -- tangentially descended from George Washington Carver -- who, like his forbearer, has big plans for peanuts. It takes Penny awhile to catch on to his evil cloning scheme, but when she does she demonstrates the same loyalty to her family that characterizes her close friendships with a posse of friends.
One of the funniest bits is the evolving character traits of the cloned Proud family, as the alterna-Trudy turns into a bad ghetto stereotype, Suga Mama speaks only in Spanish, and faux Oscar develops an obsession with hot dogs. The dialogue is undeniably fast-paced and funny, and the rap music is an authentic soundtrack to a world that revolves around a 16-year-old girl.
Still, the movie is light on substance; A better choice for viewers interested in seeing comedies in which African-American families are depicted slightly more realistically might be The Fresh Prince of Bel Air or The Bernie Mac Show.
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual ContentWhen Fifteen Cent politely declines to put the moves on Penny, she rewards him with a big kiss. Suga Mama performs a campy strip tease for Dr. Carver, mercifully taking off her bathing suit only when she's underwater in the hot tub. |
 |
|||
ViolenceScenes of mayhem for Penny's turn at the wheel during driver's ed. One character is tortured by being tickled, spanked, and submerged into a pool full of electric eels, then forced to watch bad kids TV. The cloned Proud family beats up benevolent peanut clones, a hot dog vendor, and one another. Three sisters are thugs for hire. |
 |
|||
Language |
|
|||
Message |
|
|||
Social BehaviorA father and his 16-year-old daughter struggle to find the right balance between protection and independence, as he forbids her to try out for a rapper's dance troupe with her friends. Penny's father and mother engage in non-stop insults. Penny is sarcastic and rude to her parents, at one point wishing she had a different family, but through the movie learns to love them as they are. She is also extremely loyal to her diverse group of friends. Conversely, the characters in this movie with the darkest complexions are the most nefarious. |
 |
|||
CommercialismHummer |
 |
|||
Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoOne character accuses another of drinking too much island punch when he starts telling a story she doesn't believe. |
 |
|||
