The Babysitters Club
Well, my senior portraits are finally up on the website! It's so weird to me that all of these things I remember thinking about when my brother was experiencing them are now happening to me! They still feel like stuff that shouldn't be happening until sometime in the far-off future.
Anyway, on Friday of last week, I went yardsaling with my grandparents, which is a pretty common occurrence for me during these summer months, and while on this yard sale excursion, I bought a copy of The Babysitters Club movie on DVD. I'm pretty sure I have this movie on VHS too, but I have no idea where, and besides it's the 21st century. And it was like fifty cents or something. So last night I decided to watch it, and oh my goodness, I laughed WAY harder than I should have. This movie was not intended to be so funny, but it's just SO CHEESY, I couldn't help myself! And all the guys that are supposed to be charming or cute or whatever were SO UGLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And had the most atrocious accents ever. Just thinking about them makes me laugh! I understand that it was made and set in the 90s, but that doesn't excuse the fact that fashion and hairstyles in the 90s were so utterly awful.
I rest my case.
It was surprisingly well cast though, I must say, as someone who has read almost all of the BSC books. And the cast is a bit star studded. Rachael Leigh Cook plays MaryAnne, and it was her first credited roll! And now she's well known for her work on Perception. And before Larisa Oleynik was the vapid little sister on Ten Things I Hate About You, she was health-conscious hippie girl Dawn on The Babysitters Club. So let's just say this corny little film helped out some stars in the making. And honestly, it was a pretty accurate rendering of the book series. It was just so unbelievably corny. I realize it is targeted towards like, 6-12 year olds, but still. And I'm not trying to bash it at all, it was such an enjoyable watch, I laughed so hard! And I will absolutely watch it multiple times, and probably keep it until I have a little girl who I can show it to and share my love of the BSC series. But the cheesiness was unbelievable!
And don't even get me started on how unrealistic it was. Here's the plot premise: this group of thirteen year olds decides to start a summer day camp for the neighborhood kids and like thirty families sign their kids up for it, even though it costs $250 and IS RUN BY THIRTEEN YEAR OLDS. Plus, they have no permit for this little day camp, and it's set up in two of the girls' backyards. Puh-leaze. And then in a side plot, one of the girls' absentee father shows up and makes her swear not to tell anyone he's there so they can hang out together every day (which is honestly super creepy) and so she doesn't tell anyone except her best friend, who keeps the secret all summer, and the girl gets away with sneaking out to see her dad for like two months without anyone being all that suspicious! In another side plot, one of the thirteen year olds meets this tacky European guy who's 17, and she doesn't tell him she's only 13 and he doesn't suspect anything, and then they go to New York together and the only reason he finds out she's not 17 is because they go to try to get into a club and they won't let her in because she's too young. So then he's all mad at her for a while, but then he's like "I'm sorry I was such a jerk. It's okay that you're only thirteen, I still like you" and then they kiss! And not just a little peck! It was a bit disturbing.
For all my making fun of it though, it really did bring back some happy memories. I remember being so excited that the Book Mobile had this one special edition copy of MaryAnne's scrapbook, and one time at a used book sale they had this Baby Sitters Club circle letter book where you could actually take the letters out of envelopes and lift flaps and do all this cool interactive stuff. I still have that. And I named all my Barbies after the baby sitters, and I was so happy because I had a black Barbie so I could name her Jessie, and I specifically bought an Asian barbie to be Claudia. And of course Claudia was one of my first style inspirations because she always wore the most bizarre clothing. I have two entire shelves of my Mom's built in bookshelves filled to overflowing with BSC books. Someday I hope to complete the entire series and pass them on to my daughter, along with this movie of course. And apparently, there was a TV series based on The Babysitters Club too! I bet it's just as delightfully cheesy as the movie.
Let me see if I can find any clips of this hilarious movie to show you:
Ah! Here's the exact awkward, disturbing kissing scene I was talking about! Of course there's some other cheesy dribble before and after, but oh well.
Anyway, on Friday of last week, I went yardsaling with my grandparents, which is a pretty common occurrence for me during these summer months, and while on this yard sale excursion, I bought a copy of The Babysitters Club movie on DVD. I'm pretty sure I have this movie on VHS too, but I have no idea where, and besides it's the 21st century. And it was like fifty cents or something. So last night I decided to watch it, and oh my goodness, I laughed WAY harder than I should have. This movie was not intended to be so funny, but it's just SO CHEESY, I couldn't help myself! And all the guys that are supposed to be charming or cute or whatever were SO UGLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And had the most atrocious accents ever. Just thinking about them makes me laugh! I understand that it was made and set in the 90s, but that doesn't excuse the fact that fashion and hairstyles in the 90s were so utterly awful.
I rest my case.
It was surprisingly well cast though, I must say, as someone who has read almost all of the BSC books. And the cast is a bit star studded. Rachael Leigh Cook plays MaryAnne, and it was her first credited roll! And now she's well known for her work on Perception. And before Larisa Oleynik was the vapid little sister on Ten Things I Hate About You, she was health-conscious hippie girl Dawn on The Babysitters Club. So let's just say this corny little film helped out some stars in the making. And honestly, it was a pretty accurate rendering of the book series. It was just so unbelievably corny. I realize it is targeted towards like, 6-12 year olds, but still. And I'm not trying to bash it at all, it was such an enjoyable watch, I laughed so hard! And I will absolutely watch it multiple times, and probably keep it until I have a little girl who I can show it to and share my love of the BSC series. But the cheesiness was unbelievable!
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| Here's Claudia rocking a totally awesome outfit. |
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| Here's Kristy and her creeper Dad, who was, unfortunately, the most attractive guy in the movie. |
Let me see if I can find any clips of this hilarious movie to show you:
Ah! Here's the exact awkward, disturbing kissing scene I was talking about! Of course there's some other cheesy dribble before and after, but oh well.
The moral of this post is that sometimes it's nice to sit back and relax and watch a super cheesy movie intended for audiences way younger than you. It's like an escape. And there were some funny and quotable moments, for sure. Plus, it's way better than all the sex-filled crap that's blasting through our TV screens these days. Wow, I sound like an old woman. Anyway, you should watch this movie. You might just enjoy the innocent simplicity of it.
-VaughnDL
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