Hey, hey, hey -- here's Fat Albert and some good clean fun for the holiday season.

This movie of the TV series, Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids, magically transforms cartoon characters into real live people.

In the flesh, Fat Albert (Kenan Thompson) is just as good at solving problems and being polite as he always has been in the animated world.

Doris (Kyla Pratt) is a teenager in Philadelphia. She has been feeling sad since her grandfather died, and she is waxing insecure in that adolescent way. When her tears fall on the TV remote control (ugh), magic ensues.

Fat Albert and his gang jump out of the TV and into her life, to solve her problems.

Never mind all that. Fat Albert includes advice on tolerance, politeness, kindness toward others, gentlemanly behaviour, self-reliance and self-confidence.

Also, there's dancing, singing, rapping, running, jumping and skipping; it's all so exuberant and colourful that at the screening we attended a little girl of about three years old got up and danced.

The humour is on the sweet side. The cartoon characters come to life still dressed in the ridiculous, neon-bright clothes of the animation world. Their mannerisms and characteristics seem quite silly in the real world, too. Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids was a hit on TV in the 1970s and '80s, so there are several laughs over what the characters don't know about today -- they are surprised to see a cordless mic, for example, don't know what a DVD is and have never heard rap music. It's cute.

There are no bodily function jokes in Fat Albert, and not one disbelieving or stupid parental figure. As family fare goes, that alone may be worth the price of admission.

(This film is rated G.)

NOTE: Fat Albert opens Dec. 25 in theatres.
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