Almost thirty years ago, Touchstone Pictures released Adventures in Babysitting, a family comedy about a babysitter’s night gone horribly wrong. This film marked the directorial debut of Chris Columbus who is perhaps more well-know for his work in the Home Alone movies, Mrs. Doubtfire, and a couple of Harry Potter films. Elizabeth Shue led the cast which included an early role for one of my personal favorites Bradley Whitford. Though it wasn’t a 10-year jump like Beverly Hills 90210, both of them were much older than the characters they portrayed.
The movie was about Chris Parker, a reluctant babysitter who only takes the job after her boyfriend cancels their big date. The two kids she his to babysit are a comic-legend-obsesses little girl and a 15-year old boy who doesn’t think he needs a sitter. A trip to city (Chicago) to pick up her friend results in all sorts of calamity: car trouble, a ride from a scary tow truck driver, witnessing a murder, escaping from a mob boss, mostly avoiding a gang fight, one of the kids getting stabbed in the foot, going to a hospital, singing the blues in a jazz club, seeing Chris’ boyfriend out with another girl, meeting Thor (allegedly), and getting home in time to hide it all from the parents. It was a wild ride.
The Disney Channel has produced their own Adventures in Babysitting TV movie that aired Friday June 24th and will attempt to replicate the success of the original. A feature film project was set to star Raven-Symone and Miley Cyrus and was scheduled to film in 2010 before it was red-lit. Starring Sabrina Carpenter of Girl Meets World as Jenny and Sofia Carson of Disney’s The Descendants as Lola, this production looks to bring to the small screen a project that was scrapped for the big screen It will be the 100th Disney Channel original movie and the only one Disney will do this year. To celebrate the occasion, the channel will play all 99 other original movies as a lead up to the Adventures in Babysitting airing.
The new movie will feature Jenny and Lola as rival babysitters coming together to find a child who has managed to wander into the city. Jenny is the perfect, goody-two-shoes and Lola is a bit of a rebel. Spoiler Alert: Hilarity will ensue and hi-jinks will occur. The cast has promised that there will be subtle Easter eggs and other references to the original film. Like the original, one of the actors, Carson, is well into her twenties but playing a high school student. Also promised is the use of the classic phrase used in this clip:
(Warning: The following clip contains adult language)
That’s pretty aggressive for a PG-13 film and while I’m sure Disney will clean this phrase up (“Don’t mess with the babysitter” being the most likely candidate) it has been promised to appear in some form. Though the story will be different, Disney hopes to capture some of the flavor of the original.
If you miss it airing on Disney channel you are out of luck. You will have to wait a whole four days until the June 28th DVD release.
