Baby's Day Out

****

Silly but cute is the only way to describe this hapless baby caper written and produced by John Hughes, famous for his teen angst movies.

Baby Bink, played by twins Adam and Jacob Worton, is the pride and joy of his pretentious mother and father (Lara Flynn Boyle and John Neville).

He is the only rich baby of all their obnoxiously rich friends who has not gotten his picture in the paper. So his mother hires the best in the baby picture business to take a winning photograph of Baby Bink.

The adventure of Baby Bink's little life begins when culprits Eddie (Joe Mantegna), Norby (Joe Pantoliano), and Veeko (Brian Haley) replace the baby photographers and kidnap Baby Bink during his photo session.

Unfortunately, they are totally incompetent. Within the first few hours of their kidnapping of Baby Bink they lose him, leaving him to embark on an adventure into the streets of Chicago.

Of course, how nobody manages to see him is beyond me. Do people not look at the ground every so often to check where they are stepping, in the process possibly noticing a baby crawling around on all fours with no adult supervision? But enough with my skepticism; this is a movie and we are supposed to be entertained.

A memorable scene which had me laughing uncontrollably was when Eddie, the leader of the gang of culprits, had Baby Bink hidden under his jacket and Baby Bink began to play with his lighter near a rather precarious place, all while Eddie is being questioned by the cops about the missing child. A simply hilarious scene.

The ending of this movie leaves us with thoughts of a possible irrepressible sequel for next summer, "Baby's Trip to China."

This is the largest Hughes Entertainment production ever in terms of sets and staging and it also utilizes the most visual effects and stunts ever in a John Hughes film.

Lion King

*****

Once again Disney has produced a cartoon classic. Sales for this film have already skyrocketed into the stratosphere and kids of all ages can be heard singing the infamous theme song, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."

"The Lion King" phenomenon has definitely caught fire as the summer blockbuster.

Simba (voiced as a child by Home Improvement's Jonathan Taylor Thomas and as an adult by Matthew Broderick) is the hero of the film. He is the heir to the lion kingdom which encompasses everything the sun touches.

Problem is, Mufasa, king of the lion kingdom, is the epitome of his jealous brother Scar's (voiced by Jeremy Irons) hatred. Scar incorporates the help of hyenas, Shenzi (Whoopi Goldberg), Banzai (Cheech Marin) and Ed (Jim Cummings) to do his dirty work.

Scar is responsible for the death of Mufasa, but puts the burden of blame on the young Simba. Simba is so ridden with guilt that he feels his only alternative is to run away and never return to Pride Rock. He finds solace and companionship in Pumbaa (voiced by Ernie Sabella) and Timon (voiced by Nathan Lane).

Meanwhile, the evil Scar lets Pride Rock become overidden with the scavenging hyenas. No food is left for the animals in Pride Rock, so Nala (voiced by Moira Kelly), Simba's childhood friend and future wife, journeys past Pride Rock in an attempt to find help.

On her search she finds Simba and, with the help of a fortune-telling monkey, she convinces Simba to return to his rightful place atop Pride Rock.

Elton John and Tim Rice are responsible for the infectious songs of merriment in this movie, a definite Disney classic. Read Next Article