It was the same dopey humor used on everyone else. And though there were racist gags in the movies, they weren't mean. Black child actors Allen 'Farina' Hoskins, Matthew 'Stymie' Beard and Billie 'Buckwheat' Thomas were all a part of the group, and their camaraderie with their white buddies was presented as unremarkable-not surprising perhaps, since some of the great childhood literary heroes of the period (Huck Finn, Penrod and Sam) all had pals of color, as well. Part of what keeps people interested in the pictures today-perhaps one reason for this pointless movie-is the fact that the gang was integrated. But what about their clothes? Or Alfalfa's cowlick? The moviemakers have actually succeeded in their toughest task: They've found plausible substitutes for boss Spanky (5-year-old Travis Tedford), poseur Alfalfa (9-year-old Bug Hall), belle Darla (5-year-old Brittany Ashton Holmes), Stymie (7-year-old Kevin Jamal Woods), Porky (4-year-old Zachary Mabry), Buckwheat (5-year-old Ross Elliot Bagley) and deep-voiced Froggy (7-year-old Jordan Warkol)-as well as bullies Butch (9-year-old Sam Saletta) and Woim (8-year-old Blake Jeremy Collins) and snobby rich kid Waldo (9-year-old Blake McIver Ewing, most talented of the troupe) along with two Darla chums, Heather Karasek, 5, and Juliette Brewer, 7 Petey the bull's eye dog and Uh-Huh (Courtland Mead)-whom I don't recall. What's its point? The boy Rascals-who for some inexplicable reason are dressed in exact replicas of the outfits of their '30s counterparts-are taught that their 'He-man woman-hating' ways are a relic of a vanished era. In fact, adults concocted this whole would-be feminist fable.

Where are the original little rascals