Daddy Day Care

Year of release : 2003

Run time : 1h33m

Genre : Family / Comedy

Cast : Eddie Murphy, Steve Zahn, Anjelica Huston, Jeff Garlin, Lacey Chabert, Elle Fanning, Regina King

Charlie is a marketing executive at one of the local food companies. He and his wife are looking for a preschool for their son, Ben.

At work, Charlie's team tries to sell vegetable flavored breakfast cereals to their target demographic, kids. The kids hate it, so Charlie and his team of 300 people, are laid off.

Due to the Chapman Academy preschool being too expensive, they pull Ben out, and he stays home with Charlie, as Charlie is looking for a job.

6 weeks later,while out with their kids at the park, Charlie and his friend and co-worker, Phil, who was fired with him, come up with the idea of opening a daycare center in his own house.

Charlie convinces his wife, and he and Phil start handing out fliers.

Women start bringing their kids to their daycare, but they are suspicious of 2 men working with their kids, until their friend leaves her kid with them.

 

Although at first they don't know how to work with the kids, and give them sweets, pumping them up with energy, they slowly learn how to talk to them,start coming up with a schedule for them with things to do and places to visit, and what foods to give them.

They bond with the kids, and the ones who were ill mannered end up being the nicest ones, while the very shy who hide under a Flash costume, lose their shell, and learn how to be themselves around people.

 

All this time, the head mistress of the Chapman Academy is trying to close them down, as they attract more and more parents who bring their kids to Charlie's daycare, as his alternative is not only more fun for the kids, but also more advantageous for the parents, as it's cheap.

I personally enjoyed the movie, it was fun and entertaining, I laughed the whole time. I liked the lead's house which was turned into a kindergarten, it was so beautiful and sunny, like a fairy tale house.

The movie felt like a summer hit, that I think kids and parents would enjoy watching.

The acting was good.

The soundtrack was good.

The movie received negative reviews from critics, but grossed 164.4 million dollars world wide against a budget of 60 million, and spawned 2 sequels.

You can watch it on Hoopla for free, and is for rent / sale on Amazon, AppleTv, Fandango at Home, Google Play, YouTube.

Rating : Worth a watch !