When is it a good time to do a remake?  If you are the Disney Channel, it is, apparently, when you have hit the century mark for movies made for your long-running cable television network.  Why they picked Adventures in Babysitting (1987) to give a modern look to in 2016 to observe the aforementioned milestone, I could not tell you.  That is not meant to be a criticism of the original.  I like that film, even if some of the material is questionable, if for no other reason than it is set in my hometown, Chicago.  Yet, that first iteration was a theatrical release.  It was produced by Disney, back when they made certain films under the guise of Buena Vista Pictures so as not to sully the good name of the Mouse.  This makes for something of a connection, I suppose.  Further, I do not intend for this to be a general indictment of remakes.  In most cases, they are unnecessary, but they are inevitable, like death and taxes.  To answer my original question in a different way, it is the wrong moment when you have your lead characters engaging in a babysitter rap battle.  As for the rest, you decide for yourself.

This time, we have two young ladies who are about to have Adventures in Babysitting.  They are aspiring photographers Jenny Parker (Sabrina Carpenter) and Lola Perez (Sofia Carson), and they are preparing their portfolios for an internship at the local art school.  Jenny sees it as an important stepping stone in her immaculate path to college, but Lola is passionate about it as an artist.  Despite having gone to the same high school, they did not socialize together, and now see each other as competitors.  In their literal jostling in front of the person who will pick between them for the position, they accidentally switch phones.  This would be a minor convenience if Jenny, being the responsible young person that she is, were not in high demand for watching other people’s children.  This is underscored when she turns down Helen Anderson’s (Gillian Vigman) urgent request for a babysitter, Jenny already having committed to Donna Cooper (Gabrielle Miller).  The fact that Jenny’s night is already spoken for means that she is not free to go out with her crush, Zac Chase (Kevin Quinn), though she does agree to see him later at the car wash fund raiser he is helping.  The reason for Helen’s urgency is that she is being honored at a gala dinner in the city, which also happens to be an event which the Coopers are attending, the families being friends.  In making one last entreaty, Helen calls Jenny’s phone and gets Lola.  Because Lola had just received a parking ticket from Officer James (Max Lloyd-Jones), despite there being an attraction, she claims to be a friend of Jenny’s and takes the Anderson babysitting gig.  Lola also tells Zac off when he calls with concert tickets for that night.  Lola gets to the Andersons and is given a quick run-down of the duties, as well as where Mrs. Anderson will be for the night, before hustling out of the door.  Because Lola has a devil-may-care attitude, she lets the house descend into chaos while she immediately breaks the rule about the hot tub being off limits.  Meanwhile, Jenny barely gets settled into the Coopers when she finally realizes that she has Lola’s phone.  Calling her own number, Jenny gets one of the Anderson kids who informs her that Lola is busy putting out a fire started by Bobby Anderson (Jet Jurgensmeyer), who likes to cook.  Feeling that disaster is imminent, Jenny packs up the Cooper kids and rushes over to the Andersons.  As she is pulling up, she does not notice the eldest Anderson, Trey Anderson (Max Gecowets), sneaking out of his upstairs room.  This means that the mess created by these activities will have to wait to be cleaned as Jenny must now track down an errant child.  They realize he has gone to the city to buy a ticket for the concert Jenny could have been at with Zac, and had bought them at a sketchy pawn shop.  When our intrepid band arrives at this location, not only is Trey not present, but they manage to anger the proprietors by taking pictures of their illegal and valuable ferret. . . ?  It is never explained why this animal is worth so much, but whatever, I guess.  Further, when they leave the business, the Andersons expensive sport utility vehicle (SUV) has been towed.  In order to get it out of impound, they need $100.  This would not be a problem if not for the fact that Jenny had left her wallet at the Coopers, and Lola seemingly has no money.  There is also the ongoing issue of the missing Trey.  When they finally find him, Lola comes up with the idea of scalping his concert ticket for the necessary funds.  Unfortunately, her attempt to do so lands her in jail.  It is Officer James that helps her get out, and, through a series of close calls while dodging the pawn shop pair, figures out that their best chance lies with taking the money from Mrs. Cooper’s purse.  This is accomplished by Lola, posing as an elegant party goer.  However, just when all seems to be turned around and bonds are formed through the craziness of the night, Lola reveals that she had told off Zac posing as Jenny.  To make it up to her new friend, Lola gets them into the concert so that Jenny can work her charms, resulting in a date.  With this sorted, they make it back to the Andersons in time to clean up all the messes.  In recognition of everything Lola did, despite her irresponsibility, Jenny officially withdraws her name from contention for the internship.  The film ends Lola sharing the photographs she took of their journey through the city with everyone, including Mrs. Anderson by accident.

I skimmed through some of the moments pertinent in the first word of the title in Adventures in Baby Sitting.  Basically, Jenny and Lola’s charges spend the entire evening avoiding the guys from the pawn shop who want to destroy Lola’s camera and the pictures of the ferret.  Again, I have no clue what is so important about the animal, but Wikipedia says it is because trafficking them is illegal.  It is a white ferret with a purple stripe spray painted on its back, but, hey, I did not write this thing.  I am also unsure as to what to write from a Catholic perspective about this movie.  If there is anything that stands out about it, it is the attitudes of our two babysitters.  They are opposites, with Jenny needing to see the children at all times and Lola letting the rebellious Emily Cooper (Nikki Hahn) die her hair green and get a tattoo.  These are not things to which Mrs. Cooper would agree, but Lola sees no problem with them despite Emily’s youth.  In a spiritual sense, it speaks to the interplay between boundlessness and structure.  Over the centuries, particularly since the Protestant Reformation, there have been those who have looked at Catholicism as having too legalistic of an approach to Faith.  Such opinions ignore the many different expressions of faith that have fallen inside the structure of the Church. One can see this in the various vows made by different religious orders serving the Church.  Some of them are universal.  All priests and other religious take vows of chastity, for example.  Not all of them, though, vow poverty.  Whatever it is they promise to God, they all work for the building up of the Church, and that is what is important.  This brings me back around to where Jenny and Lola land at the end of the film.  They learn from each other and find that they have more to gain from helping each other than in paying attention to what divides them.  This is as good a lesson as any.

When you began reading this review of Adventures in Babysitting, if you made it this far, I am willing to bet that you did not expect to see a connection to the Protestant Reformation.  I feel this is The Legionnaire at its best, even if it is when reviewing a silly Disney movie.  This one is mostly harmless, but forgettable.