The Baby-Sitters Club (film)

Infobox_Film
name = The Baby-Sitters Club

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caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Melanie Mayron
starring = Schuyler Fisk,
Bre Blair,
Rachael Leigh Cook,
Larisa Oleynik,
Stacy Linn Ramsower
Zelda Harris
writer = Dalene Young
producer = Peter O. Almond, Jane Startz
distributor = Columbia Pictures
runtime = 85 min
released = August 18, 1995
language = English
imdb_id = 0112435 |

"The Baby-Sitters Club" is a 1995 family film directed by Melanie Mayron. It is based upon "The Baby-sitters Club" series of books and is about one summer in the girls' lives in the fictional town of Stoneybrook, Connecticut. The movie features actresses and actors who were unknown at the time.

Cast

* Schuyler Fisk as Kristy Thomas (13 yrs), the tomboy and the president of the club
* Bre Blair as Stacey McGill (13 yrs), the glamorous, sophisticated one
* Rachael Leigh Cook as Mary Anne Spier (13 yrs), the shy, sensitive one; Dawn's stepsister.
* Larisa Oleynik as Dawn Schafer (13 yrs), the environmentalist
* Tricia Joe as Claudia Kishi (13 yrs), the creative, artistic one
* Stacy Linn Ramsower as Mallory Pike (11 yrs), the redheaded writer
* Zelda Harris as Jessi Ramsey (11 yrs), the dancer

Other cast members include:
* Vanessa Zima as Rosie Wilder.
* Christian Oliver as Luca, Stacy's crush from Switzerland.
* Brooke Adams as Elizabeth Thomas Brewer.
* Bruce Davison as Watson Brewer.
* Jessica Needham as Karen Brewer.
* Ellen Burstyn as Mrs. Haberman, the cranky woman next door, who befriends Dawn.
* Asher Metchik as Jackie Rodowsky.
* Austin O'Brien as Logan Bruno, Mary Anne's boyfriend from Kentucky.
* Marla Sokoloff as Cokie Mason, the club's chief rival.
* Aaron Michael Metchik as Alan Gray, a local dweeb with a heart of gold and a crush on Dawn Schafer.

Plot

Kristy Thomas, a twelve-year-old tomboy, and President of the Babysitter's Club, comes up with an idea to open a day camp for their child clients. Her best friend, Mary Anne Spier along with stepsister Dawn Schafer, offer their parents' back yard to serve as the camp site. All of the club members (Kristy, Mary Anne, Dawn, Jessi, Mallory Pike, Stacey McGill and Claudia Kishi) vow to keep a close eye out for misbehaving kids, which would later include Kristy's younger brother, David Michael.

Meanwhile, Kristy faces problems when she meets her estranged father (who abandoned her family seven years ago), and faces a dilemma about telling her friends and family about this. Mary Anne is the only one she tells of the visit, and she too is under pressure as the curiosity of her friends grows. Claudia is stuck in summer school and is forced to retake a test, or face repeating a grade and being forced to drop out of the club. Stacey McGill has a crush on a seventeen-year-old boy, Luca. As their relationship ensues, she faces problems telling him about her diabetes and later, her age. This is revealed after a fateful trip to a New York City club, in which a bouncer does not allow her into a club because she is underage. Luca is outraged, unable to believe that Stacey is "only thirteen". Meanwhile, Dawn must face her neighbor, the fiery Mrs. Haberman, who is increasingly upset because of the camp activities that are taking place next door. Also, Mallory is in the process of writing her first novel while Jessi continues to dance her way through life and closer to her dream of becoming a professional dancer.

At the end of the movie, it is Kristy's thirteenth birthday and she has arranged to go to an amusement park with her father. Promising her friends she would make it to her own party, Kristy is left abandoned in the rain at the park by her father. She begins to walk home until her friends show up in Luca's car after Mary Anne's confession about the return of Kristy's real dad. Luca drives the girls back to Mallory's parents' cabin and present Kristy with a half-melted birthday cake. As Stacey is saying good-bye to Luca, he tells her that he will be coming to Stoneybrook again next year. "I'll be fourteen," Stacey tells him gleefully. They share a kiss just before Luca departs. Amusingly, this would never actually happen, as the age of the girls in the books would permanently remain thirteen for the remainder of the literary series. At the end of the movie, the girls, in return for making her summer so miserable with their summer camp, give the greenhouse to Mrs. Haberman. Meanwhile, Kristy witnesses a miracle when her buddy Jackie Radowsky hits his first home run, nailing Cokie, who is sitting in a tree nearby, in the process.

Box office performance

"The Baby-Sitters Club" was one of only two nationwide theatrical releases on the weekend of August 18, 1995. It suffered a disappointing debut, opening in ninth place with $3 million, which placed it a distant second behind the other opener, "Mortal Kombat" ($23 million). The total domestic gross was $9.6 million. [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=babysittersclub.htm "The Baby-Sitters Club" at Box Office Mojo] ]

References

External links

*
* [http://members.aol.com/jonmerrill/bscchap19.htm Trivia and review] , from Merrill's Companion to "The Baby-Sitters Club"