Posted on 08/21/2012 8:57:22 AM PDT by AtlasStalled
Kiddy network Nickleodeon has begun production on the film Nicky Deuce which is adapted from "children's books by Steve Schirripa and Charles Fleming which tell the story of an affluent suburban kid who is sent to stay with his Italian relatives in Brooklyn, and becomes convinced they are secretly mobsters" as reported by Martin Chilton for The Telegraph.
Among those slated to appear in the film are four actors from The Sopranos, and Nickelodeon executive Majorie Cohn says "having the Sopranos actors adds a level of authenticity and fun."
No doubt this mob story for kids -- dubbed by Cohn as "a comedic coming-of-age story" -- leaves out the mob's history of exploiting kids.
It's more of a riff on kids imagining things and the consequences thereof (like Harriet the Spy or Ramona and Beezus).
So this may just be hyperventilation by those ready to take offense . . . which actually was the point of the book.
Review by School Library Journal:
“When Tommy and Nicky [the protagonist] agree to deliver bootlegged master copies of the computer chips for a hot new game, they are held hostage at gunpoint by some real gangsters. Nicky’s dad and uncle, who turns out to be an undercover detective, save the day. The authors capture the flavor of an Italian household and neighborhood, sparing no stereotype. Though Nicky’s foray into the world of petty crime has serious consequences, there is an underlying, boys will be boys attitude that could give impressionable readers the wrong idea.”
Sorry if I don’t find anything entertaining about the mob in any context.
You have to worry if the real badguys in the movie are evil Republicans trying force them out of their homes, prevent unionizing of workers, or the unspeakable act of cutting downs trees and drilling for oil.
But the point stands -- this is not about a 'mob' family, it's about a couple of silly kids playing cops-and-robbers (on the robber side - dumb them) and imagining that their family is mob when it turns out the family is actually law enforcement.
Boys' books generally have a certain amount of blood-and-thunder in them, and if you're going to do a contemporary urban story, well, crime is the only place to go. And a lot of books defuse or deflect the crime element by having kids suspect (a la Hardy Boys) that somebody is a criminal.
The six year old son of a guy at my Bocce club asked if he could bet on Summer Slam.
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