At what point does nostalgia become the snake which willingly and gleefully devours its own tail? This is a question which more philosophical BuzzFeed visitors may well ponder as they study this bit of clickbait, in which the cast of Penelope Spheeris’ The Little Rascals recreate that film’s poster on the occasion of its otherwise little-observed 20th anniversary. A staple at underwhelming birthday parties for years, Rascals was already a remake of Hal Roach’s Our Gang series of short comedies, which ran from 1922 to 1944. Nevertheless, this replicated poster may indeed trigger warm, vague feelings of well-being within those who were born during a certain pocket of American history.
For everyone else, of course, the new poster is merely a chance to see how the film’s child actors have aged over two decades. How, for instance, have Bug Hall and Brittany Ashton Holmes (Alfalfa and Darla, respectively) held up since the Clinton years? The happy answer, at least on the basis of this one image, is miraculously well, though BuzzFeed has helpfully provided one of its trademark “slidey things” to allow people to make a detailed, slow-motion analysis if necessary. Eerily, the dog portraying Petey the Pup seems not to have aged even a second. True Rascals fetishists may appreciate the fact that Hall has also helped to recreate the movie’s Nutcracker scene alongside costar Travis “Spanky” Tedford.