Commentary

Chutes and Ladders Becomes Action Movie Starring Playground Kids

Each week, Sketchy, a Yahoo site that launched in March, releases a spoof video on a trending or timely topic du jour.

Back in March, the site launched “Downton Arby’s,” an amusing spoof on “Downton Abbey” that has racked up close to 2 million views.

Last week, Sketchy launched an action video based on the board game Chutes and Ladders, in an effort to spoof the upcoming theatrical release of fellow board game, “Battleship.”

What’s with the board games turned into theatrical films? I doubt that anything could top the 1985 movie release of “Clue,” starring Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean and Eileen Brennan. Unless I start seeing “Hungry, Hungry Hippos” or “Candyland” on the big screen.

“Chutes and Ladders” takes action movie clichés to the playground, acted out by a handful of kids. One of the opening scenes shows a kid who needs to get down a slide quickly but he gets stuck, because he’s wearing shorts.

There are explosions, toy gun shooting, nose picking, toy car chases, romance (almost) and a villain hellbent on getting what he wants: a pile of ice cream sandwiches. Basically, a typical big-screen action movie.

The trailer was written and directed by Los Angeles-based production company Kids at Play. Principato-Young Entertainment, Electus and Yahoo Studios served as production partners.

The trailer concludes with a preview of an upcoming release of another board game turned movie spoof: Hungry, Hungry Hippos. Shockingly, it didn’t look half bad.

“We were in our weekly creative meeting, discussing movies that were coming out in the near future,” said Jason Berger, Founder and Executive Producer of Kids at Play. “We all grew up playing the old-school peg-in-hole Battleship game and thought how funny to make such an extreme movie based off such a simple game.”

The latest Kids At Play video launched this morning and pokes fun at the Taco Bell taco shell made from Doritos. The video is a series of “leaked” Taco Bell auditions for alternate products, like a Twinkie filled with meat, a Slim Jim inside a churro, a burrito made from Twizzlers, and a Red Bull-laced energy sauce.

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