Disney's The Kid

**Disney's The Kid** is a 2000 American film directed by Jon Turteltaub. The film was released on July 7, 2000.

## Plot

Days away from turning 40, Russ Duritz works as a successful but abrasive image consultant in Los Angeles and has a strained relationship with his father. One of his clients is a stadium manager who is reneging on a previous promise to fund a baseball camp for disadvantaged children. When Russ makes a pie-throwing video to fabricate an explanation, his co-worker Amy urges him to reconsider.

When Russ returns home to find a toy plane on his porch, he assumes it is a gift from his father. However, inside he finds a strange boy, and chases him through the streets. After seeing the boy enter Skyway Diner, Russ runs in and finds no sign of him. Believing the experience to be a hallucination, Russ frantically sees a psychiatrist for medication the next day, but finds the same boy on his couch eating popcorn and watching Ed, Edd n Eddy when he returns home. The boy says his name is Rusty, that he was just searching for his toy plane, but came across the popcorn. Starting to see a resemblance, Russ begins comparing memories and birthmarks with Rusty, and figures out that the boy is actually himself as a kid. After a series of probing questions about Russ' life, Rusty tells him, "I grow up to be a loser." Rusty has always dreamt about owning a dog naming Chester and flying planes as a pilot, but Russ gave up on those dreams when he got older.

Amy finds out about the boy the next day and starts to think that Russ and Rusty are father and son. After she accuses Russ of being a dead-beat dad, Rusty assures her he is not Russ’ son. Rusty implores Russ to tell Amy the truth about their identities, but Russ thinks she'd never believe them. Amy discovers the truth on her own while watching the two argue; Russ and Rusty are nearly identical in style, and intensity. When Amy finds out that Russ lied about airing the stadium manager's tape, she gets mad at him and leaves disappointed.

Rusty has been asking about what happens next, how he became Russ. Russ tells him about his achievements that he had excellent grades and won a scholarship to UCLA, working to get a master's degree for six years and changed himself to who he is. Rusty understands about Russ's job as an image consultant, that he changes people and pretends to be somebody they are not. Russ cancels his appointments the following day, and spends the time walking with Rusty, and driving around the city trying to figure out why Rusty is there, and what from the past needs to be fixed to get Rusty back home. As they drive through a tunnel, Russ recalls a fight he lost with some neighbourhood bullies who were abusing a three-legged dog named Tripod. They emerge from the tunnel to find themselves reliving Rusty's eighth birthday in 1968. Russ helps Rusty win the fight and save Tripod, but then realizes that the fight itself was only the first half of the ordeal. Rusty's terminally ill mother is called in to take him home against doctor's orders. When they get home, Rusty's father quickly takes his wife back inside, and then he berates and angrily lashes out at Rusty in a moment of panic for getting into trouble and causing his mother more stress. Rusty cries while attempting to tell his father that he found a screw he lost, which only fuels his father's outrage. Rusty's father refuses to listen and painfully rubs his son's tears away to force him to stop crying, and then harshly tells him to grow up, causing a lifelong eye twitch and making the older Russ realize why he is the way he is today. Russ tells Rusty that his mother will die before his next birthday, then comforts him. Tearfully, Russ assures Rusty that he was not responsible for his mother's death, and that his father's outburst was not because he truly believed Rusty was responsible, but simply because he was scared about the prospect of having to raise him alone.

The two go to Skyway Diner, and celebrate their birthday, but realize that their efforts to change the outcome of that day by winning the fight have failed, as Rusty's mother was summoned to take him home in both cases, which sent his father into a fury and left Rusty emotionally scarred long into adulthood. When a dog named Chester greets Rusty, they find out that his owner is an older version of Russ who owns planes, their dream dog Chester and has a family with a woman who is clearly an older version of Amy. Realizing that Rusty's appearance was meant to change his ways rather than the other way around, Russ returns to his time, arranges plans to see his father, buys his assistant tickets to Hawaii, and, with a puppy, returns to Amy, who invites him into her home.

## Cast and Characters

* Bruce Willis as Russell Morley "Russ" Duritz
	+ Spencer Breslin as Young Rusty Duritz
* Emily Mortimer as Amy
* Lily Tomlin as Janet
* Chi McBride as Kenny
* Juanita Moore as Kenny's Grandmother
* Jean Smart as Deidre Lefever
* Dana Ivey as Dr. Suzanne Alexander
* Reiley McClendon as Mark
* Steve Tom as Bruce
* Larry King as Himself
* Jeri Ryan as Herself
* Nick Chinlund as Himself
* Matthew Perry as Mr. Vivian
* Daniel von Bargen as Sam Duritz
* Esther Scott as Clarissa
* Melissa McCarthy as Skyway Diner Waitress
* Elizabeth Arlen as Gloria Duritz

## Production

The Kid was part of a three-picture deal that Willis cut with the studio to compensate them for the dissolution of 1997's Broadway Brawler.

## Reception

### Critical Response

Upon its release, the film received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes calculated a 49% overall approval rating based on 99 reviews, with an average rating of 5.30 out of 10. The consensus reads, "Critics find The Kid to be too sweet and the movie's message to be annoyingly simplistic." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45, based on 32 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the movie 3 stars out of 4, observing that "Disney's The Kid is warm-hearted and effective, a sweet little parable that involves a man and a boy who help each other become a better boy, and a better man. It's a sweet film, unexpectedly involving, and shows again that Willis, so easily identified with action movies, is gifted in the areas of comedy and pathos: This is a cornball plot, and he lends it credibility just by being in it." Film critic A. O. Scott writing for The New York Times observed: "Mr. Willis stands by while a child swipes a movie out of his open palm... Spencer Breslin, Russ's tubby, cute-but-annoying almost-8-year-old self."

### Box Office

Disney's The Kid opened at #4 at the North American box office, making $12,687,726 USD in its opening weekend, behind The Patriot, The Perfect Storm, and Scary Movie. The film eventually ended its run by grossing $69,691,949 in North America and $40,625,631 elsewhere, thus bringing its worldwide total to $110,317,580, against a $65 million budget.

## Awards and Nominations

 Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor Age Ten or Under
 Best Family Feature Film - Comedy