Bug Off !

"Overcome all obstacles. Learn all you can."

"I've got the learning part...but what about overcoming popsicles?"



On a far away planet, they are ready to put a plan in action. The aliens want to learn from the earthlings on how to stop fighting, so they send two of their own, disguised in human form of course, to learn how to get along with one another. This is the premise behind the kids film Bug Off.

If this were a true story, I think it would be us sending our own to another planet to learn from them instead.

One of the aliens is disguised as an old woman named Mrs. Picklenickel, who gets a job on earth as a nanny for a family with two kids who are constantly at each other's throats. The annoying young boy Tyler is always playing tricks on his older sister Krista, especially scaring her with things like plastic spiders, the same one's I used to scare my sisters with.

The kids first realize the strange behavior of Mrs. Picklenickel when she serves them breakfast, corn flakes topped with broccoli. Hmm, that would make me a little suspicious,too.

One day, in the presence of Mrs. Picklenickel, Krista finds herself at her wits end and exclaims,

"I hate my brother! I wish he were a bug!"

Suddenly her wish becomes true as Tyler gets miniaturized as a bug. At first Krista finds it amusing, but then gets frantic when Tyler cannot get back to his original form.

Krista goes to great lengths to get her brother back to his usual self, which in turn leaves

Mrs. Picklenickle in a quandary, "You said you hate your brother, why do you now love him and are trying so hard to have him return as your brother?"

Krista is even surprised herself, realizing that within her effort to help her brother, she discovers she loves him.

Yes, Tyler gets transformed back to his annoying little self, and as for Mrs. Picklenickel?

She returns to her planet with the message she learned from the earthlings,

"When you help each other you start to love them."

Oh my, if only us earthlings could get this right!