Leadership, Teamwork and Snack Bar Raids

By ANGELA LEHMAN-RIOS

Cuba Gooding, Jr., wasn’t looking to do a sequel, not even a sequel to a movie he hadn’t been in the first time around.
But the script for “Daddy Day Camp”—a follow-up to 2003’s “Daddy Day Care” with Eddie Murphy—impressed Gooding with its theme of adults learning to provide positive guidance for children.
“It was one of those scripts I read that was just so timely,” Gooding said in a phone interview. He said he has a great concern for kids who are living in broken homes or situations where they don’t have good role models. “Kids are looking for someone in a leadership role.”
At first, that role is not so obvious in the movie.
“Charlie wants to connect with his son over the summer,” explains Gooding, who plays Charlie Hinton. “But Ben wants to go to camp.”
Charlie decides that he can spend time with Ben and send him to camp—all he has to do is team up with his friend Phil and run a camp. Specifically, Camp Driftwood, where Charlie went as a kid.
Problem is, Charlie and Phil may have experience running a day care, but they soon find out that running a camp in the woods is a different can of worms. Not only that, but Camp Driftwood is pretty run-down.
“You find out through the story that the owners will seize the camp and take control of it if enrollment doesn’t increase,” said Gooding. Charlie and Phil must improve the camp, all while trying to give Ben and the other campers a good summer experience.
Unfortunately, Charlie doesn’t really like the outdoors, and as Gooding tactfully put it, “the setting isn’t as contained as the day care.”
Chaos, of course, ensues.
“There’s one part where the kids get into the snack bar and overload on snacks,” said Gooding. “That causes some problems.”
Will the potty-humor police have anything to say about the movie? “Yeah,” Gooding laughed. “But it’s— tastefully done. You know, there’s a couple of situations like what you get when you have adults not paying attention to what kids are doing.”
Eventually Charlie realizes he needs to ask for the help of his father, Col. Buck Hinton. “When Charlie makes that call, you can tell it’s been years since he talked to him,” Gooding said. “It’s a humble plea for reconciliation.”
Repaired relationships are another major theme of “Daddy Day Camp” that attracted him to it, said Gooding, as is the value of teamwork. Those are issues he deals with in his real-life role as father to Spencer, 12, and Mason, 10, and his daughter Piper, who is almost 2.
“One of the reasons that I always insist my kids participate in organized sports is so they learn teamwork, community and respect,” he said. “I want them to be able to work on a team, as opposed to having an individualistic mentality.”
Gooding knows what it’s like to send kids away to camp—hopefully, not one like quite Charlie and Phil’s.
“Mason is at an away camp in Utah right now,” he said. Mason has done beach camp and trails camp, but this is the first time he’s been far away from home. “That’s really interesting on the Mrs.,” said Gooding. “He called home kind of weepy last night.”
At least he wasn’t crying about an exploding outhouse.

Angela Lehman-Rios is editor of Richmond Parents Monthly.