Richie Rich

Richie Rich

Synopsis of Movie

Who better to play the world’s richest kid than young gold mine Macaulay Culkin? The pubescent superstar had earned his multi-million dollar status in the mammoth Home Alone franchise, followed up with the hits My Girl and The Good Son, and Richie Rich was to be his big-budget finale to kid flicks. For this first live-action adaptation of the long-running Harvey comics character, the filmmakers surrounded Culkin with a talented supporting cast, including John Larroquette, Edward Herrmann, Christine Ebersole, Jonathan Hyde and Michael McShane.

Richard Rich runs the fantabulously wealthy Rich Industries, a huge corporation as famous for its charitable efforts as it is for its profits. Richie, heir to the empire, is worth an approximate $70,000,000,000, but even a balance like that can’t buy happiness. Richie doesn’t fit in with the budding capitalists at his prep school, but he’s also an outcast among the blue-collar local kids.

Enter Cadbury, the Rich family butler, who engineers a play date with a multi-ethnic crew of inner-city ragamuffins. The kids love Richie’s assortment of toys and gadgets—indoor rollercoaster, private McDonald’s, the Kid-a-Pult, etc.—but barbarians are at the gate in the form of Laurence Van Dough, a Rich Industries executive with eyes on the C.E.O. seat.

Van Dough engineers a plane crash that takes down Richard and his wife Regina in the middle of the ocean. Richie, who skipped the fateful plane trip, assumes control of the company in his father’s absence. When Van Dough cooks up a new plot to frame Cadbury and hold Richie under lock and key, the wealthy lad recruits his new friends, the butler, and wacky inventor Professor Keenbean to find his parents and save Rich Industries.

The vast Rich fortunes gave ample opportunities for sight gags, including a robotic bee, Reggie Jackson as a personal baseball coach, and supermodel Claudia Schiffer as Richie’s fitness trainer. The decades-old comics character held up well for 90’s kids, as Richie Rich became a moderate success in the 1994 Christmas season, followed by the direct-to-video Richie Rich's Christmas Wish in 1998.

Movie Release History

1994 - Richie Rich

Movie Sub Categories

live-action
action/adventure
comedy

Movie Studio

Warner Bros.

Cast

Richie Rich Macaulay Culkin
Cadbury Jonathan Hyde
Mr. Rich Edward Herrmann
Mrs. Rich Christine Ebersole
Van Dough John Larroquette
Professor Keenbean Michael McShane
Ferguson Chelcie Ross
Diane Mariangela Pino
Gloria Stephi Lineburg
Tony Michael Maccarone
Omar Joel Robinson
Pee Wee Jonathan Hilario
Baseball Coach Reggie Jackson
Aerobics Instructor Claudia Schiffer
Newswoman at Factory Wanda Christine

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