Heavyweights is a late-blooming comedy where it had a cult audience, but it would then find more fans later in its shelf life. While it would seem like a run-of-the-mill Disney comedy that capitalized on the “Kid Power” sub-genre trend that Home Alone birthed in the 90s, when it was discovered that the movie was co-written by a young Judd Apatow and featured an outrageous character from a young Ben Stiller (who would somewhat return to the character in the hit film Dodgeball), it was discovered as a diamond in the rough that transcended the usual family-friendly live-action comedies from Disney.
Deadline reports that both Apatow and Stiller took the time to pay tribute to the 30th anniversary of the summer camp comedy that found a group of heavy-set kids being tortured at a fat camp by Stiller’s Tony Perkis. Stiller responded to a social media post wishing Heavyweights a happy anniversary and referring to it as “the most underrated Disney film of all time.” Stiller’s post read, “Somehow I don’t think this will be at the head of the Disney+ queue ever. In fact I’m not sure they are aware they made it. But that was an incredibly fun summer in North Carolina 30 years ago. #Heavyweights”
Apatow posted a slideshow on his Instagram that celebrated Heavyweights‘ 30th anniversary along with Saturday Night Live‘s 50 anniversary as Kenan Thompson is featured on both of them. His caption read, “SNL 50th AND Heavyweights 30th anniversary! And Keenan is on both – so that must have been especially exciting for him!” His slideshow would then feature digital scans of polaroids taken behind the scenes on the set of the movie.
Apatow also celebrated the 27th anniversary of the movie back in 2022 with another slideshow post on Instagram. The post sported the caption, “We shot at Camp Pinnacle in Hendersonville North Carolina in 1994. When it came out it didn’t make any noise but oddly it seems like tons of people have seen it and enjoy it. It’s on @disneyplus. This is a series of photos I took then called Angry Judd.”
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