KIDS ON FILM : Reggae,...

In theaters for more than a month, this Disney film based on a true story is still luring kids and families who are in the mood for a few laughs, a little excitement and some feel-good reggae. Some have even returned for seconds.

“It was so exciting. It was cool. It was also funny,” summed up Aki Yamaguchi, 12. “I loved it.”

By now, most everyone with a TV has seen the ad with Doug E. Doug, who plays the Rastafarian-coiffed character Sanka Coffie, rubbing his frigid mitts over a fire and saying in his happy Jamaican lilt: “I feel so Olympic today!” So, some were surprised to find much more to the film than gags about warm weather natives trying to compete in the snow and ice.

“It turned out to be better than I thought it would be,” said Kristen Stagg, 11.

Besides the “Rudy”-type, never-give-up, sports story about the underdog, several strong subplots carry messages about fathers and sons, friendship, tolerance and prejudice and winning, losing and cheating.

Team captain Derice Bannock is trying to compete with his successful father, an Olympic champion.

Junior Bevil, an affluent team member, is trying to break away from a controlling father who expects him to become a lawyer.

An angry loner who calls himself Yul Brenner is trying to hang on to ignorant fantasies that athletic success will enable him to live in Buckingham Palace.

The coach (John Candy) is trying to make up for an earlier disgrace when he cheated as a member of another Olympic bobsled team.

Needless to say, each learns from another what he needs to in the course of the movie.

Seventeen-year-old Orli Gallen was back for the second time with boyfriend Darryl Sacks, her mother and her brother Avi, 7.

“I liked the music and stuff; it gave it like a real theme, you know?” Orli said. “A lot of movies are just so, like, Americanized, you know? This was, like, really different, you know? It was, like, cultural. I don’t know. It gave you like an inspirational feeling, or something.”

We know. OK?

But more, she said, “the whole thing was really funny. When I first saw it, I was laughing when everybody was quiet. It was embarrassing.”

Avi said he didn’t care for the music as much as his sister did. But he laughed along with her at the gags--especially when Candy uses his fist to pound Sanka’s helmet in place and Sanka gratefully responds, “Thanks, coach.” He also liked Sanka’s braided locks.

Darryl said his favorite part was the esteem-building exercise Yul gives Junior.

“I loved the part when he said, ‘When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Pride. Power.’ ”

No doubt there’s something here for everyone.

But Kristen thought--as only expansive, optimistic young minds can--there might be something here for everyone, everywhere.

“It might encourage some other countries to try that,” she said. “It might start some new things.”