Early in development, Omar Benson Miller was set to play the titular character with Forest Whitaker serving as director. However, they were replaced by Kenan Thompson and Joel Zwick respectively due to creative differences between Whitaker and Bill Cosby. David Gordon Green expressed interest in directing the film and claimed he lobbied for the director's chair by personally writing a letter to Cosby. "Fat Albert" was released on VHS and DVD on March 22, 2005. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 23% based on 89 reviews, and an average rating of 4.4/10. The website's critical reads, "A bland but good natured adaptation of the cartoon show." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 39 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of a possible 4, writing: "The movie is sweet and gentle, but not very compelling." The film grossed $48.1 million in the United States and a total of $48.6 million worldwide, against a $45 million budget.