Kids' Flix

Favorite Kid Films

2009-11-15T09:41:00.005-05:00

As I continue to contemplate retirement from blogging, I do feel compelled to call up a list of some of our favorites; films we really enjoyed when K was roughly 10 to 12 years old and we could get him to watch a movie. Now, he's much more social, and is a skateboarding fiend, meaning he spends a lot of time at the nearby indoor skate park. Much better than couch potato-ing (with TV, X-box and laptop), so we have no complaints.

First, you can start with the movies (like Little Manhattan, Iron Giant) that are linked to their graphic images below (far left), as those are definitely some favorites. Regarding Planet of the Apes, I'll point out that K and his dad watched the entire series of films and loved them all (I've seen three).

Here are some other titles we highly recommend (in no particular order):

The Prisoner TV series (PG)

Never Cry Wolf (PG)

Nanook of the North (G)

Blindsight (PG)

War Games (PG)

In the Shadow of the Moon (PG)

Rivers and Tides (G)

Incredible Shrinking Man (PG)

Drums Along the Mohawk (PG)

Jackie Chan: Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (PG)

True Grit (PG)

Eight Below (PG)

Children of Heaven (PG)

Charlie Chaplin in Gold Rush (G)

Genre: '50s Sci Fi/Fantasy and "Horror" Movies

Genre: Harold Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy

Genre: Godzilla and other Japanese Monsters

Genre: Ray Harryhausen

Genre: Hayao Miyazaki

Genre: Documentaries

Ok, that might keep you busy for a while.

What you you watched lately with your own kids?

Er... Halloween...

2009-10-30T19:53:00.006-04:00

Ok, it's the LEAST I can do:

Here are some Halloween ideas for the kiddies.

Go here for some KidsFlix official Halloweenness.

And, I had all intentions (two months ago) of following up on some titles I've not covered, such as:

Tower of Terror (Disney, made for tv)

Hocus Pocus (Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler, rated PG)

The Witches Saving the world from witches is a tall order for a boy they've turned into a mouse!

Halloweentown High (Apparently there is a series of Halloweentown movies?)

Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) (Two animated versions of the Sleepy Hollow/Headless Horseman story and of The Wind in the Willows ... together in one film? I'm not sure.)

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (!) Oh come on, it's Don Knotts!

Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein ... Meet the Mummy ... Meet Jekyll and Hyde ... (I'm tempted to just say, GO! on these ...)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (For older kids? A Ray Bradbury adaptation)

But. As you can see, I'm providing zero in the way of a real thumbs up or down on these, as I did for these films.

If you see any of the titles above, drop me a note! (Or better yet, post here!)

Happy All Hallows Eve, everyone .... We will be enjoying a double feature of Earth vs. the Spider / War of the Colossal Beast (1958), and with a little nudging, I may be convinced to report on them here. We're just so darn happy that son K wanted to stay home and watch "a really good -- or really bad -- monster movie from the '50s" instead of going to the skatepark, where I'm sure a few costumes and lots of junk food will be livening things up.

What more could we ask for?

Where The WIld Things Are

2009-10-15T12:58:00.001-04:00

Interesting piece in PopMatters on Where The Wild Things Are, opening this Friday:

Both Spike and Sendak’s Max are reflective of their time, and yet completely true to the dark and often disappointing tenets of youth. Naturally, grown-ups would balk at such cinematic bravado. Give their progeny as much mindless eye candy as possible, but God forbid they be required to think—or even worse, question and reflect. [Jonze is] journeying deep into the fragile heart of pre-adolescent darkness here, reminding us of how fun and fractured growing up can be. ...

I have to confess I’m glad son K says he’ll see this with me, now that he’s making the leap to cell-phone carrying, football-playing, pre-teen ... I’m looking forward to it. Reviews are generally strong; the Chicago Trib called it “nervy and breathtaking.”

GONE FISHIN?

2009-10-07T10:54:00.005-04:00

It seems that KidsFlix has gone fishin'.

(But you figured that out already.)

A busy summer morphed into a busy fall ... focusing on my writing gig (the one that helps pay the bills) and volunteering for Maine's No on (Question) 1 campaign has just completely derailed me!

The longer I'm away, the harder it is to start it up again.

So, that said, I suspect I may be waiting for some serious inspiration to get back on the ol' horse, and share my thoughts with you on offbeat, fab films for families.

Perhaps inspiration will come knocking once I see something that really floors me ... I know this weekend, husband D has a film coming in that sounds pretty great (Terror From Beneath The Sea, 1966). (No peeking! Give me a few days and I promise I'll write something, now that I've baited you.)

Another film I'm really looking forward to is -- and I share this with you freely as I'm sure it deserves even more attention than it will get -- is a new documentary called Afghan Star. It's still showing in pockets around the country, in art houses and on college campuses, so check your listings. It's impatiently sitting in my Netflix "saved" queue.

Ok. Carry on. I guess I'm warming up to come back!

Oh, and to give you somewhere to go right now, check out my friend's blog, Really? Estate, where she's documenting her and her husband's attempt to buy a house in the San Francisco Bay Area. You'll laugh and cry along with them as they look at houses in "landslide zones" with cracked foundations and shoebox-sized rooms going for a cool half million dollars. (No, I'm not kidding.)

It's fascinating. Send her some good karma while you're there.

THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED (PG)

2009-09-14T13:07:00.004-04:00

The Greatest Game Ever Played doesn’t really fit the KidsFlix criteria (we try for offbeat, classic, foreign, etc.), but somehow this got to the top our NetFlix list when we weren’t looking.

K snorted and said, “Oh, it’s Disney. It’s probably really dumb.” For those of you who are newcomers here, K is 12 now, and of course at this age it gets more challenging to get him to sit through movies that he doesn’t choose himself. Although, to be clear, he’ll often choose something like Ratatouille, just as often as he might choose something like Inkheart. (Husband D and I are just grateful that K still loves to watch ‘50s and ‘60s sci fi flicks with us! He’s become quite the aficionado.)

This film is based on the true story of a young caddie in the early 1900s, growing up under the critical eye of a struggling immigrant father and hardworking mother, whose own golfing talents land him in the U.S. Open. The story is one of overcoming odds, of believing in ones’ self, of the ugliness of classism and stereotyping ... there are a number of discussion-worthy issues trotted out here. But the film itself is beautifully made, it’s rich to both the eye and the soul, and here’s the key thing: our scoffing son soon succumbed to the film’s charms and he thoroughly enjoyed it. It has a mature feeling about it, like it’s something kids can really sink their teeth into, and they can feel that in the first ten minutes.

I learned something, too: apparently Shia LaBeof is not all that cool with the male tweener set. I believe K referred to him as “Shia LeDoof “ (um, would that be spelled LeDuf, if it were short for “dufus?”). We managed to avoid the most recent Transformers movie -- K seemed pretty disinterested, which was a blessing considering the awful reviews I read and the surprising and annoying level of sexual humor in the first one, which was off-putting, to say the least -- and K hasn’t seen a whole of LeBeof in action. So I gather this is a general vibe from the tweener pack at the moment.

Maybe they’re old enough that they’re jealous of the guy getting next to Megan Fox. Is that possible?

Randon Act of Self Indulgence .16 - Michael Moore's "Capitalism"

2009-09-01T15:55:00.001-04:00

Go, Michael Moore.

TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE

2009-08-31T09:39:00.008-04:00

I was just reading my quick post below about It Came From Outer Space, and realized I had a scene from this film in mind when I mentioned bad girl blonds... I don't think there was a platinum-haired young lady with "DOOMED" stamped on her forehead (to pay for her lusty thoughts, one presumes) in that film.

Instead, she appeared (briefly) in Teenagers From Outer Space, which was a fantastically entertaining 1950s "aliens from space" film we all enjoyed not long ago. (Yeah, we're on a bit of a '50s sci-fi kick here, but that happens!)

You'll understand my confusing the two movies, as both have a similar theme running through them that was rather atypical of the time: these aliens didn't choose our fair planet for conquering or blowing up, but rather as a temporary home for different purposes: in essence, for doing a little work under the hood in the former, and for growing food in the latter. Ok, more specifically, in Teenagers, they need to find an environment suitable for breeding the giant creatures on which they feed their human-like populace. The creatures are called Gargons, which coincidentally resemble very, very large lobsters, and make one's mouth water for a good portion of the film.

Teenagers is hilarious in many ways, and one of the most confounding quirks is that the actors portraying the "teens" look to be about 30 years old. Our hero, Derek, is the handsome young man -- er, teen -- alien who changes his mind about the whole plan, realizing it imperils Earth humans, and he's developed a bit of a crush on one of them, the perky Betty.

But other aliens don't share his view, and out come the laser guns, which can reduce a living, breathing body to a pile of bones (maybe this is more of a PG outing for younger viewers). There’s a fair amount of action, a moral message that ... um... not all teenagers are bad, and it’s just a whole lot of laughs.

Random Act of Self-Indulgence .15

2009-08-29T16:18:00.004-04:00

Wow. That's a quick snippet of Tom Waits, but did he have shaved eyebrows? Is that what makes him look so freaky?

And Heath Ledger. Wow.

I wrote about this before, but now it's further along, and there's an official trailer and release date (or two: I've seen both December and October mentioned) ... The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus:

If you want to read more about the film, visit IMDB:

"I saw this at the Munich film festival where Terry Gilliam introduced the film, and boy was he nervous. However, the film is of marvelous spectacle yet unprofound simplicity but limitless. It's along the lines of his magnificent visual storytelling as in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, leaving out the subtext like Brazil and Twelve Monkeys..."

IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON (PG)

2009-08-27T15:31:00.005-04:00

To my surprise, this documentary about the 12 human beings who have been to the moon and back is directed by British producer/director David Sington. This nifty little film not only captures a very American feeling about our amazing accomplishments in space so many decades ago, but also does a fine job reminding us what national unity and pride feels like. Ever since the post-9/11 ... love fest ... ended (around the time Bush started talking about invading Iraq), our country has forged a divide so deep, you think it may never close up.

(Also funny how the post-2008 election love fest has fizzled, adding to that divide, now that Republicans are remembering what it feels like to be in the minority: not fun, and kinda scary when you have no power. But I sure hope those who are getting so riled up figure out how to get along, and turn down the rhetoric and the stretching of truth, and leave the guns at home. Talk about scary.)

Where was I?

Oh, yeah, national unity. In The Shadow of the Moon leaves you with a nice feeling, and when you’re gathering up the popcorn bowls and putting the pillows back on the sofa, it has you imagining some new goal, or mission, that the U.S. could embark on to pull us back together. Something universally desired, attainable, admirable.

As thoughts like “eradicate world hunger” and “wipe out illiteracy” whoosh through your pea brain, you find yourself wondering, “Uh, what did getting onto the moon actually do for humankind that was so great?”

And then you banish that thought, as suddenly as it appears.

Where would we (any of us) be without curiosity and exploration driving us to do crazy things like walk on the moon? Where would we be if we simply didn’t possess a desire to know what’s next, what’s beyond, or what is possible?

Ok, pyschological mumbo-jumbo aside, here’s what you want to know: this is a beautiful film, one that focuses on giving our hero astronauts ample opportunity to look back and tell us how it felt, what they were thinking at the moment of lift-off, or landing. They’re all intensely likable and easy to listen to. Unfortunately, Neil Armstrong is pretty reclusive these days, and declined to participate, which just seems crazy; he was the first human to touch moon dirt! (The weight and importance of that does not escape the others, and it’s briefly discussed and recognized as being quite a burden to carry.) The sense of awe that many of these men express about their experience is palpable; one proclaims, with no shortage of wonder in his voice, “I spent three days of my life on the moon ... that’s just ... science fiction!”

Original footage has been lovingly restored and touched up, and the visuals are brilliant. The moonscapes and earthscapes -- as well as the joyful first moonwalk footage -- should impress any kid (you just need to remind them it’s real). There is also tragedy (three astronauts perished in the tragedy of Apollo 1), but the film is mostly a celebration of everything that went right on the nine missions that put men on the moon.

If you haven’t started your kids on documentaries yet, this is a good place to start.

IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (G)

2009-08-24T14:37:00.003-04:00

I nearly forgot to write this one up! I had another post ready to go and realized I’d somehow skipped over one of the finest ‘50s saucers-from-space flicks we’ve yet seen. Yikes.

Ok, since it’s been a while and I didn’t take notes, I’ll give you the briefest review possible: It Came From Outer Space has all we love about the genre, some really good acting, hilariously fun stereotypes (why are blonds always the bad girls?!), beautiful scenery (the southwest desert), and it’s got one heck of a moral theme running through it -- one about paranoia, ignorance-generated fear, and conformity. Excellent.

This was -- allegedly -- the biggest influence on Steven Spielberg when he made Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and it was originally released in 3-D. Occasionally you'll find it playing in art houses (such as our much-missed Castro Theater in SF where it played a couple of years ago). Based on a Ray Bradbury novel, you can pick out the professor from "Gilligan’s Island" if you’re one of us older and wiser people.

You'll find more KidsFlix recommendations along these lines in our sci-fi fantasy category.

The Summer Slowdown

2009-08-13T17:23:00.008-04:00

We're totally consumed right now with visitors/vacationing/home projects, and so let's call this The Summer Slowdown post!

I'll have something new soon ... next on our list is It Came From Outer Space, which I'm sure will be a fine and dandy cinematic experience.

Hope your summer is excellent!

Oh, and just to leave you with this thought: K has shown me some hilarious movies on YouTube that are made of Legos -- have you seen these? I stumbled on a Monty Python piece (a scene from Holy Grail) done with Legos that had us both ROTFLing (not to be confused with Rolfing).

Anyway, Variety is reporting that there are plans underway for a real film based on Legos, and although Warner Bros. hasn't released many details, they do say it's an "action adventure set in a Lego world." Hmmm. The producer is Dan Lin, who responsible for what looks like a great piece of work, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey! Robert Downey!), and who is also behind an adaptation of "Tom and Jerry" for a full-length film treatment! Son K loves "Tom and Jerry" -- I sure hope they don't do something weird like ... make it with Legos.

Ok, here are some recommendations for your weekend, before I run back to the grill and my margarita:

Godzilla! (and friends)

Harold Lloyd Collections (G)

2009-08-05T14:33:00.005-04:00

I wrote a while back about one of the greatest silent comedies, Safety Last! starring Harold Lloyd, and there are a number of collections that feature his work in short form. I'm revisiting Lloyd (and should mention Chaplin and Keaton in this breath, too) to remind you that short films may be a great way to get kids raised on color screens interested in these silent, black and white classics.

We recently rented The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection (Vol. 2) from Netflix, when my 9-year old nephew was visiting, and weren't sure it would hold his attention. Son K is accustomed by now to his parents pushing ... unusual ("to a kid," he says, in the same way he says, "No kid eats grilled peaches" -- or, insert most any non-pizza/burger food item here -- "You just think they do!") movie fare his way, but we weren't sure about his cousin.

To our delight, it worked. These things are so much fun, and so out of the ordinary for today's kids, I urge you again to consider these for family movie night. Again, try the shorts first for many of these classics; some run 20 minutes, some closer to an hour, but all may be easier for the first time out.

(See my post on Laurel and Hardy movies here.)

THE COLOUR OF MAGIC (NR - PG)

2009-08-01T18:13:00.008-04:00

Oh, we stumbled on a great success the other day.

Do you know Terry Pratchett’s long-running sci-fi novel series called Discworld? If you’re a sci-fi nut, you probably do. (Actually, to clarify, the books are comic fantasy novels.) If not, and you have a kid sitting around this summer, watching too much TV or perhaps wishing they hadn’t finished the last Harry Potter book, you might want to check them out. According to Wikipedia, “newly released Discworld books regularly top The Sunday Times best-sellers list, making Pratchett the UK's best-selling author in the 1990s, although he has since been overtaken by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.”

Son K has been reading the Orson Scott Card Ender’s Game novel series, and I’m going to encourage him to take a look at these. I came across the DVD, and then read about the books, and they sound like a ton of fun.

This DVD is a made-for-(British)-TV adaptation, running approximately three hours, following the first two Discworld novels, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic (there are over 30 books in the series).

Get this:
The wizard Rincewind is in charge of the naïve Twoflower (a “tourist” from the Agatean Empire) during his visit to the magical Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle.

No, I didn't make that up.

The snippets I saw during K’s viewing were really wonderful. He and his 9-year-old cousin watched it, and loved every strange minute of it... I popped in and out at the beginning to get a sense of the content, and left them to the task, feeling it was more than appropriate and probably a wild ride. K told me later how much he and his cousin really enjoyed watching, over the course of a couple of nights.

I think I need to devote an evening to watching it with K (who wouldn't mind seeing it again), as it looks quite beautiful and wickedly fun in that Terry Gilliam kind of way. Actors like Jeremy Irons and Tim Curry make appearances as well. (Oh, and it's not rated by the MPAA, but I'd figure it falls into the "PG" category quite comfortably.)

Weekend Family Movie Recommendations

2009-07-25T13:18:00.005-04:00

Dig deep! We now recommend some weekend watching:

NEVER CRY WOLF
BLINDSIGHT
WINCHESTER '73
NATURE'S MOST AMAZING EVENTS
WAR GAMES

Alice in Wonderland: Poof!

2009-07-23T11:46:00.005-04:00

Trailers were popping up online for the latest Tim Burton extravaganza, Alice in Wonderland, but they quickly disappeared at the “request” of the studio!

There’s a chance it may be “re-leaked” on Friday, so in case I don’t get to tracking one down (I think a summer outing calls), you probably find it here, at IGN (I found the link on the Cinematical site).

Just the stills look fantastic! And the casting is pretty cool, too: Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen.... and (the best for last), the reclusive Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts. Oh, yummy! (Slated for March, 2010 release.)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid and World of Warcraft: The Movies

2009-07-23T11:38:00.003-04:00

It's a busy summer here in the KidsFlix household! Summer is our slow season, as we are outdoors a whole lot more, and also playing host to various visitors and houseguests. It must be said: the beaches of Maine can't be beat!

To business: Reports are that the popular kids’ books "DIary of a Wimpy Kid" have been optioned for film treatment by Fox 2000, and Zachary Gordon (currently in The Brothers Bloom as the young Bloom, and previously in National Treasure: Book of Secrets) is in line to play Wimpy. Son K hasn’t read these books, but I know they’re quite popular, so this may be good news for a lot of young moviegoers.

Another film adaptation project in the works -- to K’s great consternation -- is the online role-playing game, “World of Warcraft.” K is a huge fan of this game, where you take on characteristics of any range of bizarre creatures such as trolls, orcs, warlocks, blood elves, gnomes, etc., and go about various “quests” in order to ... um ... well, I don’t know exactly. In order to rule the World of Warcraft, I suppose. Anyway, K’s a bit worried. How could they possibly make a movie of this mammoth, sprawling game world?

Dunno. But Sam Raimi will direct, and he’s responsible for scary stuff like The Evil Dead as well as the Spiderman films. Maybe those are perfect qualifications.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1948) (G)

2009-07-13T15:01:00.004-04:00

There are so many film versions of the great Alexander Dumas story The Three Musketeers that it can be a challenge just to pick one! We had both the 1973 and this 1948 version on our list for a while, and the 1948 version ended up arriving first. We may keep the other in the queue, as it’s apparently a sillier, more comical version (it stars Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and even Charlton Heston) that is a lot of fun, and quite different from the others.

The earliest Musketeers film is the 1921 Douglas Fairbanks version, a black and white silent vehicle that is no doubt glorious on its own terms. (The choreography is said to be quite stunning.) But the 1948 version caught my eye for a number of reasons, including Vincent Price starring as the evil Cardinal Richelieu and a young Gene Kelly as the earnest and dashing D'Artagnan who joins the Three Musketeers in interrupting Richelieu’s dastardly plot to overthrow the king.

Filmed in Technicolor, the visuals are very appealing for kids (and adults!), with gowns and jewels and the French countryside drenched in rich color. As I suspected, Kelly is superb as D’Artagnan, who is a bit green -- coming from a small country village to the big city of Paris -- but reliably cocky and self-assured, and rightly so; his sword skills are astonishing to all who unfortunately cross his path, and his footwork is magical. (You know, of course, that Gene Kelly is even better known for his dancing, in movies such as Singing in the Rain, right?)

The writing sparkles and jabs, it’s fast moving and witty. If your kids aren’t totally absorbed by the film in the first 15 minutes or so, when an acrobatic swashbuckling scene unfolds with all kinds of smart visual jokes neatly woven in, I would be surprised.

If that happens, then get them the animated, Disney version, and save this one for your own date night. (PS: Note that the G-rating is my own, and it may in fact be more of a PG movie as far as younger kids go ... it's officially labeled NR, meaning Not Rated.)

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (PG)

2009-07-07T16:47:00.006-04:00

This is another fine Ray Harryhausen-effects film, from 1955, and it’s been on our list for quite a while. It’s directed by Robert Gordon, and the creature-effects are pure Harryhausen, and they’re as satisfying as one would hope.

What we’ve got here is an enormous, freak octopus lurking in the depths of the Pacific, roused from its slumber by atomic testing, surfacing to terrorize submarine crews, boats and the city of San Francisco. Navy Commander Pete Matthews and his crew narrowly escape the clutches of the giant creature, and Matthews is then paired up with a couple of professor-types (one is female, and so, following in true 1950’s film fashion, a love triangle must blossom) to figure out what to do about the thing.

The opening scene is really impressive, taking place inside the sub, with the actors and star, Kenneth Tobey as the commander, giving wonderfully natural, understated performances, conveying men going about their work, suppressing panic, and trying to figure out what this thing is that they have encountered. It feels like it was shot in a true sub, not on a set, and the faint bits of upper lip perspiration and the mounting tension help the sense of claustrophobia become more tangible.

The creature is fantastic, and the scenes of tentacles reaching into the streets of San Francisco, wrapping around the Golden Gate Bridge and piers on the Embarcadero are stupidly fun. It’s cheesy enough not to really scare the small kids (um, I think), and fun enough for everyone to enjoy. Our disc, from Netflix, came with a nifty little bio piece on Harryhausen that we all enjoyed.

Oh, and It Came From Beneath The Sea is one of those period pieces that offers up plenty of opportunity to discuss SEXIST BEHAVIOR with your boys.

"K,” I said after one scene that made me scream, “Personal space, personal space!” [Commander Matthews got way too close to the lovely professor Joyce if you ask me], “K,” I said, “You try that at any job and you’ll be immediately fired, if not punched in the nose.”

“Duh,” he said.

NEVER CRY WOLF (PG)

2009-07-01T21:51:00.004-04:00

Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve posted a review here on KidsFlix. But I’m back now!

I wrote some time ago about another film directed by Carroll Ballard (Duma), and you probably know a couple of others: his film The Black Stallion is beloved, as is Fly Away Home. It’s hard to believe that neither son K nor I have seen either of these, and they’re on my list, but they’re so well known that I tend to skirt around them in favor of lesser-known films. You may want to check them out if you haven’t yet.

Never Cry Wolf is a film taken from the autobiographical book by Canadian writer Farley Mowat, and in Ballard fashion, it’s stunningly gorgeous piece of work. There is much to rave about -- the story itself is an intriguing one, the performance by Charles Martin Smith is pretty much perfection, the scenery is breathtaking and the director wisely lets silence speak in many instances ... oh, and the score by Mark Isham is lovely. Oh! And the performances by Samason Jorah and Zachary Ittimangnaq as local Inuits are also perfect and lovely.

What’s not to like about Never Cry Wolf?

Not a thing. This story about an inexperienced scientist dropping -- literally -- into the middle of the frozen arctic to study wolves has so many important topics woven into it (a number of things worth discussing with the kids afterwards) that you really get two bangs for your buck: a fascinating and visually pleasing story on film, and plenty of food for thought.

(Caveat for the prudish parent: there is a scene -- actually two -- where Smith bares his backside, and one scene is rather lengthy. I don’t want to give anything away, so won’t give details, but Smiths’ character is basically portrayed [very carefully] au naturale for a good five or six minutes. There is also one scene that might be a bit scary for younger kids, where he dreams of a wolf attack.)

This is great family time viewing; add it to your list!

ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES (G)

2009-06-23T08:05:00.003-04:00

While I was out one night recently, husband D and son K watched Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971), which is the third in the series of Planet of the Apes films.

Although K told me it was “really good,” it was D who told me it was perhaps even great, and that K really enjoyed it. Since I didn’t see it, and getting anything more out of either of them is like getting the younger one to ... say, clean his room -- ahem -- here’s the Netflix descriptor:

In this third installment of the Planet of the Apes series, Cornelius (Roddy McDowall), Zira (Kim Hunter) and Milo (Sal Mineo) travel back in time to escape the destruction of their world. Landing in 20th century Los Angeles, they're treated as curiosities and celebrities at first, but soon become hunted by a suspicious and fearful government intent on making them the subjects of an experiment that could alter the course of human and ape events.

I’ve already given the thumbs up to the first two films (Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes), but adding a third one to the “recommended” list feels very satisfying.

Now that you know you’ve got three here that work with kids in the 10-year-old range, you can plan a series of movie watching nights. How cool will your kids be, growing up knowing about these classic films of the ‘60s and ‘70s?

(By the way, these are all officially rated G, but you know that these days that equates a PG rating, right?)

Chastened, I Am

2009-06-19T19:09:00.007-04:00

I have been informed by a kind friend that Curly of the Three Stooges did not say, "Nyet, nyet, nyet" -- of course, he didn't. I think perhaps Stalin and Tolstoy may have said "nyet, nyet." Certainly Vladimir Putin said it when George W. Bush said he saw into Putin's soul.

Curly said, "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk," of course .. as any t-shirt, poster or Stooges-centric joke will tell you.

Mea culpa. Not enough coffee this a.m.

Randon Act of Self Indulgence .14

2009-06-19T07:49:00.009-04:00

Today’s a mishmash of tidbits... appropriate for a Friday, yes?

First off, we tried a Monty Python episode via Netflix/Instant View the other night, and after one forced laugh and about 14 minutes of viewing, son K said, “I’m gonna go watch TV” (in the other room). Yes, Holy Grail worked big time for K, but the TV show -- not so much. Of course, like any other comedy show (or TV show, for that matter), any one episode can be hit or miss. Maybe this was a miss episode (it didn’t strike me as hilarious), so we may try again. But if you’re thinking about sharing the love of Python with your own tweener, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work -- the first time, anyway.

KID MOVIE NEWS

Out on July 1, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs looks to be as much fun as the first two! Here’s a trailer that’s a bit different from what’s in the theaters. I’m a sucker for this franchise, I have to admit. (Oh! and if you live in a real city, you may have a sneak preview available this weekend. Here are details on where and when.)

(File this under "Semi-Kid Movie News," as I suspect it won't really be for the kiddies --) Word is out that Sean Penn has pulled out of the Three Stooges movie that I wrote about a while back. I think this is a good thing. Sean Penn as “Larry?” Nah. (Or maybe I should say, “Nyet, nyet, nyet.”) This Farrelly Brothers project is reportedly still online with Jim Carrey as Curley and Benecio Del Toro as Moe.

Benecio. Benecio. What can we do to change your mind?

And Carrey? Well, we don’t really care what Jim Carrey does.

(On a serious note, Penn also pulled out of another movie project called Cartel. Dunno if his agent just had second thoughts, or if something else is going on ... maybe he's working on his marriage. Anyway, we hope all is well in Penn-world.)

UN-KID MOVIE NEWS

Came across this interesting trailer for a film called Cold Souls, starring Paul Giamatti, David Strathairn and Emily Watson that I liked so much I just want to share. It opens in November.

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND

From our posts past:

- Alaska
- Journey to the Center of the Earth
- Snake in the Eagle's Shadow
- Shackleton
- The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T
- The Incredible Shrinking Man

Have a great weekend.

WINCHESTER '73 (PG)

2009-06-17T13:34:00.004-04:00

In 1876, the rare and coveted ’73 Winchester rifle was the “gun that won the west,” and when our hero Jimmy Stewart -- er, I mean Lin McAdam --wins one in a shooting contest (one of many great scenes in this classic western), you know there’s trouble ahead.

The gun is stolen, and what follows is a series of tense standoffs and misadventures between McAdam and a dirty, rotten character named Dutch Henry. Son K points out: “Like most westerns, you got your good guy, your bad guy, a tough girl,” (Shelley Winters) “... attacking Indians, some gun fights and fast horse riding.”

Yeah, that about sums it up. But it’s superbly acted, tightly directed (by Anthony Mann, who also directed El Cid, Spartacus, and The Fall of the Roman Empire, among many others), and the story goes easy on the depictions of boozing and hard livin’ women. (Winters does play a former “dance hall” girl, but there aren’t any scenes too racy or difficult to explain to the kiddies regarding her past.)

Of course, there’s some violence. People get killed, and some of the villains are oustanding examples of the dark side of humanity.

Just put on your best Jon Lovitz impression, and remind the kids, “It’s just ... acting!”

(Oh, a warning: do not read the summary on Netflix! They have a huge spoiler in their brief description of the film. Also, have fun finding a young Rock Hudson and a young Tony Curtis in the movie. One plays an Indian chief. Hilarious. )

- Scene during a night ride, Lin and his partner, High-Spade Frankie Wilson, know they’re surrounded by Indians on the war path:

Lin McAdam: Yeah, I hear 'em.
High-Spade Frankie Wilson: I told you night riding wasn't smart.
Lin McAdam: I guess you did.
High-Spade Frankie Wilson: Now we're smack in the middle of 'em.
Lin McAdam: I guess you're right again.
High-Spade Frankie Wilson: Being right ain't gonna do us any good. What do we do now?
Lin McAdam: Well, keep riding.
High-Spade Frankie Wilson: With injuns all around us?
Lin McAdam: Maybe you'd feel better if we stopped?
High-Spade Frankie Wilson: Ah... no.
Lin McAdam: Well, then maybe we better just keep riding...

MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (PG)

2009-06-15T10:45:00.005-04:00

Monty Python and the Holy Grail was officially rated PG, but that was back in 1975, before PG-13 was instituted as a step before R. It definitely earns the higher rating, so depending on the age of your kids, you want to consider what’s ahead.

Son K is now 12, going on 18, and we figured it was an appropriate time for Monty Python. Of course, the television episodes are available on Netflix and elsewhere, so starting there is a possibility. Those can be spotty, in terms of what might be inappropriate, as you don’t know what you get from episode to episode. (For some reason, when I think of Monty Python, the first thing I think of is, “Oh, intercourse the penguin!”)

Anyway, we rented Holy Grail, knowing that both The Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life have solid R ratings, and figured we’d be pretty safe.

First, you need to know that there is a great amount of cartoonish gore in the film, which isn’t a problem -- at least not in our house. You may not care for the spurting streams of fake blood and occasional rampages of killing that are darkly hilarious -- how funny is the line, “It’s only a flesh wound!” uttered by the Black Knight as he’s losing limbs in a sword fight?! -- but compared to what a lot of kids see in movies and X-box games these days, it’s probably no worse ... and the cartoonish aspect helps offset the volume.

As suspected, K loved Monty Python’s absurd and bizarre brand of humor ... we had a great time, and now we’ve got some TV episodes lined up to see.

Here’s the caveat: material that may be inappropriate includes some language (no F-bombs), and dialogue rich with sexual innuendo, most of which kids under 12 or 13 will either not get, or will miss due to the speedy delivery. Most of it takes place in one scene, where one character enters a castle full of vestal virgins, one of whom points out they are all between the ages of 16 and 19, unsupervised, and pretty much all deserve spankings. We were sort of holding our breaths through this scene, and it reached a pinnacle with her offering -- very quickly and rather casually, so it didn’t really stand out -- “followed by oral sex.”

I’m not sure, but I think I heard K laugh at that. I was trying to just get through the moment.

Anyway, now that you know the worst of it, you can plan to talk loudly over that part, or take one of those well-timed breaks.

If you’re new to Monty Python yourself, you need to be the type of person who appreciates ridiculously hilarious lines such as, “I fart in your general direction!” These are lines your kids are sure to remember, and will practice repeating until you long for the good old days of "Blues Clues" and "The Wiggles."

Here's a great clip (whoever put it on YouTube had a brightness issue, but you get the idea):

NATURE'S MOST AMAZING EVENTS

2009-06-12T09:56:00.007-04:00

We caught some of “Nature’s Most Amazing Events” on the Discovery Channel, and this month the series is released on DVD and on Blue-ray.

A close cousin to the great Planet Earth series, this program also features stunning photography, and really enlightening storytelling. Following the natural cycles of nature that can be both life threatening and species propagating, the series is a great way for kids to grasp the interconnectedness of all things: One animal’s tragedy may be another’s survival.

The Great Flood; The Great Feast; The Great Melt; these are natural and climactic phenomena that stretch across the planet, affecting wildlife on different continents with equal vigor. (These are also the names of episodes.)

If you’re looking for some nature viewing this weekend that’s a notch (or two) above what you might stumble on watching TV, clicking between Animal Planet and PBS, pick up Nature's Most Amazing Events instead. Highly recommended.

For more "nature" and documentary ideas, check these out.

THURSDAY TIDBITS

2009-06-11T10:40:00.013-04:00

A few months ago, I wrote about an upcoming animated film called 9 (it hits theaters on 9/9/09), directed by Shane Acker, featuring the voices of Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Christopher Plummer, and Martin Landau. It’s a dark, post-apocalyptic tale about the impending extinction of all life (on earth? I think so). 9 is the little guy who saves the day, from what I gather.

Anyway, the poster has been released, and it’s quite a beauty. This film will be for the older kids, as it’ll carry a PG-13 rating.

I noticed some less than enthusiastic reviews on the IMDB message board for the film. Hmmm. Does Focus Films have time to pull off a fix?

~ ~ ~

Shortly after the Steve Carell/Anne Hathaway Get Smart movie came out in 2008, HBO Home Video started releasing the original, 1965 television "Get Smart" series (starring Don Adams and Barbara Feldon) on DVD. I believe Season 3 has just been released.

We haven’t seen any of these yet, but I’m utterly convinced K would love them, and have added the first season to our Netflix list. I’m curious if any of you have tried them?

My dad loved this show. I’m not sure I remember the actual show, really, as much as I remember my dad getting a kick out of it. He did a mean Maxwell Smart impersonation.

~ ~ ~

Robert Rodriquez recently told MTV that in between his Grindhouse spin-off (titled Machete), his Sin City sequel, and his sci-fi thriller (NerveWrackers), he’s hoping to get moving next year on a live-action film of The Jetsons. (You can Wiki that if you’re, say, under 30 years old. Otherwise you should know about "The Jetsons." Come on.)

We’re not sure what happened to Rodriquez’ proposed remake of Barbarella. But he’s a busy guy, isn’t he? And I think it’s amazing how he can pull off really decent kid fare alongside stuff like Grindhouse and Sin City. Ultra cool.

~ ~ ~

I’ll leave you now with this photo of Mickey Rourke in his villain gear for Iron Man 2. Yeah.

MARX BROTHERS' DUCK SOUP (G)

2009-06-07T20:33:00.006-04:00

Well, we didn't exactly have a Marx Brothers fest this weekend (as predicted earlier), but we did make a second attempt to charm son K with a Marx Brothers classic. I can't say it was a successful endeavor.

A few years ago, we tried Night at the Opera, but it was clear that K was too young to keep pace with the speedy dialogue and definitely too young to understand the humor. So, at age 12, we figured we'd try again; this is, after all, a kid who has grown up seeing black and white films of all kinds, and has a fairly mature sense of humor.

This time out, we tried Duck Soup ... but with pretty much the same results. Duck Soup is barely over an hour long, so not a huge time investment. Groucho is appointed leader of the country of Freedonia, and his brand of absurdist governing is hilarious at the same time it feels slightly dated and sexist. But his bluntly chauvinistic character is part of the charm (isn't it?) and so you don't really tsk tsk so much as you rather guiltily chuckle along to the gags.

But of course, most of this inarguably adult humor is lost on kids.

Unless you are dying to get a Marx Brothers fix yourself, and want to test your own kids' capacity for staccato one-liners and double entendres with phrases they may not be familiar with, I'd say these films are probably better saved for later.

New Movie News

2009-06-05T10:27:00.004-04:00

Yes, it’s been quiet here at KidsFlix, but two days of travel time returning from the West Coast (read: airport hell), will take it out of you. (And, um, how dumb was it to have my laptop with me, but not my power cord? Talk amongst yourselves.)

We’ll get back into gear soon, promise. I think we’re having a Marx Brothers fest here in the KidsFlix household this weekend, so we’ll let you know our thoughts again on these great but dialog-driven films and how they work with the younger set.

For now, take a gander over at AwardsDaily.com’s report on upcoming Dreamworks projects, and you can get a Monty Python booster while you’re at it. (Big cheers for a Kung Fu Panda sequel, and for the Ben Stiller executive-produced Oobermind, featuring Robert Downey Jr. voicing a super villain.)

Also at AwardsDaily, you can get more on Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and its showing at Cannes, along with some clips. The visuals alone seem enough to save the film from any tepid reviews.

Speaking of tepid reviews, I’m over my disappointment that Land of the Lost is rated PG-13 (sounds like the filmmakers were lost!), but want to just make sure parents know about some of the comments being made by reviewers before they relent and take their 10-year olds to see it.

(RedCarpetRatings notes: Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content and for language, including a drug reference.)

From Cinematical:

Directed by Brad Silberling and starring Will Ferrell, this update on the Sid and Marty Krofft television series from the 1970s is the strangest, filthiest summer movie I think I've ever see.

From RottenTomatoes (where Land of the Lost earns a paltry 25% rating):

About once a year, I like a film everyone else despises, a film so admittedly and indefensibly bad that I have no justification whatsoever for having enjoyed it. Last year it was The Love Guru. This year it is Land of the Lost. -- Brandon Fibbs.com

Land of the Lost becomes an endurance test -- one that's too borderline bawdy for families and too dull and rote for anyone over 15. Who, exactly, is the intended audience for this drivel? -- Miami Herald

From the L.A. Times:

The filmmakers get props for persuading Leonard Nimoy to suit up as the Zarn -- you know, an invisible alien creature except for the spots of light that totally make him visible. But not so much for a close-up shot of Ferrell delivering an F-bomb that seems the definition of gratuitous ...

Ok, don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Did you know you can watch movies on YouTube now? Granted, it’s with commercial interruptions -- highly annoying, no? -- so exactly why people would choose this over Netflix Instant Play, or SnagFilms or iTunes, etc., is beyond me.

Any ideas? What do you think?

(Apologies for the font wackiness here... I can't seem to track down the issue.)

Dig Deeper!

2009-05-29T17:50:00.005-04:00

Looking for movies this weekend? May we make some suggestions?

Into the archives we go:

Rivers and Tides
Creation of the Humanoids
The Butterfly
A Man Named Pearl
Drums Along the Mohawk
Laurel & Hardy
Plan 9 From Outer Space
The Longshots
Fantastic Voyage
A bunch of "classic kids' movies"

If those don't float your boat, just keep digging!

Happy weekend.

Random Act of Self Indulgence .13

2009-05-29T17:18:00.009-04:00

If you read my irregular RASI’s, you’ll know I love things like Werner Herzog and movies some of you moms (and dads) might find dark and weird. One rather culty film in the “dark and weird” category I’ve never seen, by choice, is Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant, but I have read enough about it that I feel I’ve seen it (okay, sort of).

Anyway, word is that Mr. Herzog is remaking this much talked about film, with Nicholas Cage in the Harvey Keitel role, which has many people scratching heads, for many reasons. (Really, one being, why not leave well enough alone? Why? Why? But then you remember we’re talking about Werner Herzog, who does not dwell in the Land of the Sensible, so you just shut up, and scratch your head some more.)

Actually, the project looks like a blend between a sequel and a remake, and the full title is Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

A trailer was recently “leaked” on the web, and some folks are saying it looks so horrible they can’t believe it’s Herzog, and others saying that it looks so awful that it’s intriguing and they will have to see it. I think the story is still a bit too harsh for my tastes, but the what’s interesting to me is that the trailer struck me as rather Tarantino-ish, and not that horrible at all (in terms of movie-making, not in terms of stuff that makes you squirm).

Remember when Cage made interesting films? Remember when he ate a live cockroach in Vampire’s Kiss (1988)? I have a feeling Bad Lieutenant might put him back in the “serious actor” category. You can laugh at me later if I’m dead wrong.

Check out one of the few still-live trailers at Collider.com.

Two more non-kid film tidbits that I find intriguing: Chevy Chase will star in a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine, and yeah, it’s about a hot tub time machine -- which sounds really, really stupid -- but it also stars Crispin Glover (!), John Cusack, and Rob Corddry. Crispin Glover doesn’t seem to get out much these days, so I’m curious.

Fans of Jeremy Piven may or may not be interested in this goofy comedy he’s got coming out, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. I laughed at the trailer. Do you think less of me?

Obligatory Kid Movie Snippet Here:

There's a cute trailer for Toy Story 3 over at FirstShowing.net, where they report that Tom Hanks will return as Woody, Tim Allen will return as Buzz, and the screenplay is by Michael Arndt, who won an Oscar for his work on Little Miss Sunshine. Toy Story 3 will be a digital, 3-D release, and hits theaters in summer of 2010.

(Why, when I type “2010,” does it feel super-bizarrely futuristic?)

NANOOK OF THE NORTH (G)

2009-05-26T15:32:00.007-04:00

Filmmaker Robert Flaherty spent some years traveling the far points of the earth -- mining, mapping, and exploring -- and took up an interest in film while on an expedition for Sir William Mackenzie's Canadian railroad. Original footage capturing Inuit life in the harsh Hudson Bay regions in Canada were destroyed in a fire upon Flaherty’s return home, but only after enjoying a wildly enthusiastic response from those who saw it. He returned to the far north with the sole purpose of filming in mind -- Nanook of the North is widely considered the first documentary film made, and Flaherty is considered a progenitor of “ethnographic film.”

This is a short, silent (black and white, need we say it?) movie that even your bounciest of kids may be able to sit through, as one scene after another is a jaw-dropping delight. Witnessing the patience and stealth needed to ice fish, to kill a monstrous, blubbery walrus, or to carefully construct an air-tight igloo (the window remodel scene was just the most awesome thing!), is mind boggling, and what’s better than visuals that happen to be fascinating and educational at the same time?

Husband D and I were so glad we saw this, even though we had to wrangle an increasingly impatient, pre-teen K into sitting through it. But we marveled over scenes, wondering how much was staged, and how much was natural.

I’m not going to spoil it by telling them that, according to Wikipedia, much of it was staged (some forgivably and necessarily, considering the restraints of filmmaking equipment at the time). Flaherty also wanted to show the historical, traditional ways of life in the far north, so, for example, although the Inuit at the time were using firearms for hunting they put them aside for the film. Nanook’s wife was not really his wife, but an actress.

Harder to take, according to Wikipedia (however, a “citation needed” notation appears next to this tidbit), is that Flaherty may have put Nanook and others in jeopardy all in the name of a few good shots. The worst of it is a detail credited on Wikipedia to Melanie McGrath's book, The Long Exile: A Tale of Inuit Betrayal and Survival in the High Arctic: Flaherty reportedly had an affair with the woman playing Nanook’s wife, and fathered a son that he never owned up to.

There is absolutely no mention of this on IMDB, so perhaps Wikipedia’s claims and sources are incorrect. I like to think that’s possible.

All that aside, this film was one of the first 25 films to be selected in 1989 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Forgiving the manipulation Flaherty may have felt necessary at the time to get his point across, one can certainly applaud the Film Registry’s effort, and enjoy this film simply for its purpose and spirit, and the truths that lie in it, even if they are perhaps slightly distorted. Flaherty had real foresight and vision; he also had an abundance of resourcefulness and creativity, and he possessed an admirable adventurousness, to say the least.

(There is a 1994 film depicting Flaherty’s making of Nanook, called Kabloonak [it means, “stranger], and one reviewer on IMDB calls it “A work of Existential art.” It might be worth checking out.)

New Kid Movie News

2009-05-23T21:35:00.006-04:00

Yes, I know KidsFlix doesn't normally focus on current films in release -- there are plenty of folks out there doing that -- but K and I saw Night at the Museum II today, and I have to say that the lukewarm reviews (two) that I read were way off base! Honestly, this was as much fun as the first one, I think, and K and I re-hashed favorite scenes over and over again all afternoon. Go see it.

I’m getting ready to get out of town for a while, but am trying to line up some posts for you ... in the meantime, here’s some “around the blogs” news:

Son K was into the “Avatar: The Last Airbender” animated series for a while but that gave way to a mild level of fandom to the series, “Naruto.” He may be interested to know -- we’ll find out -- that there’s an "Airbender" feature film in production, starring a 12-year old Texan in the Airbender role, and Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel will play the bad guy “firebender,” Zuko.

Over at Cinematical, there are reports on Stan Lee and Disney working together to create some “new” superhero films, which sound promising. Nick Ratchet is, by day, a “mild-mannered and bumbling police officer, but in an online game, he's a tough, sneering badass.” Sounds like an updated Clark Kent/Superman story, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

Also from Cinematical, it sounds like there’s a good chance that the amazing Josh Brolin will be starring in a movie about -- wait for it -- the slavery abolitionist John Brown! Elisabeth Rappe writes:

It's the kind of story just begging to be told on the big screen (why Hollywood continues to reboot and remake the 1980s and 1990s instead of digging up stories from the previous century, I'll never know), and frankly it touches on a historical era that has had a lot of relevance this year. Let's hope it happens.

I echo her every sentiment. There are so many amazing true stories out there, waiting to be told. Hollywood is incredibly lazy sometimes.

Bazooka Joe as movie star? Hmmm. I dunno. (Yeah, I can hear about half of you whispering, “Who’s Bazooka Joe?”) The Hollywood Reporter sez Michael Eisner has a project under way featuring the bubble gum marketing icon in a feature film. Weird.

WAR GAMES (PG)

2009-05-20T08:32:00.005-04:00

This should probably be a Weekly Kids Classic Movie, but I'm sort of desperate for copy at the moment. (I attempted to recommend a nice French film for you and your kids, but Small Change is a bit too ripe with mature themes and dialog, so changed my mind. It's a great Truffaut film for us big kids, remembering growing up in the '70s in France ... oh, wait, I grew up in a California suburb. Oh well, we had the same hair cuts!)

Anyway, as the weather changes here in the East and the outdoors beckons (along with the real work of recovering from winter!), viewing time has been a bit diminished.

However, last week we picked up the '80s movie, War Games, for K to watch, and I ended up sitting in on it. (Husband D was well familiar with this film, and you may be, too.) It's a classic Cold War paranoia thriller, using a computer savvy teenager (Matthew Broderick, whose hacker character is clearly breaking the law most every time he gets online, it must be clearly stated) to get its anti-war point across. (It's a good one, by the way. Great fodder for thought and discussion.)

War Games is mostly innocuous, except for the law breaking part and the cursing (there are a few real curse words here) ... and the threat of U.S. annihilation may be kind of scary. All said, it's great for kids 11 and up, IMHO, and if you parents haven't seen it, you'll probably enjoy it, too. It's great fun pick out the names and faces of the '80s (Ally Sheedy also stars, along with Dabney Coleman... and extra points to me for figuring out that one of the earliest scenes in the movie is that of a young and hunky Michael Madsen, playing opposite a youngish John Spencer, who played Leo McGarry on "West Wing!").

And honestly, it does provide a great opportunity for discussion with your kids about the topic of war ... don't let it slip by when the movie ends.

This Week's Classic Kids' Movie

2009-05-15T15:34:00.003-04:00

This 1963 madcap comedy has inspired countless others, and is so jam-packed with top-name comedy actors it’s hard to know where to begin.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (rated G) is a true classic, and you owe it to your kids (and yourself) to see it. It’s a piece of American comedic and film history, truly! Set aside a chunk of time, like a pizza/popcorn night or a long, rainy Sunday, and plan a break or two as it’s looong (153 minutes) and will probably feel that way to the kids. The slapstick nature of the movie is plenty old-school (come on, it stars Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Milton Berle, Spencer Tracy, Terry Thomas, Buddy Hackett and Sid Caesar for goodness’ sake), but the snappy dialogue and amazing driving and car stunts should hold the kids’ attention.

The basic storyline is that before driving a car off a cliff, Jimmy Durante tells some folks where he’s stashed a large sum of loot. When they see him meet his demise, the race is on. Oh, yeah, we could go on about lessons learned in the movie about greed .... and integrity, and ... um ... safe driving, but that would just spoil the fun.

Random Act of Self Indulgence .12

2009-05-13T07:28:00.006-04:00

So the seed of this blog was planted one night talking about "cool" movies for kids, how to avoid seeing Shrek and Shark Tales over and over again ... my focus has never been new movies, what to take the kiddies to see in the theaters.

Now and again, however, I'll get a little excited about Will Farrell or Ben Stiller (oh, I can't wait for both Land of the Lost and Night at the Museum II, I'll be the first to admit), and now and again I chat with you, parent to parent, about grown-up stuff I'm looking forward to.

Maybe because it appears to be an homage to the Godzilla flicks we love so much in this house, blended with a jigger or two of the offbeat and the arty, but Big Man Japan keeps grabbing the attention of myself and husband D. We can't wait. It's being released this week, albeit a limited release, meaning it will be in a handful of cool theaters in cool cities (meaning, it won't be here). Boo.

(For the kids in your house, well, the trailer says it's rated R, but other sources I've found online say it's PG-13. Hmm. And you can see the gorgeous HD tailer over at Apple Movie Trailers.)

If you're lucky enough to see it, and you're a visitor here, please drop a comment here on it! I'd love to know what you think.

(And have fun. Sniff.)

Tuesday Tidbits

2009-05-11T20:42:00.006-04:00

I wrote a while ago about the film version of The Lightening Thief, a much beloved kids' book, slowly coming together. New cast members have been announced, and it's pretty amazing: Uma Thurman, Steve Coogan, Rosario Dawson, Catherine Keener and Pierce Brosnan are among the names. To get caught up on the director and starring role, see my original post .

I also wrote a while back about the upcoming Disney movie, The Princess and the Frog, and about how it's a return to the hand-drawn animation of yore and about how Disney - so it's rumored - will be producing one of these gems every two years or so. (Another significant factoid: Princess features Disney's first African-American princess!)

There's finally a longer, official trailer out, and I thought you might enjoy it:

Alright, alright, calm down. I know last week I posted Tuesday Tidbits on Thursday, and that in many parts of the world it will continue to be Monday as I post this (but my time zone is nearing Tuesday), but ... whatever. It's close enough in my time zone.

S.A.D. (Seasonal Adjustment Day)

2009-05-09T09:41:00.006-04:00

Ok, we've all been there. Suddenly you look at a ratty old t-shirt and you can't stand it anymore and you rip it up for rags, and the next day you're sobbing like a spoiled three-year-old, wishing you had thought it through just a little bit more.

That's how I'm feeling now, with Kids' Flix' new look.

But, like a bad hair cut, it will grow! It will change! It will morph over time!

Trust me. It will.

But Saturday beckons, my morning is shot, the fam is waiting for me to get on board with all these projects we lined up for the day. So enjoy your own Saturday, know that the pretty new clothes on Kids' Flix will likely be exchanged at some point for something better, and hang in there with me. (And, why, exactly, are there so FEW templates available in Blogger? Why?)

Happy weekend.

(This is an adjustable page; if you are accustomed to leaving your browser window open all the way, you may want to pull it in a bit so the lines don't run so long -- they're harder to read.)

Near Miss: THE BEAR

2009-05-08T17:39:00.005-04:00

This PG-rated, beautifully photographed 1989 film starts off so promising, feeling more like a cross between a documentary and a foreign film (it definitely does not feel American, and the director, Jean-Jacques Annaud, is French), but ultimately it becomes a victim of its own ambitions.

The lack of dialogue, realistic depiction of nature (you can smell the bear's matted fur and fetid breath, feel the buzzing flies on your skin), and stunning shots of Canada’s British Columbian mountainside eventually give way to overkill: copious amounts of what looks like red paint attempts to stand in for blood, the admittedly adorable orphaned bear cub starts to emit weird, humanlike sounds (to make us love it even more?), and a few scenes provoke chuckles where none are intended. (For example, the huge male grizzly who adopts our orphaned cub hooks up with a female, foaming-at-the-mouth hottie one night, and as they repair to the brush, grunting and groaning, the cub -- abandoned once again -- has his own party, ingesting some pretty, psilocybin mushrooms. Wacky animation ensues. It’s perhaps a bit too un-Disney.)

When our little orphan loses his mom in a rockslide in the opening scenes, the tragedy unfolds with a quiet matter-of-factness that keeps the tears at bay. The next morning, as the sun rises over distant mountains, and the cub wakes on a hillside, surveying life ahead without mama bear, you feel all the promise of what appears to be a very thoughtful film. Soon there is (drumroll) ... man, and an intense bit of “hunter vs. hunted” ensues (and more violence). There are some amazing scenes where you scratch your head and wonder, “how’d they do that?”, and a note at the beginning claiming that any “violence” done to the animals is, indeed, a trick of the camera reassures the viewer. (Ok, occasionally you wonder if the animals were really treated properly; there’s a scene where they clearly placed the little cub in a raging river and filmed him being swept away, helplessly clawing at rocks in desperation.)

There’s so much to admire about this film, that I really want to recommend it. But I just can’t do it.

Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot was nominated for an Academy Award, and he, the director, the editor, and the film itself were nominated for numerous other honors, and won a few, including the equivalent of a French Oscar.

But I still can’t recommend it.

Thursday Tidbits

2009-05-07T10:13:00.011-04:00

I know, I know, what happened to Tuesday Tidbits? And the Weekly Classic Kids’ Movie? Well, let’s just say I’m doing what I can here... perhaps life offline is taking a bit more focus these days.

Anyway, let’s do it, and call it Tuesday, shall we?

This week’s tidbits focus on “kid” movies that parents will be happy to sit through. First off, did you know plans are underway for a Disney Lone Ranger film, written by the team that wrote the Pirates of the Caribbean screenplays? You did? Well, you’re ahead of me! British director Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, High Fidelity and 2010's Prince of Persia: Sands of Time [this image of Jake Gyllenhaall in the movie just makes me giggle]) is being rumored as the guy at the helm.

Johnny Depp is one of the big names attached so far ... but he’s not playing the Lone one, he’s playing the loyal sidekick, Tonto! It’s reported that Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey are contenders for the Lone Ranger role.

In other Depp news, a blog devoted to the actor (which I somehow "lost" and didn't get the exact title/URL for, otherwise I'd link! Apologies--) is keeping tabs on the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland project starring Depp as the Mad Hatter. They report: “Mia Wasikowska stars as Alice, alongside an all-star cast that includes Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter (perfect casting), Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Helena Bonham-Carter as the Red Queen, Christopher Lee as the Jabberwock, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat and Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar.” Wow. Brilliant. Here's an image from the film:

A while back, I mentioned a film in the works by the quirky director Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Entertainment Weekly has an update and a report on a special screening that took place in L.A. a few nights ago. No surprises here: “All of the major independent buyers in town packed Hollywood's DGA theater for the screening, and while most left feeling a bit befuddled (as one often does coming out of a Gilliam feature) the consensus was that the movie is better than expected.”

Eek. That doesn’t bode real well for this highly anticipated project, featuring Heath Ledger in his last performance, along with Johnny Depp (again), Colin Farrell, and Jude Law (and Tom Waits!). You can see some new photos from the film on the German site DVD Forum.

Go here for my review of Gilliam’s Time Bandits and other sci-fi/fantasy recommendations.

RIVERS AND TIDES (G)

2009-05-03T16:38:00.008-04:00

Son K once spent a gorgeous summer day here in Maine building and rebuilding a stone “dam” in a river, and I suspected that half the thrill was directing the water, and being in control of it, and the other half was the visual aspect, the ability to change stone size, shape and color in any way that gave him pleasure. It was simply heavenly to watch him so absorbed, so focused on his task all afternoon in this quiet, undisturbed place we’d found. I also remembered, briefly, the joy and wonder I felt as a kid doing the same kinds of things.

If your kids love playing in nature, collecting stones, playing in sand, exploring creeks and tidal pools, they’ll probably love Rivers and Tides. It’s a mesmerizing documentary about an artist who uses the natural world as his creative tools, and it quietly stirs the viewer’s own memories and feelings related to the tactile exploration of nature and our inexplicable desire to rearrange it.

Andy Goldsworthy is a noted Scottish artist who uses items such as stones, driftwood, water, bracken, and lily pads to create art that is often ephemeral and fleeting. He is sometimes working with nature, and sometimes against it, almost always racing with an incoming tide, an ice-melting sun, or some other natural force, which he incorporates into the piece. His work is lovely, and like the web of a spider, is often concentric or patterned, and seems to have some complex blueprint underlying that we can’t see. At first, the idea that some of his creations should have such a short life is hard to take, but eventually it becomes obvious that the complete cycle, or life, of the piece is the work. “The real work is the change,” Goldsworthy notes, and you see that the way an incoming tide changes a driftwood formation, or the way that sun and shadow changes a sculpture of bracken is integral to the work, it becomes an even bigger part of the work.

Of course, watching a piece come tumbling down as he’s still building it, due to wind or water or some other force of nature, is heartbreaking, but Goldsworthy seems pretty impervious at this point. He’ll just quietly start again, light and weather willing. His work can be as detailed as carefully placing a brilliant white rope of wool atop a long, rambling stonewall in the Scottish countryside, or it can be as fleeting as throwing snow into the air. It’s a great reminder (or lesson) that art can be many, many things, and created in many ways.

There is a hypnotic, restful quality to the film, and I’d suspect that kids on the younger end of the age spectrum will be quite engaged, as would kids just past the tweener stage, especially creative, thoughtful teens. (Watching our own tweener son in his changing viewing habits, I’m finding this stage a bit difficult; at this age, they beg for PG-13 movies, they want more action, more adult themes, and documentaries are sometimes the most difficult genre to get them to agree to.) K wasn’t home when I watched this, so I can’t give you his take, but I’m not completely convinced he would have given it a chance. I might hold on to the disc and give it a try.

It’s such a magical film. I’d be interested to hear about your own family experience if you’ve seen Rivers and Tides.

(Oh, and here’s the parental caveat: at about 50 minutes in, when the POV has changed from the woods to sheep country, there is a very abrupt mood changer: a sheep is running in a circle and a man, rather brusquely, snares it with some contraption and he grabs it and wrangles is to the ground. Before you can say “little lambs eat ivy,” it seems the man has pulled a baby from the mother’s womb, in all its graphic glory. The hardest part for me was when the mama sheep got up and stumbled around, it nearly (or may have) stepped on the little guy -- I was horrified.)

Here is a trailer, where Goldsworthy expounds, brilliantly, on the ephemeral aspect of his work. Unfortunately, they cut off the very end of his point: listen carefully, and then add these words after he ends with “shock” (I happened to make note of this while watching): [He scratches his chin.] Reluctantly, but as if a light bulb went off in his head, he admits, “I can’t explain that.”

There are a lot of videos featuring Goldsworthy's work on YouTube if you have a few minutes to search around ... you’ll see some really superb stuff.

Rather than link to another here (it’s so hard to decide!), here’s something cool I stumbled on that has nothing to do with Rivers and Tides:

The Singing, Ringing Tree:

7 GRAND MASTERS (PG)

2009-04-25T10:11:00.004-04:00

7 Grand Masters, starring Jack Long and Lee Yi Min, is a classic kung-fu movie, with amazing choreography and kung-fu talent. Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, et al, are nowhere to be found, but aficionados of the genre will tell you this is one for your list.

It’s also very family friendly, which is a bit of a challenge with martial arts films... It’s nothing but razor-sharp karate chops, back flips, somersaults and juggled knives (oh, and hilarious sound effects; you never heard so much slapping and whooshing in your life!).

The great thing for the kids is that there is little talking, it’s pretty much all action, and there’s also oodles of honor and integrity, mostly displayed by all those challenged by the aging master. He’s on a journey to confirm that he is, indeed, the best, before he will allow a banner claiming the honor to be posted at his school. (How’s that for integrity?)

The only warning I can muster here is that there is a hanger-on, a wannabe, following the master and his posse who wants so desperately to become a student, and he’s treated rather nastily ... some very mean spirited stuff goes on before they accept him. In fact (the other caveat), in one scene they are eating a roasted animal around a campfire and they give him a piece, prompting him to spit, “This tastes like ass,” and they laugh uproariously and confirm that, yes, indeed, he is eating the least appealing part of the thing.

Other than that, it’s tons of action, and tons of fun and really safe for the kids.

Here's a rather long trailer, but you only need to see a minute or two to whet your appetite.

Russell Crowe's Robin Hood

2009-04-22T11:15:00.004-04:00

That's a good look. Crowe allegedly lost over 40 pounds for the role, after beefing up for Body of Lies, and then keeping some of it on for State of Play. Ridley Scott's Robin Hood is just beginning filming now, with a release date set for May, 2010. (Cate Blanchett co-stars.)

Again, I hope the kiddies get to see and enjoy an updated Robin Hood. I know I sound like a broken record, but really well-made PG movies should not be so hard to come by ...

"Horse Boy" Documentary

2009-04-20T16:31:00.004-04:00

If autism touches your life, you may be especially interested in this documentary, which will be released in the fall along with a book. I just read an article about it, and was so intrigued, I felt I should pass it on. (Web site and film trailer below.)

Journalist Rupert Isaacson and his wife Kristin know autism all too well. Their young son, Rowan, was diagnosed in 2004 when he was two years old. When Rupert noticed that his son had a strange affect on his beloved quarterhorse, Betsy (she displayed "submissive" body language and behavior in Rowan's presence), and that Betsy also had a very interesting and positive effect on Rowan (immensely soothing, with the boy's physical "stims" and gestures silenced, and a voice found), a window was flung open, allowing new perspectives, ideas and hope into the Isaacson household.

As a journalist, Isaacson was accustomed to visiting exotic locales, and not long after the diagnosis, Rupert was called to Africa. Kristin and Rowan joined him for part of the trip, and after another startling discovery, involving tribal elders and shamans taking Rowan into rituals and ceremonies in an attempt, essentially, to "heal" the young boy, the surprised parents noticed a change in Rowan's behavior. Rowan's symptoms eased and seemed to be reversing.

The Isaacsons decided to embark on a true journey of a lifetime, and this journey is the focus of Horse Boy. Combining the possibilities of shamanistic healing with the calming effect of horses, the family set out -- on horseback -- across the Steppe of Mongolia to the forests of Siberia, visiting healers and shamans all along the way.

The film is their story.

"Horse Boy" is showing at select festivals and events in spring and summer, but will receive a proper release in the fall.

For now, you can visit the web site for more info, and/or watch the trailer below.

This Week's Classic Kids' Movie

2009-04-18T12:59:00.008-04:00

Oh, where to start?

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953) is the only feature film written by the famed children’s author Dr. Seuss (aka Theodor Seuss Geisel). It was rather a bomb at the box office, so I guess that’s why Geisel didn’t pursue a film career. (According to Wikipedia, Geisel regarded the finished film as a "debaculous fiasco.") It’s too bad, because the writing (both songs and dialog) is pretty brilliant, which should be no surprise considering the lyrical nature of Dr. Seuss books.

Besides the music, there are so many weird things to love about The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. As you may have gathered, it is a musical (the score was nominated for an Oscar), which unfolds in a live action, surrealist setting, with animated visuals integrated fairly seamlessly. It’s produced by the great filmmaker Stanley Kramer (Judgment at Nuremberg , On the Beach, The Defiant Ones, to name a few), which is just weird. There is plenty of vibrant, eye-candy whimsy, such as roller-skating, twin men who share a long, gray beard, and a fantastic scene where our hero Bart climbs a very, very high Seuss-ian ladder to nowhere (I kept thinking, “Oh! The places we will go!”). The color is magnificent (blazing Technicolor!), and the sets ... well, suffice to say, The 5,000 Fingers... visuals are not far from what a minimalist Wizard of Oz might look like. They’re stunning.

“If kids had their way, there’d hardly
be any parents born at all!”

Like the Wizard of Oz, this is all merely a dream, but it’s made quite clear from the beginning (I’m not spoiling anything here). Little Bart is an unwilling piano student who lives in fear of the didactic and dictatorial piano teacher Dr. Terwilliker (played deliciously by Hans Conried), and most of the film depicts Bart’s nightmare, caught in a web of Terwilliker evil.

I can see why hipsters might put The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T on their favorite film lists. It’s a slightly more uneven, underdog version of Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory or Oz, and it is a bit more ... twisted than those films.

Here’s the warning for parents of young kids:

Of course, the idea of being pursued and imprisoned by an evil anything/anyone might bother young ‘uns, and that’s a theme throughout. Once Bart and his accomplice, the father figure/plumber August Zabladowski, are caught by Terwilliker in his compound, they are taken onto an elevator, where a shirtless, black-masked henchman/operator calls out the floors (in song):

“First floor dungeon! Asssorted simple tortures ... molten lead, chopping blocks and hot ... boil-ing .... oooil!

“Second floor dungeon! Jewlery department .... leg chains, ankle chains, neck chains, thumb screws, nooses of the very .... fiiine - est ... rope!

There they are shown how non-piano playing musicians are treated: a drummer is imprisoned inside a huge drum, which Dr. Terwilliker explains is pounded all day and all night, forever. The prisoner's silhouette begs to be released as the visitors come to the cell, and the drummer ceases his torturous task for a moment.

But of course, it’s all played out as a dream, and it ends on a happy note. The references to torture and dungeons are the only caveats in what is now a really offbeat family movie (and maybe I’m going overboard here ... how quickly we forget what a seven- or nine-year old mind might be like when our kid is suddenly a sassy tweener!). I think mom and dad will dig it, and so will most kids. It’s a real treat for the eyes, and the ears. I’m tempted to go out and find the soundtrack now.

And I hate musicals.

(Another note from Wikipedia: "The Simpsons" villain Sideshow Bob takes his last name "Terwilliger" from this film.)

Ok, here are a couple of trailers. The first is one of the memorable musical scenes; I noticed son K singing along by song's end -- you can't help yourself. Evil Dr. T is preparing for his big, 500-boy (5,000 fingers) piano symphony debut.

The second is the dungeon elevator scene, so you can see for yourself if it might be ok for your own kids. But don't let that scene alone deter you! Maybe you could fast forward through it ...

New Movie News

2009-04-15T16:41:00.006-04:00

Has anyone heard about this Gooby film coming out? I just stumbled into it ... seems it will be in limited release, starting Friday, April 17. Maybe it’s great for younger kids, but it looks a bit (a bit?) cornball to me:

Monterey Media (Gooby’s distributor) is also behind a movie called Bracelet of Bordeaux (“Family approved!”) that came out last year, so you might want to check it out as well if Gooby does it for you.

Who doesn’t love Michael Caine?!

He’s got a film coming out this week, Is Anybody There, and it looks like quite an emotional story about aging, and about youth. This could be great for the over-13 set in the house, a really mature and challenging topic that might have younger folks thinking about the value of the older and wiser among us.

"Set in 1980s seaside England, this is the story of Edward, an unusual ten year old boy growing up in an old people's home run by his parents. Whilst his mother struggles to keep the family business afloat, and his father copes with the onset of mid-life crisis, Edward is busy tape-recording the elderly residents to try and discover what happens when they die...” (From IMDB)

(MPAA: Rated PG-13 for language including sexual references, and some disturbing images.)

Another one that you might enjoy with older kids, coming out next week, on the 24th, is The Soloist, with Robert Downey, Jr.

From FilmReleases.com:

In "The Soloist," an emotionally soaring drama about the redemptive power of music, journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a former classical music prodigy, playing his violin on the streets of L.A. As Lopez endeavors to help the homeless man find his way back, a unique friendship is formed, one that transforms both their lives.

(MPAA: rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some drug use and language.)

And, of course, Disney's Earth comes out next week too. See a movie, plant a tree!

It's been widely reported this week that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be moved up from the Friday, July 17 release date to Wednesday, July 15. Apparently Wednesdays are the new “blockbuster” release dates for films. Is this because it gives them a couple of extra days of buzz before weekend box office tallies start? Dunno. But mark your calendars appropriately if you’ve been waiting.

TUESDAY TIDBITS

2009-04-14T15:16:00.002-04:00

Robert Rodriquez has made some great grown-up films (all on the dark, gritty and artful side), but he’s also pretty effective with the kiddie set (Spy Kids). He’s back, with a new film called Shorts, a story about a kid and a magic rock (releasing in August):

I’ve always liked Sam Rockwell. Maybe his new movie, Moon, will help propel him to the top of the actors’ heap. I’m not a huge sci-fi fan, but this looks pretty riveting. A three-year stint alone on the moon for astronaut Sam Bell, played by Rockwell, is about to come to an end... until a bizarre series of events occur.

Speaking of sci-fi, Tron, from 1982, is a movie I managed to avoid (told you I wasn’t big on this stuff), but I’ve recently put it on our Netflix list for K. It’s rated PG, and sounds like it’s right up K’s alley:

Programmer Kevin Flynn's (Jeff Bridges) video games are stolen, and with help from his friends, he tries to hack the Master Control Program to prove CEO Ed Dillinger (David Warner) ripped him off. But the MCP pulls Flynn into its world, where enslaved programs fight on the "game grid." An amazing mix of Alice in Wonderland, Star Wars, Ben-Hur and German expressionism. (--Netflix)

I may finally see this film! Fans of Tron are probably thrilled to hear there is a sequel planned for 2011, and original star Jeff Bridges has reportedly signed on.

In more semi-kid-related movie news, Ridley Scott is directing a Robin Hood epic for 2010 release! Now, this could be fun. It will star Cate Blanchett and Russell Crowe, with Vanessa Redgrave and William Hurt. Of course, as usual, I fear it will be a PG-13 or an R movie when all is said and done. I’m 110% certain this could be a great movie with a PG rating. Bets, anyone?

Awright, back to grown-up stuff:

Directed by Ang Lee, and starring Emil Hirsch, Eugene Levy and Dimetri Martin, Taking Woodstock looks like it could be a real charmer.

Small indie movies typically have short lives in the theaters, so here’s a little plug for Sugar, which may be playing near you; try to catch it before it leaves! It looks like a great human story, and if you are a baseball fan, it’s probably a great baseball movie, too.

Sugar follows the story of Miguel Santos, a.k.a. Sugar, a ball player from the Dominican Republic, who gets a break and makes it to the U.S. minor league system.

CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS (G)

2009-04-13T11:11:00.004-04:00

You may know that son K enjoys watching ‘50s horror and sci-fi movies with us (dad started feeding him Godzilla at a steady clip starting around age seven). The other night we settled in to watch a movie tagged as one of Andy Warhol’s favorites, but many, many user reviews on Netflix complained of the movie’s endless talking. No action, they said, just talk, talk, talk.

I kept my mouth shut. Not only did K stick with it (it’s only 80 minutes long), but he loved Creation of the Humanoids, and was highly annoyed at the abrupt ending.

“Did they run out of film, or what?” he complained.

I really wasn’t going to write this one up, but I just changed my mind. I won’t go on about it in detail, but here’s what you need to know:

It is a talker. No real action. There are about six or seven scenes (K counted), and very little in set design (although husband D and I found it extremely beautiful in its simplicity).

There are zero special effects.

There is very little violence, no racy language or other small-kid offenders (it may just bore them to death).

It shares a certain aesthetic with Plan Nine From Outer Space.

The director may or may not have intended a subtext about equality and race. Or maybe about technology and fear. Or maybe intended no subtext at all.

It’s a bizarrely fascinating, Saturday-night-pass-the-popcorn kind of movie, and we had a lot of fun with it.

Here’s the 1962 trailer:

Note: on Netflix, it comes only as part of a “Drive-in Double Feature,” with War Between the Planets, for which I can't vouch, but husband D says: "It has some of the most amusingly amature sets ever captured on celluloid ... and it ends with a nice big explosion."

I'm not sure that's a recommendation.

Weekly Classic Kids' Movie

2009-04-10T10:26:00.008-04:00

I haven’t yet done a Kids’ Classic of the Week that was a thumbs down. Until now.

Listen, Where the Red Fern Grows (1974) might have been a fine novel, and perhaps a fine movie back in 1974, but I just can’t recommend it in 2009.

The story of a boy and his “coon hounds” takes place in 1930’s Ozark Mountains in Oklahoma. I will say this: I know it’s unfair to say it feels like an extended Waltons special, but it does (I’d rather watch The Waltons, a wonderful TV series, again), and I couldn’t shake it. (It doesn’t help that Beverly Garland, the mom, kept reminding me of Michael Learned’s Mother Walton).

Beyond squirming (me, not son K, who walked in and out of the movie three times) through scenes such as chopping down huge, beautiful trees just to catch a raccoon (really? is that what they did?), or a mountain lion vs. dog fight (that was real, staged for the cameras), the movie felt flat, slow (sloooow) and incredibly dated. Some of these things just don’t hold up well. You can’t argue.

Long stretches of the kid running through beautiful Ozark mountains and meadows, with Andy Williams crooning in the background (yes, Andy Williams; I know some of you don’t even know who he is. I’ll wait while you run over to Wikipedia), and lingering close-ups of a perennially troubled mom take up about half the film, with “coon hunts” and unpleasant, bullying kids taking up another half. There you have it, pretty much.

I won’t talk about the boom mic being seen in shots, or the surprise violence (a kid gets killed, the aforementioned animal brawl, mean boys, sad as heck ending), or the plentiful God talk (pretty much every bit of drama is explained away by God’s intent). I’ll just say, you could do better in the classic kids’ movie department.

I think a lot of these old “family” films really just don’t hold up. Take a look at this trailer for The Yearling (1946), which I had on my list to check out. I think I’ll leave it to you to research this one. Let me know what you think.

If you’re really in the mood for an old classic this weekend, try National Velvet (1944, Liz Taylor, Mickey Rooney). I know the ending is pretty sad, so if you want to wait for me to review it, and tell you just how tragic it might be, I’ll do it soon. It’s on my “instant view” Netflix list; it's a film I've always wanted to see.

Favorite Film Characters Meme (Part II)

2009-04-10T09:09:00.011-04:00

Wrapping up the "ten favorite film characters" meme, for which I was tagged by Culture Snob: I’m presenting the whole list in one place here, the last five are new today. (And these are ten OF my favorites, and not in any particular order!) (I know, I know, typical Libra...):

1. Scarlet O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) from Gone With the Wind (1939)

2. Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) from Reservoir Dogs (1992)

3. Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) in in 1963's To Kill A Mockingbird

4. Maude (Ruth Gordon) in Harold and Maude, 1971

"... Play as well as you can. Go team, go! Give me an L. Give me an I. Give me a V. Give me an E. L-I-V-E. LIVE! Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room."

5. Alvy Singer (Woody Allen), in Annie Hall, 1977

6. Randy 'The Ram' Robinson (Mickey Rourke) in The Wrestler, 2008

7. Tommy DeVito, Goodfellas, 1990, played by Joe Pesci

8. Ron Burgundy, Anchorman, played by Will Farrell, 2004

9. Wall-E.

10. Klaus Kinski’s Don Lope de Aguirre, in Aquirre, Wrath of God, 1972

“I came into this world in the form of a human, but the sun, the stars, the wind, fire, deserts, forests, mountains, skies, oceans, and clouds were trapped inside me.” -- Klaus Kinski

More favorites, just as loved as the others: Chaplin’s Little Tramp; Layne in River’s Edge, played by Crispin Glover; Brad Pitt’s Mickey in Snatch; Ray Eddy, played by Melissa Leo in Frozen River; Robert Ford, played by Casey Affleck, in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Uma Thurman’s Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill; Diane Keaton as Annie Hall.

I'd love to hear about some of your favorites!

YOUR Favorites?

2009-04-09T12:08:00.003-04:00

Husband D is giving me grief for not including the Joseph Cotton character, Holly Martins, from The Third Man, in my "favorite film characters" meme.

I said, "That's your list." Duh.

But it reminded me that I -- rudely -- forgot to invite you to play along (did it need to be said?)? Who are some of your all time favorites?

Tag: The Character Meme

2009-04-07T13:29:00.005-04:00

Ok, this meme was started over at FilmSquish, a site husband D will surely love.

I'm working on eight more for my list of ten favorite film characters. Ugh. Tough one. (First two below.)

Here are the five sites I'm tagging to join in:

LivingInCinema
FataCulture
Film Father
Moon in the Gutter
ScreenSavour

Have fun!

Favorite Film Characters Meme

2009-04-07T10:46:00.012-04:00

Ok, call me lame!

But between nasty head colds, work and family time, I just haven’t been so focused on the blog, and I didn’t even check my KidsFlix email account until Monday night, when I saw that I’d been tagged by Culture Snob to name my 10 favorite film characters.

Ten? Favorites? Listen, I’m the kind of person that can’t even name a favorite film or book of all time (I can, however, name my favorite album, my Desert Island Disc, if pressed; I’ll save it for another time, but maybe give you a hint. Yeah, a hint. If you guess, I’ll burn it for you and send you a copy. Lemme think on this for a minute.). I have lots of favorites, and distilling my favorite film characters into a mere 10 might be impossible.

So, I’m going to steal an idea from 10 Movies to See Before You Die, and roll ‘em out slowly. I might not even get to ten! Ha. Are memes made to be broken?

Culture Snob tagged me (thank you, oh Snobby one) as one of the newer members of LAMB (The Large Association of Movie Blogs), a great place to find film blogs of all kinds. In the “Q&A” we newbies participate in, we had to name three of our favorite movies, which I was able to do since it’s a small number of the 20 or 50 I might consider true favorites. So, I’ll start by naming two characters from two of my favorite films.

1. Scarlet O’Hara, from Gone With the Wind
I saw this film as a kid, in an old rep theater we were lucky enough to have in town at the time, and the impression the film made on me cannot be understated. I think I dreamed about it for weeks afterwards. Much of it had to do with Scarlett O’Hara (full name: Katie Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler), the plucky and sassy heroine who thinks, for an agonizing two hours’ worth of screen time, that she’s in love with the weak and wussy Ashley Wilkes, when all along it’s clearly the arrogant and handsome Rhett Butler she needs in her life. He’s her only possible match.

Along with the complex romantic storyline, the film is, of course, filled with numerous history lessons, told in glorious, melodramatic technicolor. I haven’t had the pleasure yet of watching this with K, but hope to do it soon. (Let this serve as a recommended Kids’ Classic, while we’re at it!)

Scarlett’s courage, determination, craftiness and fire (it’s in her eyes) left an indelible impression on me, and on legions of moviegoers (and maybe young girls?). We’re not supposed to base our choices here on the actor or our love for them or their methods, etc., and I can say without hesitation that this fictional character, Scarlett O’Hara, a 100-pound, spoiled rotten, Southern Belle, lives on and looms as large as any screen character in film history.

2. Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs
Back in 1992, we hadn’t quite seen a film like Reservoir Dogs. Some of Scorsese’s works come close, but there was something ultra cool about Reservoir Dogs that captured our attention. It was named "Greatest Independent Film of all Time" by the British film mag, Empire.

There are a handful of fascinating and memorable characters in the film, and it’s difficult for me to choose between Mr. Blonde, played by Michael Madsen, and Mr. Pink, played by Steve Buscemi. So, deciding quickly here before this turns to an all day debate, I’m going with ... Michael Madsen’s Mr. Blonde.

If you haven’t seen the film, I’ll just say right up front that Mr. Blonde is very suave, very cool, and very handsome. He’s sexy in a dark way -- “quietly menacing” is how it might be put in a bodice ripper -- except this guy is truly psychopathic and sadistic.

He’s the ultimate “bad boy” that we chix are supposed to love. Hmmm.

Now, ask husband D if I’m one for lots of graphic violence and sadistic themes in movies. He’ll tell you I am not. In fact, I don’t even bother with horror films because 98% of the time there is someone being tortured, physically or psychologically, and I really can’t take that. The gore isn’t so much a problem as it is the other stuff. Bah. Life is short. I don’t need to spend 28% of my lifetime squirming in my chair. (Don’t ask me where I got 28%.)

So why Mr. Blonde? Why am I choosing the guy who plays out the most awful, disturbing scene in the film? I can not tell you precisely why. Maybe I am just a sucker for a handsome bad boy, and that’s all it is. Maybe it was the way he moved, dancing around the hostage he was terrifying at every turn, or the way he spoke as if he were simply styling the guy’s hair, or giving him skin care advice. Maybe it was Mr. Blonde’s sheer craziness, his being so removed from what he was actually doing that he conveyed some sort of mystery and otherworldliness.

Maybe it was that his character was clearly one of the signs that Quentin Tarantino was going to be a force to be reckoned with.

Ok, that’s all for now.

UPDATE: Jump here for the complete list.

In thinking over the hints I might leave you for my musical D.I.D., I’ve come up with a couple:

1. It’s a ‘70s record.
2. It was punk before punk was invented.

This Week's Classic Kids' Movie

2009-04-04T15:33:00.006-04:00

I vacillated a bit on this one, but overall give it a thumbs up, and even have no qualms about putting it in the “classic kids’ movie” category. I do this because in some ways it’s the perfect kids’ movie, for the younger set in particular, and even with its blemishes and bumps it will stand the test of time.

Purists take issue with the “documentary” label given to Winged Migration (it was even nominated for an Oscar in 2001 in that category), since the filmmakers used birds trained (“imprinted”) from birth, so that they would fly undisturbed by equipment and crew, and since it was filmed over a period of four years and thus does not truly “document” a natural migration. There are also some segments that are CGI-enhanced.

That said: I’m no purist, and when you’re searching for something thoughtful, quiet, and artful for younger kids, something like watching birds being birds (several species are here, including geese, storks, and pelicans) -- from various angles and distances (both air and land/sea), up close and with unfettered views -- can be magical and very rewarding. I remember taking K to a theater to see this, he grumbled a bit thinking it was going to be boring (he was about eight years old, as headstrong as he is now), but he was entranced for the hour and a half.

The cinematography is stunning, and the whole “birds’ eye view” concept is what makes the film so special. Much of the film takes place right alongside birds as they are flying, and seeing them in motion where they can really be studied is a rare opportunity. There is very little dialogue, and occasional dramatic bits keep the viewer from dozing off or losing focus. These dramatic scenes might bother some smaller children, as they depict the perils and dangers of the real world (again, purists may ask, “Were these scenes set up? Are they real? Were any birds harmed for the purpose of the film?”): geese pick at polluted puddles of water, birds appear to be shot out of the sky by hunters, another bird gets stuck in industrial sludge. You get the drift.

Without being overtly preachy, this truly beautiful cinematic adventure manages to convey the importance of our role in keeping the earth safe and hospitable for all creatures, which is a good message for kids of any age.

More cool documentaries here.

Disney's EARTH

2009-04-01T16:08:00.011-04:00

If you've seen the trailer in theaters for Disney's Earth, to be released on Earth Day (April 22), you might be thinking, "Hmmm, some of those shots look familiar." I was surprised to read that the film is basically comprised of "Planet Earth" segments (reviewed elsewhere on KidsFlix) and not only was it originally done with Patrick Stewart narrating (and I believe released in Europe last year), but his voice was replaced with that of the formidable James Earl Jones for the U.S. release.

Ok, should that matter? I'm not sure. If folks fork over $10 a head for movie tickets and $20 on popcorn and treats, and settle in for some bigger-than-life shots of nature at its best, and then feel like they're at home watching a re-run of something they can't quite put their finger on ... then maybe it matters.

This is the first feature-length nature documentary from Disney's new production banner, Disneynature, so we'll see what follows. Maybe this is the kick-off release; if so, it's hard to argue with the quality of the product. Also, Disney will plant a tree for every ticket sold opening week. That alone makes it worth going (ok, that and the three animal families we follow for a year: African elephants, polar bears and humpback whales. Excellent selection!). The New York Times reports:

“Disney’s goal is to ensure that it plants trees in areas that conservationists have identified as important hot spots of biodiversity. Disney will oversee the planting of the trees in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, which is considered the most endangered rain forest in the world. Today, only 7 percent of the Atlantic Forest remains. Disney is committed to ensuring the trees are planted and cared for to provide the greatest long term benefit for the planet.”

The Times goes on to say that based on opening week ticket sales for Disney's March of the Penguins, they could be looking at a half million or so tickets/trees.

Here's a trailer lifted from YouTube. You can go to Apple Trailers for a true HD, super-duper pretty version of it. Wow. Also, visit this Disney site for more images, downloads, games and educational material related to the film.

.
What else is new?

PAPER CLIPS (G)

2009-04-01T11:08:00.010-04:00

This is a tough one.

This one will require a box of tissues, extra hugs, and maybe a dose of something lighthearted on the telly before you all trot off to your rooms or to bed or to clean the kitchen. Maybe a "Friends" re-run or a little "VHI's One-Hit Wonders of the '80s" will do the trick.

Paper Clips is a stunningly powerful documentary about a group of 8th grade students in tiny Whitwell, TN, who embark on a journey to understand the Holocaust, but end up questioning so much more. Not only do the students emerge changed from the experience, but it touches an entire community as well.

Tiny Whitwell, TN (outside Chattanooga, and about 100 miles from where the KKK was founded) has a couple of stoplights, virtually zero Jews and Catholics, and might epitomize to some much of the southern United States: homogenized, predominantly fundamentalist Christian, and wrapped in a history of ethnic and racial discrimination and intolerance. (Whitwell is also about 45 miles from the Rhea County Courthouse, where, in 1925, a teacher was convicted for teaching evolution during the "Scopes Monkey Trial.”)

When eighth grade students at Whitwell Middle School, back in 1998, began studying the Holocaust, a student planted the seed for the project, by saying, “What is six million? I've never seen six million.” The idea to collect six million of something (something related to the Holocaust, principal Linda Hooper insisted) led to the paper clip, which was "invented" (seems debatable, according to Wikipedia) by a Norwegian Jew; Norwegians wore them on their lapels during WWII as a protest against Hitler and his policies.

The Paper Clips Project got underway slowly, and after nearly stalling out late in 1999 (with 1.5 million clips donated), was saved by mainstream media coverage that was largely due to the efforts of a German couple living in the U.S., working as White House correspondents. Once the spotlight shined on Whitwell, the paper clips came by the millions. Well after the project met its completion, the paper clips would still trickle in, from all corners of the world. At last count, some over 30 million had been received.

There are many heroes in this story: the German couple, who came to the rescue several times and also answered an early question by students, “What are German people like? What do they look like? How could they have done this?”; the principal, assistant principal and teachers involved in the project who had incredible vision and patience; the entire community of Whitwell, who came to together in building a beautiful memorial; the Holocaust survivors who came to Whitwell to tell their stories; and of course the students, who worked tirelessly over a number of years to see the project through to the end.

Of course, the real heroes may be those who sent the paper clips; without the paper clips, this story would be something different. Not only did celebrities, regular people, and presidents (both Bushes and Clinton) send paperclips, but so did Germans, and of course, many, many Jewish people, both Holocaust survivors and relatives of the victims, all with heartbreaking stories.

The multiple award-winning Paper Clips should become a staple in middle school curriculum. Until that happens, a family viewing, with plenty of discussion, breaks for tissue replenishment, hugs, and sweet snacks for levity, will not only serve as a great history lesson and some quality family time, but it’ll bring the love.

I guarantee it.

(Note: This film is officially rated G, but I strongly recommend it for older kids who have a grasp of Holocaust history, and for parents who have more backbone than I, as I pretty much blubbered my way through the whole thing.)

Tuesday Tidbits

2009-03-31T09:21:00.007-04:00

Have you seen any of the new Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince posters? I think they’re going for a new tough guy image. But I guess with aging actors (and viewers), and thus more mature storylines, you gotta market the thing with a bit of grown-upness. You can see all the new posters here at MSN.

* * *

Son K asked me the other day: “What is it about Twilight, why does everyone like it so much? Especially girls? Is it 'cause the guy is a --" (here he indicates air quotes) "-- 'hunk'? What’s the big deal about it?”

I said, "Well, it was a popular book--"

"These kids haven't read the book, I guarantee you," he snorted.

Since the Twilight phenom is something I’m really not up on, I couldn’t answer him with any authority. K’s just turned 12, isn’t particularly interested in it himself, but wonders what the fuss is.

What should I have said? What do YOU know about it? I know vampires are sexy and all, but how do you give that answer to a kid in a way that ... uh... that makes sense? (Actually, I did say that: “Um, some people think vampires are kinda sexy, I guess...” After that, I was at a loss.)

What's your take on the Twilight phenom?

* * *

Lastly (promise I’ll get to a review soon!), here’s a sneak peek at a poster for a film coming out Christmas Day.

Do you know who the actor is? I’ll let you ponder for a moment. Answer in image following.

Here's the answer. Oh, i can't wait! Jude Law will co-star as Watson, and it's directed by Guy Ritchie, so I rather doubt it will be kid-friendly.

Random Act... Oh, it's gotta be a joke...

2009-03-30T11:34:00.005-04:00

Ok, by now perhaps you've heard a story floating around, most recently reported by The Hollywood Reporter, of a Three Stooges flick with Sean Penn as Larry, Benicio Del Toro as Moe, and Jim Carrey as Curley. I just refuse to believe it, even though the stories start to look more and more credible.

Sigh. I had to post this hilarious photo, courtesy Ropes of Silicon.

NEAR MISS: MEATBALLS (1979)

2009-03-30T10:48:00.003-04:00

Maybe this wasn’t a “near miss.” Maybe it’s a “Boy, is she dumb” miss, or a “How could she not have known?” miss.

Bill Murray. 1979. Was that enough of a tip-off? Perhaps. Perhaps I was in denial. Perhaps I should have dug harder around IMDB since Netflix offered no indication that user reviews like, “good family viewing,” were off the mark, unless they meant families with teenagers. Perhaps I should have questioned the “PG” rating since Meatballs was made in1979, and as I’ve noted before, PG now and PG then certainly seem to be different!

Anyway, this serves as notice that, lest you be enticed by Mr. Murray and his inarguable charms, or by the topic (shy boy comes out of shell at summer camp), or by the rave reviews on Netflix, this is far too rife with sexual innuendo to be appropriate for kids. We got into the first ten minutes or so, and after jokes about a “sex machine” counselor picking up ten nurses one night and only “three made it to work the next day” and about about the nice summer kids spending their parents’ money on “hookers from every country” and “raping and pillaging” their way through summer, we abruptly shut down.

Ok, so I’m not up on my Bill Murray like I should be (I do love the guy). Forgive me. But I’m here to serve.

Disney's THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG

2009-03-28T09:18:00.003-04:00

I know I don’t usually write a lot about Disney stuff, but this bit of news is worth reporting.

Disney has been working on a hand-drawn animated feature called The Princess and the Frog, and I seem to remember reading somewhere that they are committing to producing hand-drawn features every couple of years or so. Basically, they are not giving up the tried and true for a world built soley with CGI.

A big cheer for Disney!

Even bigger news: The princesss in the film is not blue-eyed and fair! She’s African-American... a first for Disney. (Is that really true? Really?)

Here’s a trailer: (Princess will hit theaters in December.)

Trailer: Where the Wild Things Are

2009-03-26T08:14:00.002-04:00

Wow. WOW. (Thank you, D.!!)

(More on WTWTA, opening in October, here.)

Tuesday Tidbits

2009-03-24T17:18:00.005-04:00

So, son K never insisted on seeing Coraline. My theory? I think he’s a little spooked by it! I’m hearing more stories about kids who are/were spooked by the movie, and either skipped it or are now trying not to dream about it.

I guess I’ll have to see it on my own -- in my living room since it’s no longer on a screen near me. Phht.

If you’re a fan of musician Stephin Merritt/Magnetic Fields, you may already know that he has written music and lyrics for a stage production of Coraline that’s opening in NYC on May 7. Arrgh! Can I get back to NYC then? I doubt it.

For those of you lucky enough to go, you should know that for a limited time (through April 12; they just went on sale yesterday), discounted tickets will be available for $39 at the MCC Theater website. You can get more info here at Merritt’s site: www.houseoftomorrow.com

His Gothic Archies project did music a few years ago for the Lemony Snickets books, entitled “The Tragic Treasury: Music for a Series of Unfortunate Events.” They are dark, and cool, and lots of fun for parents. Oh dear, now I’m humming the melody to “The World is a Very Scary Place” .... hmmmmm....mmmmmmmm....mmmmm...

THE BUTTERFLY (NR = G)

2009-03-23T15:03:00.006-04:00

This wonderful French film might serve your kids well as an introduction to subtitled foreign films, if you’ve not ventured there yet. I’ve got a couple other recommendations, but this one might be a good place to start. (I’m pretty sure The Butterfly would carry the equivalent of a G rating.)

The story is easy enough to follow that working on the subtitles without missing screen action will be fairly easy for kids around nine or ten. However, the story is not so simple that parents should shy away from it, lest they be bored. It’s a beautiful and entertaining film on many levels, and of course it’s shot in Paris and in the beautiful French countryside, and so is visually quite pleasing.

I watched this without K (who was in one of his increasingly more frequent tweener moods; “A butterfly? It’s about a butterfly?” [Sigh.] “No thanks.”) (Er, it’s not about a butterfly.) During the last half, I wished I’d twisted his arm, or been more cunning, because he surely would have enjoyed it. K has quite a capacity for emotional empathy (in film, anyway), and The Butterfly is full of quiet little twists and turns expounding on the difficulties of love, trust, parenting, and personal loss.

Claire Bouanich is the young actress playing Elsa, and she is -- sorry, there is no other word -- adorable in every shot. She’s a natural actress, and whether she’s up to a bit of mischief to turn things in her favor, or caught off guard when a deer in the woods falls victim to a poacher’s bullet, her expressions feel genuine and effortless. Many child actors just get by -- you have to admit it -- but this young lady possesses a true gift.

The late Michel Serrault (you may remember him from the wonderful, original La Cage aux Folles, in 1978, as Albin, one of the main characters) plays the cranky old butterfly collector with whom Elsa (rather duplicitously) takes to the mountains in search of the elusive “Isabelle” butterfly. I enjoyed seeing him not long ago in another French film with a similar theme, The Girl From Paris (not a kids’ movie: old, lonely crank befriended by young city woman who moves to the country). He plays a buttoned-up, reluctantly isolated old fellow with a rough charm and a just-soft-enough exterior that giving up on him is just not an option.

In true European fashion, there is one moment in the film that had me doing a double-take, and -- because this is what I do -- you are hereby warned that the adorable Elsa (eight years old, perhaps?) tells a sailor-style joke with the phrase “scratched his balls” in the punchline. I kid you not.

Oh, those wacky French.

Here's a pseudo-trailer, with clips of Serrault and Bouanich recording the charming closing song (sorry, I couldn't find a real trailer with English subtitles):

This Week's Classic Kids' Movie

2009-03-21T13:32:00.004-04:00

There are several film adaptations of Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved children's book, "The Secret Garden," but I can only tell you about two of them. One is a 1975 BBC version, which feels exactly like a 1975 BBC version. Adults might rather like it and appreciate it for its historic, vaguely Masterpiece Theater-feel, but for kids it’s too slow and too musty.

The other version I’m familiar with is the 1993 version, directed by polish director Agnieszka Holland, who has a string of films you’ve never heard of, plus television credits for shows like The Wire and Cold Case. I was surprised not to see another film or two of significance in his bio, as his Secret Garden is absolutely lovely, and the attention given to things like continuity and visual details are admirable.

This film has a G rating, but I doubt it would work on kids under age eight. It’s a pretty sedate, quiet film, the British accents may be a tad difficult for young (American) kids, and there is a dark, brooding melancholy throughout the first half. Younger children would likely have a difficult time with scenes of neglectful parents, dying parents, and “invalid” children throwing temper tantrums (cousin Colin throws a doozy here).

For the older kids, The Secret Garden is a great example of dramatic cinematic storytelling aimed at children that isn’t candy-coated in Disney sugar, and the film’s messages of hope, rebirth, and friendship are heartwarming and very sweet. It’s also mature enough (and lush enough visually) that most parents will enjoy it as well.

Random Act of Self Indulgence .11

2009-03-19T12:59:00.007-04:00

Dave Eggers is a fabulous writer. If you haven't read him, do yourself a favor. Start with A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and after that, it doesn't matter where you go, as long as you definitely include What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng.

In addition to being an author and publisher (he founded McSweeney's), Eggers also does a heckuva lot to promote literacy and human rights. Among other things, he founded a nonprofit tutoring center and writing school for children in San Francisco, called 826 Valencia, and has overseen the expansion of the program to other American cities. (More on 826 National here.)

Now, he's breaking into the movies.

Word has it that he's behind the screenplay adaptation (along with Spike Jonze) of the classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are, along with a novel that will be released simultaneously. The film releases in October, and you can get a sneak preview when you see Monster & Aliens; early reports use words like "brilliant" and "breathtaking" to describe it. Of course, being set to Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" already lends itself to use of those kinds of adjectives.

So we've got two Eggers-related treats for you here. First, a peek at the Wild Things poster! Love it? I do. I do.

Secondly, we happened upon a cool looking trailer from another film Eggers wrote (with his wife, Vendela Vida), and get this: it 's directed by Sam Mendes and stars a bearded John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, and Jeff Daniels. (Maya Rudolph? She seems pretty convincing here!).

Away We Go (not a kids' film, although parenting is a core theme) hits screens June 11. According to IMDB:

The film is the first studio production to adopt green filmmaking initiatives aimed to reduce CO2 emission. Garbage was reduced by half, thanks to the various bins for recyclable material. Caterers used ceramic and washed dishes as opposed to throwaway products. Vehicles on the set used biodiesel fuel.

Enjoy the trailer:

I AM DAVID (PG)

2009-03-17T21:56:00.006-04:00

Sometimes a film demands you suspend disbelief and just go with it, not pick it apart ... perhaps remember that it’s aimed at kids.

I Am David is one such film, and the suspending is worth the effort. It’s curious the movie that tackles deep and ugly issues with a young audience in mind. And it’s admirable (hence the point of this blog: it ain’t all Shrek and roses out there, nor should it be).

David, played by a young British actor named Ben Tibber, has lived a good part of his 12 years in a post-WWII Communist labor camp, separated from his parents at an early age. He escapes, and we follow his bumpy trajectory from Bulgaria to Denmark: one step forward, two steps back. The bumps are small, however, and so the expected cinematic arc/construct doesn’t really take place. The film feels like it’s lacking a plot or real tension, when of course the entire story -- one of escape and survival -- is the plot, woven together by threads of fear, distrust, and the unknown, all of which should provide plenty of tension. It’s an odd feeling.

The last third of the film feels more tangible, perhaps more plot-driven, and the appearance of Joan Plowright is a joy (I didn’t realize how much I like her until now). And there are a couple of unexpected plot twists towards the end that are rewarding payoffs.

This is definitely for mature kids, ten or 11 and up (Netflix says nine, but ...). The brutality of life in a camp, of being separated from one’s parents at a tender age (there’s a heart wrenching moment when the mother is taken away), of not knowing life in the real world, is palpable and may be hard on some viewers. Son K was pretty entranced by it, and we got to work in some history lessons as David moved from country to country, e.g., What was going on in Italy after the war? What happened to Mussolini? etc.

It’s not a perfect film, but it’s a solid, entertaining, mature drama, one which may have mom in tears at the end. Kids seem curiously impervious sometimes...

The film is adapted from Anne Holm's internationally acclaimed novel North to Freedom, which sounds like a very good read.

"The single finest novel ever written for children of about ages 9 to 13."
--School Library Journal

TUESDAY TIDBITS

2009-03-17T10:10:00.005-04:00

Remakes. And more remakes. We've already mentioned projects under way for remakes of the Wizard of Oz (groan), Karate Kid, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and a few others. Here's news on a couple more:

1984’s NeverEnding Story was a precursor to the fantasy craze in Hollywood, which saw big, big bucks from movies like the Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings franchises. NeverEnding Story did fairly well upon release, and has enjoyed a healthy second life as a rental (this should be featured in a Weekly Classics post by yours truly!). Now comes word that Warner Bros. owns the rights to a remake, and is in talks with various production companies, including Leonard DiCaprio's Appian Way, about the project.

Some diehard fans are up in arms; others welcome the opportunity for a visual spectacular to rival all others (one commenter on a forum suggests the director Guillermo del Toro, of Pan’s Labyrinth, as a suitable match; not a bad idea).

How do you feel about it? I confess I love the original, and think, even in retrospect, that the visuals were pretty cool.

My concern about a remake is that it will go over the edge and be too dark, too scary, too much. I hope I would be wrong.

Here’s a reminder as to how great the original was:

Jack Black is starring in a new version of Gulliver’s Travels, along with Jason Segel and Emily Blunt. Black plays Gulliver, who washes up on the beach of the Lilliputians, and Blunt is the Princess of the ‘putians, while Segel is one who befriends Gulliver. The director is Rob Letterman, responsible for Shark Tale, and this spring’s Monsters and Aliens. (Did you know about some of the voice talent in M&A? Try this: Reese Witherspoon, Rainn Wilson, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogan, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, and Stephen Colbert. There are more worth mentioning but I have to get on with it. That’s a big “Wow!” though, isn’t it?)

Feels like an odd pairing, Jack Black and Gulliver. Hmmm. In this version (don’t expect a serious treatment of the book!), Gulliver is a travel agent who ends up on an island of tiny people.

Oh, heck, why not Jack Black?

Gulliver’s Travels won’t be out until 2010.

TO HOME PAGE

This Week's Classic Kids' Movie

2009-03-15T15:39:00.007-04:00

“Mandy Patinkin and Andre the Giant star in this oddball fairy tale ...”

Ok, you have to admit, there’s just something weird about that sentence. I started to open with it then stopped short, thinking, gee, that kind of says it all. Doesn’t it?

Okay, I’ll answer: yes. It’s an oddball pairing, in an oddball fairy tale, one that has certainly earned its “classic” status.

Rob Reiner’s offbeat 1987 comedy (the ‘80s were his best years: Spinal Tap, Stand by Me, When Harry Met Sally are all classics!) is a humorous, (mostly) family friendly fable, and the cast is stellar: it includes Billy Crystal, Robin Wright Penn, Christopher Guest, Peter Falk and Wallace Shawn. In another director’s hands, The Princess Bride could easily have become too soft, too sweet, too predictable. But in Reiner’s capable paws, we get clever kids’ fare (bad guys, sword fights, pirates, a pretty princess and a brave prince, fairy tale critters), carefully spiced with Reiner’s own brand of adult, caustic humor.

A great combo, no?

Come on, plenty of you out there who don’t even have kids have seen it. Some claim it’s a great date movie, too.

So if you need a little grown-up cinema fix, but it’s family night, this is a classic you can count on for all age groups.

(Er, almost all age groups; caveat about the PG rating: there are scenes like the prince threatening to cut off a man’s feet, hands, eyes, etc., with his fancy swordplay; it’s a rather graphic bit of scriptwriting. There is also a scene or two involving a “torture machine,” a semi-bloody attack by a giant rodent, sword stabbings, and a comment on the princess’s “perfect breasts.” So keep that in mind for your own kids. It might be best for ages nine or ten and up.)

To HOME PAGE

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (PG)

2009-03-13T07:45:00.008-04:00

It’s been a while since we watched a sci-fi movie with K, and so our viewing of The Incredible Shrinking Man was even sweeter the other night.

It’s a pretty innocuous film, from 1957, but there is something that stays with you afterwards in an unsettling, sort of creepy way. Now that I think about it, I think it may have simply aroused some very old memories of seeing a movie called Attack of the Puppet People when I was a kid. It made for fine Saturday afternoon television viewing, but I think I had bad dreams later that night. The idea of having a completely altered physical existence from the one you know and live everyday is pretty terrifying; imagine suddenly becoming tiny, gigantic, invisible, glowing green ...

In The Incredible Shrinking Man, a young, happily married man encounters a strange, radioactive cloud while out boating one day, and later notices some very strange things. He is, of course, shrinking.

The effects are surprisingly good. In the beginning, staging tricks make his wife appear larger, and his clothes are just a little more ill-fitting each day. Slowly, his physical frame appears child-like on oversized sofas and standing at windowsills he can barely reach. Soon he’s living in a dollhouse, and fearing the house cat, as well he should.

The artistry that went into the sets, and in creating objects many times their true size (scissors, straight pins, mouse traps, twine balls), was impressive. This “shrinking” film inspired others (such as Puppet People), but this is one of the best of the lot.

Without giving anything away, you need to know that it takes its time getting to the juicy stuff, but stay with it, as it’s well worth it. Our hero’s encounter with the spider (did they use a tarantula?!) is what you want to stick around for.

And my bad dreams, back in the day of Saturday afternoon horror movies on television? After reading up on Puppet People, I’m reminded that the disturbing thing about that movie was that the miniaturized people were kept in a state of suspended animation in bottles, like dolls under glass. What ten-year old wouldn’t be a little freaked out by that?

Random Act of Self Indulgence .10

2009-03-12T08:31:00.007-04:00

Ok, how hip are you? For a parent, or otherwise? If you need to up your cool quotient a tad, just name-drop the upcoming Big Man Japan flick at your next dinner party. “Oh,” you say dryly, “it’s a Japanese arthouse film, combining their love of classic monster movies with straight-up Japanese cinema weirdness ... It’s coming out in May....”

The storyline: A middle-aged slacker living in a rundown, graffiti-ridden slum, Daisato’s job involves being shocked by bolts of electricity that transform him into a stocky, stick-wielding giant several stories high who is entrusted with defending Japan from a host of bizarre monsters.. (From Apple Movie Trailers, where you can see a high quality and very bizarre trailer; not for kids!)

I was browsing the Daily Beast to see exactly what Meghan McCain wrote about Anne Coulter (good, hard-hitting points about Coulter’s faults and about how the GOP needs to find its’ “center,” nothing a lot of Republicans aren't muttering under their breaths) and saw the good news that Mickey Rourke is definitely playing the villain in the next Iron Man. Yeah! And Scarlett Johansson has scored the role of Black Widow. (I'm posting a photo here of Robert Downey, Jr, though, because I {heart} him...)

A great sequel in the making? I hope so. But I’m holding my breath, also hoping Jon Favreau doesn’t push the film closer to the border of PG-13 / R and keeps it family friendly (please?)! I’ve also read bits and rumors that Tony Stark’s drinking habits played a more prominent role in the original stories, and that it may be put front and center in Iron Man II. Hmmmm.

Do you need a very special Iron Man collectible? Check this out.

More on hip quotients: Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control is coming out in May! This dark crime caper stars Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, and the ultra-cool Isaach De Bankolé as a "mysterious loner, a stranger in the process of completing a criminal job."

A MAN NAMED PEARL (G)

2009-03-10T08:57:00.006-04:00

In a small, seemingly fading town in South Carolina, an African-American man named Pearl Fryar -- the son of a sharecropper -- moved into what was presumably a white, middle class neighborhood, some 30 or 40 years ago. Although it’s barely mentioned in the film, a neighbor at the time apparently expressed fear that Fryar would not “keep up his yard” (while, in all likelihood, harboring all kinds of other wonderful racist viewpoints as well).

Whether this alone motivated our man Pearl to become the topiary wonder of South Carolina is never really discussed. It’s one of several points the filmmakers fail to explore in this otherwise fine little documentary about Mr. Fryar.

A Man Named Pearl is rated G, and it accomplishes quite a bit in its 80 minutes. Focusing on an intriguing and immensely likable fellow/horticulturist/artist, the film contains some great visual treats for the kids (really, some of his creations are astounding), and paves the way for important discussions about race, tenacity, courage, and human nature (it also offers the opportunity for early dialog about work, and finding your passion in life). Not only do we learn about this wonderful man who taught himself, after a three-minute “lesson,” how to grow, train and sculpt greenery with all the skill of Edward Scissorhands, but we hear his words of wisdom to college students about the artistic muse, and we feel his love for humanity in the way he greets neighbors and visitors, buses full of tourists and young students, and in the work he donates to the town. His nearly obsessive passion is palpable, and breathtaking. Can you imagine doing hard physical labor for 12 hours a day because you want to, when you hit 60 years of age?

We get a strong sense of all he contributes not only to his immediate community, but also to the larger, human community, like the proverbial ripple from a stone in a pond. His story is simply inspiring, in reminding us that we can achieve just about anything, if we put our hearts and minds to it.

And for all those reasons, it’s a recommended watching experience for the family.

As noted, it’s not a perfect film. There a few angles to the story that aren’t probed deeply enough, such as his history with “the neighbors,” and the transition of this very pretty, middle class neighborhood from predominantly white to what appears to be predominantly African-American. The film could have been edited even a bit tighter, as it feels a bit long, even at a tidy 78 minutes. And as far as kids go, it’s just a wee bit on the dry side, so you may hear a whine or two from your crowd (we did). But then something always comes along to liven it up a bit, so don’t let them sway you.

The only moment where a parent might squirm is when Pearl’s wife recalls the land around their house being undeveloped and open, “sort of a Lover’s Lane,” she says, and then recounts how they’d often find underwear discarded on the property. Your little angel may ask you what a “Lover’s Lane” has to do with underwear; now you’ve got some time to cram.

Here's a brief trailer for the film, plus some Q&A with Pearl from the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY:

Random Act of Self Indulgence .09

2009-03-09T15:52:00.003-04:00

If you have any Xbox/Playstation kids in the house, you may know of the game, The Prince of Persia. Son K has it, but I know nothing about it, so I can’t help you there.

But, I caught wind of the fact that director Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) is helming a film version of the story, and Jake Gyllenhaal is in the starring role. I thought, Oh, that’s nice, until I saw some photos from the film set.

Um, I’ll just say that, if the rating is right, moms everywhere may be flocking to the theater with their kids in tow. (It comes out in 2010.)

(That’s girlfriend Reese Witherspoon's hand he's holding.)

Over to Huffington Post for the candlelit photos.

Dig Deeper!

2009-03-06T15:14:00.004-05:00

I have not a new review for you today, I'm sorry to say.

Instead, I'm encouraging you to dig deeper into KidsFlix and will even give you a (meta)physical assist by driving you right into some titles especially worthy of your time.

It's easy to see from my fabulous tracking software that visitors don't tend to go much past the current month's offerings ... In fact, I may exhibit the same behavior when I hit a blog semi-regularly, come to think of it. Who has the time?

Ok, here are a few gems you should check out (and when I say "gems,"do I mean exceptionally beautiful posts created by your guide, or do I mean films? Hmmm. You decide!):

(Newest to oldest postings --)

Blindsight
Little Manhattan
Hayao Miyazaki films
Zulu
Linnea in Monet's Garden
The Prisoner (TV Series)
Ray Harryhausen films
Children of Heaven
God Grew Tired of Us

"Lightening Thief" Casting!

2009-03-05T07:51:00.004-05:00

I just found out that one of K's favorite books of recent years, "The Lightening Thief," is being cast for film treatment by Christopher Columbus (director of a couple of Harry Potter films, Rent and some others). Logan Lerman (he was Christian Bale's son in 3:10 to Yuma) will take the starring role of Percy Jackson, who discovers his father is the Greek god Posiedon. Brandon T. Jackson (Tropic Thunder) will pay Percy's best friend, the satyr Grover.

K is extremely excited about this news. If you have a boy around age nine or 10, and don't know the Percy Jackson books, you need to seek them out! (Sorry if that sounds sexist; since I don't have a daughter, I'm a little lost as to what girls might like in this department. Are they into Greek mythology the way boys seem to be?)

THE GENERAL (G)

2009-03-04T11:54:00.004-05:00

Back in 1862, during the Civil War, Union Army raiders stole a locomotive named The General, running between Atlanta, GA and Chattanooga, TN, in order to disrupt service and do damage to the track, covered bridges and telegraph wires. The hijacked train was pursued not only by other locomotives, but also by handcar, and on foot. While the event did not exactly go according to plan, and several raiders were executed as spies, other raiders escaped their imprisonment and later -- back in Union territory -- received the very first Medals of Honor ever bestowed.

This exciting story has been told at least twice on film. One is in Disney’s The Great Locomotive Chase (1956), featuring Fess Parker (Daniel Boone!) as the conductor of the hijacked locomotive, determined to stop the Unionists. It gets good marks on both Netflix and IMDB, so check it out.

The Disney version is likely more a retelling of the story, where the Buster Keaton version, The General (1927), is more a feast for the eyes with fantastic stunt work and comedic genius (in silent film fashion) filling the screen.

In The General, Keaton plays a southern engineer (turned down by Confederate recruitment officers when they realize his value as a skilled engineer), aghast to learn his beloved Annabelle is on the hijacked train. He thus embarks on a chaotic adventure to recover the train and his love, and uncovers a dastardly plot against the Confederates along the way. Can he save Annabelle? Regain The General? Can he get word to the south about the impending attack?

It’s a fantastic story, and full of Keaton magic. As with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, there are many worthy films in this artist’s cannon, but we strongly recommend this as a starting point for Keaton. Kids are thrilled with the visuals, especially if you take the time to explain they are all quite real, no computer trickery, and that Keaton actually put his life on the line for some of these shots.

Here is a great little snippet from a documentary (courtesy of YouTube) about Keaton and the making of The General. The narrator reports, during one especially harrowing scene: “The camera man had orders to keep shooting until Keaton either yelled CUT, or was killed.”

Tuesday Tidbits

2009-03-03T13:40:00.009-05:00

Did you know that Terry Gilliam (see my Time Bandits post) has a new film bubbling under that stars not only the late Heath Ledger, but Johnny Depp, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits and Colin Farrell? It’s called The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Cinematical has more on its alleged troubles making it to the finish line.

My friend Nick over at Fataculture was giving away some online passes for a fascinating documentary called Must Read After My Death, and in addition to a big thanks to him, I’d like to throw the spotlight over to Gigantic Digital Cinema. They’re a distributor of small films and I love the idea of making independent films available -- in their entirety -- online. Why not?! I might pay a couple bucks to rent it if it’s not showing in my area, so why not send them $2.99 directly and watch it on my laptop (something I never thought I’d do as much as I’m doing now!). They have some great looking stuff. My next viewing there will be The Doorman, which looks pretty funny. (Oh, and I didn’t praise Must Read ... enough. See it!)

Another cool sight where you can get indie films -- documentaries, specifically -- directly but for free, is SnagFilms. You can also put the SnagFilms player on your own web site/blog page, which I may do in the future. Their offerings are spectacular: Whether you’re interested in a doc on Robert Mapplethorpe, the Iraq war, the Wright Brothers or Incan Mummies, you’ll find something well worth your time! You can search by topic, by channel, or use the “What’s Hot” button to browse some of the most popular titles.

I think we need more of these “direct to viewer” sites for films that just don't receive major distribution. Support these sites! (And tell me if you have a favorite, please!)

This Week's Classic Kids' Movie

2009-03-01T09:42:00.004-05:00

Ok, when was the last time you thought about the original "Lassie" television series? You haven't, right?

I'm not always digging up semi-obscure or offbeat movies for kids, sometimes I'm just digging up the true classics, and "Lassie" is one of them. Netflix has a special anniversary collection featuring 24 episodes of the 1954 television series, and I'm not going to say I've seen all of them recently (ok, any of them), nor that I remember it, for God's sake (of course I don't! How old do you think I am?), but I will say this: If, when son K was five or six years old and I was OD'ing on Barney or Disney and had thought of "Lassie," I would have run off to the video store in a flash.

You can't get more wholesome than Lassie. "Little House on the Prairie" and "The Waltons" are right up there at the top of the classic, family fare television show list, but those series sometimes dealt with some fairly serious themes and might skew to a slightly older group of kids (say, nine and up). "Lassie," on the other hand, works for younger kids, and employs straightforward tales of integrity, courage and honesty to cook up a little bit of drama.

Give it a try. You might get all verklempt for the old days when things seemed a heck of a lot simpler. Those knotted muscles in your neck and shoulders might actually melt away. You might actually enjoy it.

(There are two "Lassie" movies from 2005 and 1994, but both have clear PG ratings. There are also "Lassie" films from 1944 and 1945 [one with Elizabeth Taylor!], that have G ratings.)

WHALEDREAMERS (NR/PG-13)

2009-02-28T16:19:00.007-05:00

Whaledreamers is a documentary by musician Julian Lennon and director Kim Kindersley that is hugely earnest and well meaning but layers on so many ideas and causes at once that it’s difficult to fully embrace. I’m sort of a sucker (when I’m in the right mood) for “let’s become one and save the world” theology, and so I stayed to the end and was, in fact, doing a little weepy, “why-oh-why-
does-the-world-work-this-way?” soul searching when K walked in and said, “Oh. It’s sad,” and walked out. He was not interested.

Which is good, because this is not for kids!

Ok, before you scurry away, let me clarify: it’s not for young kids.

I thought it was, which is why I watched it, and even after realizing it was not really appropriate kiddie-viewing, I stayed with it so I could give you an accurate report. (Okay, that, and I kind of liked it.)

Though the film at first focuses on Australia’s displaced indigenous Mirning people and their deep cultural bond with whales, it deals with so much more: global warming, industrialization, corporate greed, the Iraq war, among other things. In addition to being rife with these complex issues, there are also difficult images (starving children, war casualties, whale slaughtering, recollections of “disappeared” loved ones, etc.). It’s a rather slow moving piece of work and, frankly, it’s a bit of a muddle. Narrating voices don’t always make their point clear and it’s hard to know who’s speaking at times; certain cultural terminology could stand some clarification; the pacing and editing could have used a surer hand.

However, it’s also a passionate call to arms, with some very moving and beautiful images and ideas. This could work for older kids -- mature tweeners and teens -- who need something to chew on, or who are feeling budding pangs of empathy or curiosity for the natural world. The tough stuff in the film is offset by some really astounding cinematography, and by immensely touching scenes such as the director’s tale of an encounter with dolphins that changed his life. The summoning of various indigenous people to the Mirning land in Australia was quite a feat, and scenes of people as disparate as Northwest Native Americans, Maori of New Zealand, indigenous Hawaiians, Congolese and South Americans, sharing in rituals and storytelling, is educational, interesting and inspiring.

The sniffling comes late in the film, when we learn that one of the young men involved in this “summit,” an American translator and environmental activist, was later kidnapped and killed in South America where he was involved in protests against petroleum developers in the forest. Two other indigenous activists were also murdered. It’s a tough moment to get through. In fact, this event stopped the director and Lennon in their tracks; grief stricken and questioning, the Whaledreamers project came to a halt for several long years.

I think for the right young people, this can be a (painfully) eye opening and perhaps motivational experience. The world ain’t a perfect place, and those in charge are not always right and don’t always know what they’re doing. The concept of ecological “oneness,” that we are all in this together and that everything is connected, is certainly something our children should know about as they prepare to go out into the world and, hopefully, make it a better place.

Whaledreamers can help them on their journey.

(This film is not rated; I consider it to be somewhat equivalent of a PG-13 rating.)

BLUE PLANET/PLANET EARTH SERIES (G)

2009-02-24T20:13:00.008-05:00

Maybe this is cheating. I mean, who doesn’t know about the incredible Blue Planet and Planet Earth series’ that ran on the Discovery Channel (Blue Planet ran in 2001, Planet Earth in 2007)?

Well, maybe you don’t have cable. Or maybe your kids were infants and you weren’t yet a fan of the Discovery Channel. Anything’s possible.

At any rate, I stumbled on these the other day while cruising Netflix, and son K was looking over my shoulder.

“Oh, wow ... I would see any of those again, mom! Put ‘em on the list!”

Hmm. I guess being surprised by this was enough to make me think that perhaps we need to make sure they’re included here on KidsFlix. After all, G-rated nature films that the whole family truly enjoys are not all that common; you can only watch March of the Penguins so many times!

Both series, produced by the BBC and by Alastair Fothergill, are now available on Netflix, and I presume at most decent DVD stores. The Blue Planet series was K’s favorite of the two, especially the episode entitled "The Deep," where some pretty bizarre creatures who live in the black depths of the ocean are captured on film, some for the first time. It examines different marine environments throughout the series, from frozen seas to coral reefs and coastal waters. There are so many, many amazing scenes, but one particularly memorable (and difficult) scene depicts orca whales at high tide invading a beached sea lion colony in order to dine on the young. (Yes, this serves as a warning that the vicious and harsh side of nature is well represented in these series.)

The Planet Earth series was my favorite, offering such a wide range of wildlife habitats and cinematic delights that each episode stands alone as an epic adventure. Planet Earth won both an Emmy and a Peabody Award, and David Attenborough’s narration was, for some reason, replaced on the American version by Sigourney Weaver. The series covers arctic tundra, jungles, deserts, African savannas and plains, oceans and caves, and more, and has some of the most stunning cinematography you’ll ever see.

If you haven’t seen these yet, lucky you. You’re in for a treat.

(You can get great detail on each episode by looking up each title over at Wikipedia.)

Random Act of Self Indulgence .08

2009-02-23T21:03:00.003-05:00

Ok, enough time has passed that I can now write about my huge disappointment in not being able to see the Oscars last night. We had a monster snowstorm last night, and lost our ABC affiliate about 20 minutes into the Big Show.

I don't know if I've ever scowled quite like I did last night, or cursed my rural state quite as much or as colorfully as I did.

Whatever.

Not a big deal. We kept our power, and many people lost it and are just getting it restored. I'm grateful for that (really ... I am...).

I'm thrilled at the Sean Penn win and the screenwriting win for Milk, as well. Yay. Yay. Yay.

I've heard mixed opinions on the show: refreshing, with all the song-and-dance stuff? Lively and entertaining? Or Dullsville?

What did you think?

One thing: I'm pretty sure the Oscars should include clips from the films and performances that are nominated. Pretty sure. You?

Random Act of Self Indulgence .07

2009-02-22T11:35:00.006-05:00

As the Oscars get underway, and we make our own preparations here in Maine with a fried seafood and martini extravaganza, I thought I’d throw out a dash of “awards” news, plus a slightly disturbing tidbit. (Re: the Oscars, the only category I’m a bit flummoxed about is Supporting Actress.... I’d love to see Marisa Tomei win, but Penelope Cruz is the favorite. I guess I call Tomei as the dark horse winner! And I'd fall over if Melissa Leo won Best Actress for Frozen River, a film I beg you to see, but it does seem like it's Kate Winslet's year...)

First, the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday bestowed honors on Mickey Rourke for his stunning work in The Wrestler, on Melissa Leo for her equally stunning work in Frozen River (I couldn’t be happier with these two wins!), and on Man on Wire for best documentary. This one was a tough call for me, as I did love the film, but I carry a torch of sorts for Werner Herzog, whose Encounters at the End of the World was also up for an award (see my post on it here). Anyway, great news for Rourke who is really very deserving, even being up against Sean Penn who was so stellar in Milk.

KID MOVIES:
The annual Tokyo Anime Awards was swept, more or less, by Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo On The Cliff by The Sea, mentioned earlier here on KidsFlix. We can’t wait to see it! An odd thing about these awards, however, is that the Foreign Film prize went to Kung Fu Panda, and after much searching, I couldn’t find a nominees list, so I don’t know for certain if Wall-E was even nominated or not. I did find this on an anime forum:

Poster 1: Kung Fu Panda beat Wall-E...I guess that makes sense, Wall-E never did as well in Japan as many American analysts thought it would.

Poster 2: I went to this international competition in China last year, and while doing idle chat with one of the Chinese participants she told me that Kung Fu Panda was one movie that was quite well received on the East, because for once they saw a Western movie that actually got the majority of the Eastern ideas and ways of thinking it uses right, so it was like a novelty for them.

Interesting.

OK, THE DISTURBING TIDBIT:
Here it is: John Boorman (Hope and Glory, Excalibur, Exorcist II, Deliverance) is allegedly heading up a completely computer-animated version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It won’t be a musical. That's about all we know at this point.

I don't know why, but this just leaves me feeling a bit sad.

Onward: Happy Oscar-ing tonight!

This Week's Classic Kids' Movie

2009-02-20T16:05:00.006-05:00

Time Bandits, from 1981 (and rated PG), is a darkly imaginative fantasy directed and written by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python (and director of such movies as Baron Munchausen -- which I’ll write about another time -- Brazil, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 12 Monkeys, The Fisher King, and more). He’s an incredible talent, and rumors have persisted for years of a sequel to Time Bandits; I’d be one of the first in line!

It’s difficult to know whether this film was conceived as a true kids’ movie, or a film that would appeal to teens and young adult fans of Monty Python. There is so much about it that seems directly aimed at a child’s imagination (which is, in fact, what the film is about: the battle between unfettered, free imagination and the constraints of society/religion/technology -- yeah, the philosophy is a bit of a blur), but as noted in my opening sentence, it is rather dark. It may also not sit well with deeply religious viewers who may not favor the idea of questioning our origins or the existence of a true “Supreme Being.” Uh, it may also not sit well with parents who may be taken aback at the end, when our child hero’s parents are apparently zapped and disappear for good (this is an inconsequential component to the story, really, not much of a spoiler; and the parents weren’t very nice, although, honestly, I didn’t think they were that bad; maybe I missed something).

Regardless, its redeeming features far outweigh its questionable ones. It is brilliantly detailed and rendered, from sets to costumes and special effects. It’s mind bogglingly creative, and tons of fun, and also has moments of the absurdist Python humor that is so much fun. (Warning: if you are thinking your 11 or 12-year old might be ready for MP & the Holy Grail or Life of Bryan, know that the latter is rated R and the former is only PG, but has some parental warnings you may want to know about -- check IMDB.)

Supreme Being: I should do something very extroverted and vengeful to you. Honestly, I'm too tired. So, I think I'll transfer you to the undergrowth department, brackens, more shrubs, that sort of thing... with a 19% cut in salary, backdated to the beginning of time.
Randall: Oh, thank you, sir.
Supreme Being: Yes, well, I am the nice one.

Robin Hood, Napoleon, the Titanic, and King Agamemnon of Ancient Greece make appearances, and in one most amazing scene, the gang fall from a time hole onto a ship where a horrible, hungry ogre and his beautiful wife makes plans for an unfortunate feast; the rest of this scene is a sublime testament to Gilliam’s artistic vision and talent, especially considering the clunky special effects tools that were available back in the dark ages of 1981.

Robin Hood: [Departing cheerfully, saying goodbye to the Time Bandits--] Thank you very much! Thank you very much! Thank you very, very, very much.
[Under his breath]
Robin Hood: Awful people.

Have fun.

NEAR MISSES PT. 2

2009-02-18T10:44:00.003-05:00

Ok, the last in our recent Trio of Failure is -- hard to believe, but true -- the lovable screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938). Delightful! Charming! Hilarious! And with star power like Katharine Hepburn (oh, there she is again!) and Cary Grant, you just can’t go wrong -- right?

Well, I have to say it was a FAIL for K. Now, it may be different with your kids (and I’m wondering if girls may respond differently than boys: the costuming is just eye popping, with nightgowns that rival today’s Oscar gowns, and it is, after all, a love story at heart). But my kid got bored rather quickly with the storyline of the pet leopard (“Baby”) and our hero’s attempt to disentangle himself from the leopard owner (Hepburn), who’s a walking disaster and accident magnet, and who has fallen hopelessly in love with Grant the day before his wedding.

Screwball comedies work because the dialog is so robust, so sparkling and fast moving, full of wit and double entendres, that if you tune out for a second you might miss the best line; each one seems better than the previous.

But even if you have a smart, fast-thinking kid (who is also accustomed to black and white films, so no distraction there), they just won’t get some of the lingo, and let’s face it: they want more action, and less talk.

Susan Vance (trying to convince a cop she’s a gang moll and Grant is a gangster): Sure, I wouldn't be squealing on him if he didn't give me the run-around with that other twist.
Constable Slocum: Oh, so he's a lady killer.
Susan Vance: A lady killer! He's a regular Don Swan. Loves the ladies, don't ya, honey (glancing at Grant)? He pops them off, one, two, three.

I’m sure K had no idea what any of that meant (and the lines were delivered with machine-gun speed).

K kept reaching for the remote to skip through the movie (and I kept slapping his hand), grimacing and saying, “This scene is just too long.” I must admit his reaction was disappointing.

So keep this in mind with the "screwball comedies" of the ‘30s and ‘40s. They’re marvelously entertaining for adults, but I suspect they don’t quite connect with most kids.

Although, I just added Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to our Netflix list. I loved that film, and am busily convincing myself that K will love it, too.

NEAR MISSES PT. 1

2009-02-17T12:37:00.004-05:00

It’s all fine and well to write about films we like and recommend, but it’s just as helpful to tell you about our failed experiments, too.

First up, briefly, I was actually looking forward to City of Ember, thinking it might be a kind of Bladerunner for kids and offer them a more sophisticated movie experience. I honestly didn’t pay much attention to the reviews, so if it received a generally lukewarm or thumbs-down response, and you already know this, apologies for being late to the game.

We rented it recently and as much as I liked the visuals and the texture of the movie, it lacked a strong core. The message was clear (it’s an environmental fable), but for some reason it just misses the mark. The main thing I want to convey here is that it is a rather dark film, and if you’re considering it for kids under 10, you may want to reconsider. Many unpleasant things plague this underground society, and one of them is a truly hideous and horrific monster that would scare the pants off most kids. (I hated this thing.)

So, City of Ember: a reluctant Don’t Go There.

Next, I listened to my inner voice and watched a true classic, The Lion in Winter (1968), with Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole, on my own. I’d seen a comment on Netflix saying “Even though it’s rated PG, it’s not for kids,” but they didn’t say why. (The parental warning content on IMDB was also scant.) I’d put it on my Netflix list because it’s a classic I’ve never seen (we have hundreds of films on our Netflix list; how many do you have? Are we crazy to think we’ll see them all?) and I thought, when it arrived, it would appeal to K, who of course gets excited by all things medieval right now. (The year is 1183, and King Henry II gathers his family -- including the exiled Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine -- for Christmas in 1183; he intends to name one of his sons successor to the throne.)

I knew it features a dysfunctional family, to put it mildly, full of betrayal and scheming and lies, and figured there may be some bloodshed, but, considering K’s Xbox games, I wasn’t too worried. But for some reason, I decided to watch it one evening when K was elsewhere, just following a hunch, and was glad I did. Yes, it’s a Machiavellian Home for the Holidays, and is a very adult story, with complex relationship issues (loving a spouse you despise and keep locked in a tower!), and sibling rivalry that is literally murderous. But beyond that, there are issues such as the king’s sexual promiscuity and his young mistress (whom he wants to marry off to a son, intending to continue their relationship), the homosexuality of another son, the queen’s alleged dalliance with the king’s father, etc., not to mention references to syphilis and sleeping with sheep.

So much for a lighthearted historical romp at the movies.

Whew. PG? Are they kidding?

For you grown-up types, it’s a stunning piece of Oscar-winning cinema, and something to see if you haven’t. The script is awesome, and Hepburn is of course brilliant and sharp as a dagger. The chemistry between her and Peter O’Toole is super charged, and two hours just fly by. For this one, I say, Date Night!

Eleanor: Henry?
Henry II: Hmmm?
Eleanor: I have a confession.
Henry II: Yes?
Eleanor: I don't much like our children!

My last in the Trio of Failure taps into a whole genre, which may be particularly useful for you. I’ll post that tomorrow.

This Week's Classic Kids' Movie

2009-02-14T09:27:00.005-05:00

In this week's classic kids' movie focus, we go with the excellent Tarzan series. These were quite often on television when I was a kid, on Saturday or Sunday mornings, but I can't remember the last time I caught one on TV. What happened to programming great old movies for kids on weekend mornings? My parents would snooze away while my sisters and I watched Tarzan, or Abbott and Costello, or Ma and Pa Kettle (ok, there's some ancient history for you).

There were six MGM Tarzan films made between 1932 and 1942, starring Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan and Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane. Having seen a handful of them over the years, I’ll stick to these, although there were more titles to follow (mostly for RKO, and without Maureen O’Sullivan). 1943’s Tarzan Triumphs was the largest grossing of the post-MGM films. No wonder, as Tarzan was fighting Nazis and of course, World War II was in full bloom ... movie fans were desperate for heroes.

What follows is a list of the MGM films, and any one of them should make fine Sunday afternoon viewing (we’re still in bitter cold winter mode here; maybe in your world being inside on Sunday is just wrong).

Remember that there is some violence in these films (a stabbing here and there in particular), menacing bad guys and man-eating crocodiles. And then there’s this trivia tidbit about Tarzan and His Mate, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The infamous scene with Jane skinny dipping (her clothes were snagged on a tree branch and pulled off, as Tarzan threw her playfully into the water) was initially cut by the Production Code Administration when the film was first released but was restored in 1986 by Turner Entertainment for its video release. Maureen O'Sullivan did not play the naked Jane in the scene. Instead she was doubled by Olympic swimmer Josephine McKim, who competed in the 1928 games with Johnny Weissmuller.

(The scene is fairly long and memorable. Also of note, in 2003, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.)

Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
Tarzan Escapes (1936)
Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939)
Tarzan’s Secret Treasure (1941)
Tarzan’s New York Adventure (1942)

BLINDSIGHT (PG)

2009-02-13T10:35:00.011-05:00

"A lot of people say, I can’t do it because I’m blind, or I have red hair, or my feet are too big. Get the right team around you, don’t set boundaries and go for it.” — Sabriye Tenberken

A movie like Blindsight might make even the most virtuous and well meaning among us think we don’t do enough with our lives, that we can always do more. (We can, and we should.)

The people in this move will astound you. You may have to help your kids understand just how astonishing this story is, but your editorial input and clarifying comments will be worth any interruption. (I’m recommending this for patient kids 10 and up, hopefully with a little documentary experience under their belt.)

Blindsight follows a group of six blind Tibetan teens, who ascend a 23,000-foot Himalayan peak. They are mostly poor, shunned by varying degrees by their families and villages, and certainly know nothing about climbing as the story begins. They learn everything, slowly and patiently, with a gleam in their eyes and nervous grins; they are seeing so much more than a mountaintop in their dreams.

Blinded at age 12, Sabriye Tenberken is a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, Mother Theresa Award recipient and the founder of Braille Without Borders, a foundation that has transformed attitudes about the blind (and of the blind) in some pretty remote places. One of them is Tibet, where she traveled from Germany, alone at age 26, to set up a blind school for Tibetan children. She set out on horseback with a Tibetan woman as her guide, to find blind kids who had been ostracized by their families and neighbors, and literally gave them new lives. She also created the Braille text for the Tibetan language.

(And she hasn’t won a Nobel Prize?)

“Just because you lose your sight,
it doesn’t mean you lose your vision.” - Erik Weihenmayer

Also completely blinded at age 12 (the same year he lost his mother in a car accident; imagine that for a moment), Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind person, in 2001, to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak. He is one of only 150 mountaineers to climb the “Seven Summits,” the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, and the only sightless person in their numbers. Erik is also a para-glider, snow skier, long distance cyclist, skydiver and marathon runner. I could go on, but I don’t want to make you feel bad.

(Oh, and Sabriye and Erik are two of Oprah’s "favorite people." Yeah, now you get the gist of their greatness.)

Ok, so long story shortish: Sabriye gets the crazy idea to take a handful of the most driven kids on a climbing expedition. Maybe a just a short one. She contacts Erik, who lives in Colorado, and asks if he’s interested in heading up the adventure. Of course he says yes, and before you know it, six shy, excited and terrified students of Sabriye’s are preparing for their trip up Lhakpa Ri on the north side of Everest.

The viewer is in on the planning, the training, the conditioning, the fear and trepidation, and when the climb is finally underway, it seems impossible, like it was just a crazy idea that should never have been undertaken. Seeing Weihenmayer, from an earlier trip, climbing up a sheet of ice or traversing a crevasse (with a bottomless drop) on a wobbly ladder -- blind, remember? -- is enough to make you hold onto your armchair or nearest loved one and not want to let go. These kids can barely walk in boots, over rocks, how in the hell are they going to climb a 23,000 foot peak?

That’s for you to find out.

This may be a little slow going for some kids. You may want to plan breaks or special treats to dangle like carrots and serve when their patience wears a little thin. Oh, there is also the matter of Life is a Bitch, Part XXII, where nobody wants you if you’re blind in places like Tibet, where they think you are possessed by demons or some equally horrid thing and you are either tethered (er, figuratively, in these particular stories) to your home without much of a future, or, worse, traded away. A western (sighted) climbing guide confesses to the camera that he’s pretty sure one kid has cigarette burns on his body, obtained during a particularly dreadful phase in his life.

That stuff may be hard on the kiddies. It will be hard on you. But it’s worth it in the end. Think you can do it? You can. You can.

And you should.

Trailer below, and more on Erik, Sabriye and the film here.

Sneak Peek at "Up"

2009-02-11T20:06:00.009-05:00

The folks over at FirstShowing.net got a sneak peek at the first 45 minutes of Disney/Pixar’s latest, Up, and by all accounts they left with smiles on their faces. It was a fun read, and seems to point to it being a more interesting kids’ movie than I’d previously thought from the previews I’d seen. Take a quick look over at FirstShowing.

While you're there, you can be one of the first to see a trailer for the new Quentin Tarantino film, Inglourious Basterds. (Could this be the first blog post to be both about Tarantino and a Pixar film? Nah.) Ladies, if you have a thing for Brad Pitt, you may not want to see this movie (nor do you want to see it if you have a weak stomach). I must admit I'm a Tarantino fan, even his violent tendencies usually come across as pretty brilliant cinema to me... and one of my favorite films ever is Reservoir Dogs. Jackie Brown might also make a Top Something-Or-Other list if I took another look at it just before composing such a list; what a criminally underrated piece of work it is.

Ok, so FirstShowing is a pretty cool and well-informed site, even if all the editors look like they're about 12 and not one of them lists Woody Allen or Werner Herzog as favorite directors.