American history never much interested me. Then I discovered Liberty’s Kids, a series that aired on PBS a few years ago. Forty 22-minute episodes teach the American Revolution in a way that makes the story human and compelling. I’ve only seen a few episodes, but I want to watch them all. The series stars an American teenager, a British teenager, a young boy, a free slave and Ben Franklin. To hear the famous phrases we all know like “give me liberty or give me death” in this way is very powerful. It’s like hearing the words for the first time. Issues like slavery aren’t sugar-coated either. It’s funny because occasionally episodes of The Simpsons will re-enact events in history using the show’s characters. Those episodes, although a bit warped, also bring a story to life in a way that makes it easy to understand and interesting. If I could have learned history like this when I was a kid, I’m sure I’d be a whole lot more interested in it today.
Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category
Cartoons bring history alive
Sunday, August 8th, 2010Praying mantis vs. butterfly
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010As a special treat for the kids, while we were at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta we saw the Imax movie, “Bugs” (sponsored by Terminix, of all companies). I’m not nuts about Imax movies. They’re expensive, short and often don’t seem to take advantage of what’s supposed to make an Imax so different from a regular movie, you know the kind of stuff that makes your head dizzy and your stomach jump while watching a curved, five-story screen. Anyhow, so we see this movie “Bugs” about bugs in a rainforest (ho hum). The story focused on the lives of the vicious praying mantis and the gentle caterpillar-turned-butterfly. After many brushes with death, the butterfly is finally killed, yes, killed, by the praying mantis. The movie closes with the image of the wings of the dead butterfly floating down a stream. We’re all like, ohhhhhhhhhhhhkay. Not only a fairly dull Imax movie, but a depressing one too.
How to Train Your Dragon
Thursday, July 29th, 2010I saw the trailer for this movie a long time ago and thought, “Uh, no.” Then I kept hearing what a great movie it was. Well, the other day it was rainy and the movie was at the $1.50 movie in Canton, so the five of us went to see it (the 2D version). Guess what? You can’t always judge a movie by its trailer. How to Train Your Dragon was a great movie (98% approval on the Rotten Tomatometer). Although it was too suspenseful for me (not the kids), I loved the underlying message. The animation was pretty astounding, too. It’s so refreshing to see a movie that’s well done and entertaining for both adults and children.
All the movies in 3D now …
Thursday, July 29th, 2010What’s up with that? Why isn’t a great storyline enough anymore??? Just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you HAVE to do it. To be fair, I haven’t watched the 3D versions of any of the current releases. Maybe I would just be so totally blown away I would be a convert. But I’m just not interested enough in paying all that $$ to see a first run movie in 3D.
Revisting “Fiddler”
Thursday, June 17th, 2010My husband and I have tickets to see “Fiddler on the Roof” in Cleveland. I’ve never seen the musical and in fact only saw the movie once. Although I was not yet 5, I remember the night clearly because 1) I was bored out of my mind and thought the movie would never end and 2) I lost the clothes to the tiny Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls I was allowed to bring for my amusement (losing the clothes — and never getting replacements — was very traumatic for me; those were some of my very favorite toys and in fact I still have them). Anyhow, I remember seeing the movie at Mapletown (second-run theatre) with my family — the only time I remember all six of us ever seeing a movie together at the theatre. I can even picture a few scenes from the movie. But obviously I was so shaken by experience that I never had the desire to see the movie again or the musical until now. Nearly 40 years later, I’m ready. And actually excited!!
UPDATE: OMG! The musical, despite its stellar cast, made me feel exactly as seeing the movie 39 years ago did: “I’m SO bored! Will this ever end??” Not the reaction I was expecting and certainly not the reaction I was hoping for!! Well, at least now I know.
(500) Days of Summer … haven’t we all been there?
Sunday, February 21st, 2010So I kept hearing that (500) Days of Summer was a really good movie. But I knew that the two main characters didn’t end up together and I didn’t know if I wanted to see a movie that had what I thought was sure to be an unhappy ending. Finally, curiousity got the better of me and I rented it the other night. But I must confess that before watching it I read the complete summary on imdb.com so I wouldn’t be taken off guard. I wasn’t in the mood for surprises, especially ones that would make me sad. The basic plot is that the boy, Tom, meets the girl, Summer, and believes she’s “the one”. She, on the other hand, knows he’s not and just wants to go out for fun. The thing about the movie is that it will ring really true to anyone who’s ever been in a relationship with the one we thought was “the one”. We get so delusional and will do anything to make things as good as they were (or we thought they were) in the beginning, though it’s clear to everyone else that things aren’t going to work out. The nice thing about watching it with my husband is that it reminded me of how completely different things are when you both know you’ve found “the one”.
The things you learn from …
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010… a DVD’s extra features. For example, last night I was watching the “Adventure is Out There” feature on the “Up” DVD. You know when Carl and Russell land in Venezuala and the terrain is so “otherwordly” — the impossibly steep rock walls, the labyrinth of huge rocks, etc. ? My husband and I both assumed that the landscape was all made up by the artists — I mean, there aren’t actually places like that in the world, right?? Guess what? There are, and they’re called “Tepuis”. The movie’s artists, director, etc. actually went to Venezuala to experience these “Tepuis” firsthand. It was fascinating (and quite scary for the group at times)! The tepuis actually look just like the scenery in the movie! Apparently some of these tepuis are so remote that no man has actually ever been on them. Here’s a link to some guy’s photos. Pretty wild! (Something else I learned from a movie’s DVD: in Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” all the squirrels in the nut-sorting scene were not CGI — they actually trained some squirrels. I tell you, so many times the story behind the story is as interesting — if not more interesting — than the story itself.)
My problem with Disney …
Monday, January 25th, 2010… is that people assume because something is Disney it’s automatically wholesome and good. I’m speaking in particular about the Disney “G-rated” movies, including classics like “Lion King” and “101 Dalmations”. I don’t want to sound like some overboard parent, but we do our best to keep the words in our household sweet. Yet it’s these Disney movies where our children hear words like ”idiot”, “stupid”, “shut up” and “hate” — words which are forbidden to be said in our house. Plus, many of these movies are pretty violent and/or scary, what with all the deaths of parents, the “bad guys” (Scar, Gaston, etc.) falling backwards off high places to their deaths, even murder (i.e. Scar killing his brother Mufasa in the Lion King). And these movies are approved for all ages? I know it’s the ultimate responsibility of parents to monitor what their kids are watching — but it’s pretty sad when you have to be careful about Disney “G-rated” movies.
The downside of a $.75 movie on a school holiday …
Monday, January 18th, 2010… is that all the kids’ matinee movies sell out … early. We got to the Cinemark 10 in Canton at 2:30 today for the 2:50 showing of The Princess and the Frog (yes, we were going to see that again!). After waiting in the long line for a while, we saw that not only was the 2:50 show sold out, but all five of the kids’ movies showing around that time were sold out as well. My daughter, who was looking forward to seeing a movie as a special birthday treat, burst into tears and was inconsolable. I decided to buy tickets for the 4:30 showing of Fantastic Mr. Fox (yes, we wanted to see that again too!) and just hang out somewhere until 4. Well, we ended up hanging out on a bench in the lobby of the theatre for 1-1/2 hours. It was sooooo miserable. I don’t know what was worse — my kids asking every two minutes if the movie was ready to start (90 minutes/2 = 45 times), or seeing the preview for the movie Valentine’s Day which, no lie, played at least every three minutes (90 minutes/3 = 30 times). Things didn’t get much better once we got in the movie theatre. The toy my son was holding rolled down the theatre floor. After trying vainly to search for it in the dark, I had to find an usher who turned the theatre’s lights on so I could see better. Then the same darn movie trivia repeated itself every 3 minutes. Was it just to pound in my head facts like that the mask in Friday the 13th was just a workup of a Captain Kirk/William Shatner mask, the cheapest they could find in a costume shop? Do I really need to have that factoid taking up space in my brain? Aargh!!! Anyway, the only redeeming feature of the whole experience was that I loved the movie — again. And that none of this fazed my daughter, after her initial crying jag. Thank God for that.
Movies I like to watch with the kids
Thursday, January 7th, 2010My son was home with the flu today, so he got to watch movies as a special treat (our family doesn’t watch TV). These are some of the favorites we own that we can enjoy as a whole family (in no particular order) (nearly all can make me laugh and cry):
… Stuart Little (not too similar to the E.B. White story on which it’s based, by the way)
… Lion King, Lion King 1-1/2 and Lion King 2 (my oldest daughter has really really liked Lion King after we saw the musical in Cleveland 2-1/2 years ago)
… Monsters Inc.
… Finding Nemo
… Bolt
… Dumbo
… Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version)
I adore WALL-E but it’s not really geared to young children. If you don’t have any kids to watch these with, just watch them yourself. No one has to know!
… Beauty and the Beast
… Up