How to Train Your Dragon

When I first heard of this movie, all I knew about it was what I could glean from the poster displayed at the theater. (In other words, not much.) I had zero interest in seeing it, based on the ad. But once the movie came out, I started hearing good things about it from everyone who went to see it. In fact, one person I know thought it was even better than Avatar. Still not knowing anything about the plot, my interest was piqued. And of course my kids wanted to go see it. They'll take just about any excuse for a trip to the movie theater, as long as it doesn't involve sparkly vampires. (S'okay, they're too young for such stuff anyway).

I definitely give this movie two thumbs up. Fun, funny, and a great story. Most of the time the computer animation is excellent, though at the beginning of the movie the beards of the vikings got on my nerves. They seemed to exist in a nether-world between realistic-looking hair and an acceptably stylized cartoon portrayal, but happily the absorbing story eclipsed my facial hair worries and I forgot all about them. Well, until the end, anyway. At least the hair wasn't bad enough to ruin the movie for me. And they more than made up for bad hair with awesome eyeballs! Dreamworks did a great job getting those eyes to look liquid and alive, and the way the light sometimes gleamed on them was amazing.

Lots of times during animated movies I am distracted by trying to identify voices I recognize, so it was kind of nice that most of the voices sounded unfamiliar to me (although when I looked the actors up online afterwards, I was surprised that Gerard Butler, American Ferrera and Kristen Wiig hadn't sounded familiar to me). At first I thought I recognized the main character's voice, but it didn't take long to figure out it just sounded a lot (but not quite) like Christian Slater.

Oddly enough, the characters' faces actually seemed more familiar than their voices. I thought Snotlout totally looked like Jack Black. Ruffnut and Tuffnut each reminded me of someone but I haven't yet figured out who. And I spent nearly the entire movie thinking Toothless must look like some kind of Pokémon or something because he looked so familiar (although why I thought a Pokémon might look familiar to me, I have no idea), but it hit me at the end: Stitch. I thought Toothless looked a lot like Stitch. I mean, not so much that you'd mistake one for the other, obviously. But their faces are similar, and they have the same legs.

If you have kids (or you are one), go see it! We saw the 2D version (it's cheaper, especially when you're carting 3 kids around) and it was great, so I'm thinking seeing it in 3D isn't necessary.

Where the Wild Things Are

This was our movie night movie tonight, but I picked it just as much for myself as for my kids. I really loved the picture book when I was little (as well as many others by Maurice Sendak) and I was curious about what was added to make a feature-length film from it.

I must admit that I did not watch every minute of this movie, which is par for the course of movie night movies, but I'm sure I saw enough to get the gist of it. I must also admit that I had a slight preconceived bias against this movie ever since I heard that Dave Eggers was involved. (I read his book, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, several years ago and was not impressed. Whoever called Eggers the "J.D. Salinger of our generation" needs to be smacked upside the head. To me, one obvious difference between the two authors is that Holden Caulfield surely was not modeled after Salinger, while I was just sure that Eggers was the exact same sort of MTV-style loser as his two main characters. But I digress.)

I didn't like the change they made for the movie that has Max escaping from the house and running away. He was supposed to actually go to his room, not just be told to go there. They really missed an opportunity when they skipped showing the part about how in his room "a forest grew . . . and grew and grew until his ceiling hung with vines and his walls became the world all around . . . " (that may not be an exact quote--I pulled that from memory--but it's close enough). Can you just imagine how cool it would have looked to see the trees and vines growing in his bedroom, and the walls melting away? Plus, I always loved the implication that the whole adventure had been a dream, and I didn't know how they could pull that off if he didn't fall asleep in his bedroom. (They didn't even try, by the way).

I love that the monsters looked just like the monsters in the book, but their voices were too advanced and their emotions were too human. They just don't sound monster-y enough. I couldn't help thinking that the voices were actually coming from the audience of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Not only that, but their movements were not graceful and natural enough. Their slow lumbering waddle made it too difficult to forget that I was watching people wearing monster suits. Even so, I can't express enough how impressed I was with the monster costumes in their faithfulness to the look of the original drawings.

Before he sailed away, Max evidently had some serious anger issues, combined with a distinct lack of self-control. I was sure hoping that his adventure with the Wild Things would solve that flaw in his personality, because I was afraid in a few months Max would start torturing neighborhood cats, and would eventually grow up to be a serial killer. Too bad the part of the movie where he returns home wasn't long enough to show us whether he retained any of the lessons he'd learned with the Wild Things.

If you are wondering whether the monsters would be frightening for children to watch, I'd say I think the scariest part was the doomsday lecture by Max's science teacher. On the other hand, there were a few times my three-year-old squealed and snuggled closer to me (and it wasn't during the lecture).

I feel like all I've done is complain about the movie, but it really wasn't bad. Not necessarily something I'd want to watch over and over again (once was probably enough), and my kids were not interested in watching it again before I return the disk to netflix, but I'd say it's worth seeing once.

I will leave you with my favorite quote from the movie: "Forget it. I'm not going to step on your head just to make you feel better."

The Golden Compass

I had been warned that this movie was evil, but after I read the book I saw no problem with it. So I exposed my children to the evil tonight by watching this with them. I guess whoever thought this movie was evil was the same person from netflix who labeled it as "mind-bending," because I don't think either descriptor applies.

The movie was very well done and relatively faithful to the book. I would even say that it was more engaging than the book, because I actually found the book a bit dull. Even so, it was easy to not pay attention to this movie. In fact, before the movie was even half over, my youngest had fallen asleep, my middle child was going on safari with the Lion King DVD, and my oldest was playing a computer game. After the movie ended, the 6-year-old put in a request for future movie night movies: she only wants to see ones with animated characters instead of real people.

One interesting thing that I noticed is that the movie ended a few huge plot points before the book. But I was actually kind of glad about this, because it was time for my kids to go to bed anyway. I have to get up at an unholy hour in the morning.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

I'm a nerd, and I have read this book. The series is one of my son's favorites. In fact, I'm pretty sure that before he discovered this book (ahem! I discovered it for him) he hated to read. Now he at least loves to read about Greg Heffley, and he has also been enjoying my old Calvin and Hobbes books. But I digress.

Of course we marked this movie on the calendar as soon as we heard it was coming out, but as this is 1) a book adaptation and 2) made for kids, I was afraid it might suck. I was sure there would be enough bathroom humor and gross-outs to keep my ten-year-old rolling in the aisles (and there was . . . except, of course, I managed to keep him from literally rolling on the floor because you know how sticky those movie theater floors can get). But I am happy to report that I actually enjoyed the movie. It was much cuter than I expected. My literary amnesia keeps me from telling you how faithful the movie is to the book (c'mon, it's been more than a year since I read it) but it has all the right characters and features the Cheese Touch, so I'm guessing it follows the book pretty well. Now, I will say that if you don't have kids to bring with you, you will probably want to skip this one. It's not great date-night material. At least wait until it comes out on DVD. But I think any kid above the age of 3 will love it, especially if they've read the books.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

I read this book a couple of weeks ago and have been considering since then whether I wanted to make a trip to the theater to see it. Well, I figured I'd give the kids a treat after school today and we all went to see it together.

It was scarier than I expected it to be! I think I was a little more sensitive to this because I had my three-year-old with me. It's not like I wet my pants or anything. Anyway, I think the movie actually improved on the book in some cases; for instance, I liked the pearl-hunt idea as opposed to the pearls just being handed to Percy. And for once, I can't remember anything that I was really, really hoping to see onscreen that they left out of the movie. But there were a LOT of differences between the book and the movie. Obviously those in charge of making this movie didn't feel the same sort of obligation that those making the Harry Potter movies feel in being faithful to the book.

It will be interesting to see what Logan Lerman (the boy who played Percy) does in the next few years. That is, if he doesn't get stuck in a Percy Jackson time warp, as has happened with Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame. The reason I wonder is because I think Lerman looks like a younger (and cuter!) Zac Efron. Or maybe it's just the hair.

Princess Protection Program

I don't actually have anything to say about this movie (another Friday Family Movie Night selection) other than the fact that the entire thing screams DISNEY. There is just one reason why I am adding an entry to my blog for this movie, and that is Selena Gomez. She is a really good actress! Very believable as a teenage girl in high school. OK, so I don't know how she would deal with a role that forced her to stretch some, but in all seriousness, she has a very natural manner that keeps you from remembering she's acting. Most Disney divas beat you over the head with their subconscious, "I'm acting!! I'm acting! Look at me act!" throughout their performance. Not Selena. I actually first noticed her skill in an episode of The Wizards of Waverly Place that I was forced to endure. She was the only actor in the show, surrounded by over-actors. (You like that term? I made it up. In case you weren't certain, it refers to actors who over-act. Otherwise known as bad actors). It doesn't hurt that she is also super cute. Or maybe, like my friend Jill might have said long ago, she is cute with a pretty twist. I like her! I am looking forward to seeing what kinds of movies she makes if she ever gets away from Disney.

Coraline

Coraline is another Friday night movie we watched with the kids. I wasn't completely surprised to find that it's not your garden-variety sweet little children's movie, but it was more weird than I expected. It's a creepy movie, but to my surprise my kids liked it and weren't scared by it.

The story reminded me of a modern Alice In Wonderland that arises from a child's world and a child's fears rather than from an adult's drug-induced hallucinations. The film itself, with stop-action animation, is visually stunning. I was surprised that Tim Burton was not affiliated with it, because this is the look I associate with him (think Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride).

I thought the soundtrack was somewhat odd, but fitting. It does well to create the eerie mood. Several of the songs sound like they're sung in French...? I'm not sure what went into that decision unless it was for ambiance without distraction by lyrics (except for people who understand French, I guess).

I didn't realize this movie started as a book. Now I'm interested in reading it to the kids, especially since they really liked the movie.

Monster House

I don't usually bother posting about the "family movie night" movies my kids watch on Friday nights, but this one was a little bit different. For one, it looked interesting enough that I actually watched most of it. Also, this movie was creepier than I expected an animated movie to be! If it had been live action with scarier music it could have been a serious horror movie. Funny thing was, it didn't seem to scare my kids at all. I'll just keep my fingers crossed that they don't wake up screaming in the night.

It was a good thing I kept watching it until the very end. When I thought it was over, my first question was, What happened to Bones and the policemen? But just a moment later I got to see them climbing unscathed out of the foundation of the house.

We should have saved this for a Movie Night closer to Halloween.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!!!

I had been waiting to see this movie since last November when it was SUPPOSED to come out. Well, the time finally arrived, and I was so excited! Excited enough to go see the midnight show on the first day the movie was released! It had been a while since I read the book, so I really didn't remember many details, but I knew this was the one where Harry learns about horcruxes, and we get to see Harry and Ginny kiss!! ^^ But I was not looking forward to seeing Dumbledore die. In fact, I was in denial about his death and thought for sure he was still alive almost all the way through the 7th book.

It would have been fun to do a five-movie marathon and watch all of the previous Harry Potter movies before going to the theater... but I really didn't decide I was going to the midnight show until the day before, and by then I already had other plans for that day. Plus, people with kids (me) don't have time for five-movie marathons. But each of the Harry Potter movies, as the books, stand alone just fine. 

My assessment: Awesome! This may be the best Harry Potter movie yet. I'll have to reread the book before I can decide for sure, but it seemed to be pretty faithful to the book and didn't leave out anything that should have been absolutely necessary to leave in. I think they added a little to it, but mainly for laughs, which is just fine with me. The Harry/Ginny kiss wasn't what I expected, but it was cute and sweet. And even though I was awfully tired by bedtime the next night, I think it was totally worth going to the midnight show. Fun!

Our local theater put on 4 midnight shows. I was glad we bought our tickets several hours in advance--the first 2 shows were already sold out at that point, and our show was sold out by the time we got to the theater.