Monday, April 16, 2007

Family Film Festival

April 5th was the two year anniversary of my blog and I totally missed it. I'm going to have to buy the blog some flowers and a fancy dinner to make up for it, I guess. Probably still won't get any nookie, though.

Now then, onto the film festival.

In an awesome turn of events, Soph watched 2 (well, one and a half) big kid/family movies this weekend. Could it be that we are approaching a time when we can sit down as a family and enjoy a movie all together (instead of our norm veg-time, which is E and Janz downstairs watching Big Trouble in Little China, or similar, Soph watching Strawberry Shortcake, or similar, upstairs, and me on the lap-top playing some inane puzzle game like Chuzzles (or similar) pretending to watch with her.)

You are, I know, dying to know what she watched. So--first, it was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. With all the Scooby and Buffy in the house, HP isn't too freaky for her, although the underwater scene with the merpeople freaked her out, as they were decidedly un-Arial like. She decided they were in fact NOT mermaid, but rather, "evil trout" (name of future band?) and that seemed to reestablish her underwater-creature-equilibrium. We turned off the movie before the maze/graveyard scene, because, well, too creepy for a 4 year old.

THEN she watched The Secret of Rowan Inish. I had ordered it from Netflix as a possible film for the fam to watch together (new member--liking it so far) and E and I watched it one night last week as a kind of preview. I loved it--but strong girl protagonist meets magical force stories are kind of my thing. The story was SO lovingly told, and the green, green Irish isles are such wonderful eye candy, and the magical-realism was crafted to be both magical and real, which I should imagine is tricky. E also liked it and thought the kids would too. The "as a family" thing broke down as on Sunday morning I was in bed with cramps, the laptop, and Angel Season 3--disk 3, but E and the kids watched it and both Soph and Janz were enthralled. Soph would run in my room to give me updates (quasi-spoilers) "Mom! Fiona saw her brother but he sailed away!" "Mom! Jimmy (character in film, not the dog) isn't wearing pants and I saw his wiener!" but she watched the whole thing and had a lot to say about it throughout the rest of the day.

So now I'm on the lookout for family films that suit my particular family. Recommendations are welcome. Nexflix does seem to have a lot to say on the matter, but really I prefer recommendations from real live people.

Today's best thing about being a mom:
Have you tried Fruitabu? Delicious organic smooshed fruit. Yummy.

Today's worst thing about being a mom:
Growing out bangs

6 comments:

OMH said...

Our Favorites were:

Princess Bride
Labrynth

Now with the grandkids:

Happy Feet
Cars
(you know the Norm)

THEN & NOW:
STARWARS!

shawnak said...

Our favorites are The Sandlot
(not #2)and it was filmed in Salt Lake by my grandma's house,
Angels in the Outfield,
and the Little Rascals (the new version)

NME said...

We're not at the movie stage yet so I can't contribute much but links. Check these out:

http://www.imdb.com/chart/family

http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/reviews/recommendedlists/view/175

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_films

http://www.channel4.com/film/newsfeatures/microsites/F/greatest-familymovies/results/100-96.html

Have fun!

hazel said...

you should get the first harry potter movie - it's much more suited to a younger kid. and it lays a groundwork for the other movies.

I started trent out on disney movies, and then we graduated to the disney non-animated movies, which were tolerable to me as an adult. then we went for things like neverending story and princess bride...things that bridge the gap.

I'd give you a list of the disney non-animated movies but ours are kind of old and I'm not really in the loop anymore.

did she see charlotte's web? babe? any of the pig movies??

btw, and if I ever blog again, I have to blog this: trent used to have a pretend band called "trent's pants".

JJisafool said...

We just watched My Neighbor Totoro this weekend, and it was sufficiently weird to entertain me and Liv loved it.

Otherwise, we're pretty (gaak) Disney-heavy. She loves Cars and all the Pooh movies and has been watching the older ones that people from her mother's work loan us.

But, I think I'm going to continue encouraging the anime thing. And come back here and collect all your friends' suggestions, too.

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness, I don't even know where to begin. My kids from the time they were born were watching Star Wars and such so it doesn't phase them much on the tv. (big screen another story)

I'll have to email you movies we have here and on netflix.

It varies from kid to kid. Muffin Man for example likes "real" movies, stuff that's historical and factual. He can't sit still for cartoons but he was glued to Hotel Rwanda with me.