Category: Children’s Movies
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A US Classic From A UK Perspective – A Christmas Story
A little background… At the start of the decade a change in circumstances meant I had a lot of spare time during the run up to Christmas. So what was I going to do? What I did was got hold of a load of Christmas films and thoroughly got into the spirit of the season.…
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Movie Review – The Croods 2
This is definitely a young kids movie. There’s lots of super saturated bright colors and silly cartoon antics that the characters almost constantly go through. In that light most young kids will probably like it. However, I wonder if they’ll like it anymore than just watching any old cartoon movie again for the 12th time…
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Indie Movie Review – Emily and the Magical Journey
I have to admit to feeling a bit like Groucho Marx over this film… “Why, a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can’t make head nor tail out of it.” It’s a family film aimed at feisty, imaginative young girls, and I am far from being…
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New Movie Review – Mulan (Live action 2020)
The obvious first step with a look at a film like Mulan is to do a compare and contrast piece with the 1998 animated version. And, obviously, there will be a bit of that but, bottom line, it would be a bit like comparing and contrasting apples and tractor parts… Other than the name and…
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Scoob! and the Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe
Warning: contains spoilers for Scoob! I grew up on the cartoons of Hanna-Barbera. Before they moved them all to Boomerang, the USA Network used to air them on a show called Cartoon Express. Every summer, I went to Kings Island theme park where they had live mascots from the cartoons just like Disney World. The…
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First View Movie Review – Matilda (1996)
Matilda is the strangest, nastiest kid movie I’ve ever seen. My mother and I were astounded throughout at how grotesque this was, and how unappealing. Not even the cute actress (Mara Wilson) could save this caustic tale. It wasn’t until I saw the credits that this was based on a classic book by Roald Dahl,…
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Classic Movie Review – The Goonies
The Goonies ‘r’ good enough for me! Here’s another Amblin Entertainment kid-based movie by Steven Spielberg that still holds up over time. The Goonies (from 1985) is a charming, fun ride featuring pirates, monsters, secret passageways, treasure maps, cunning kids, and more bike chases than E.T. (What is it with Spielberg, kids, and bicycles?) Altogether, it’s…
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Movie Review – Artemis Fowl, from a novel novice
Honestly, I have to ask: What WAS this? I’m told the Artemis Fowl books are top shelf, but the origin film is merely…meh. So I watched the movie with low expectations: usually that means I can walk out feeling somewhat sated. In this case, I was infuriated. How hard could it be for Disney to…
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There’s an E.T. sequel and it’s awesome
I just finished watching E.T. for basically the first time. I only saw it one time in 1982, and 38 years later didn’t remember anything beyond the “Phone Home” shtick. I wrote this grand review about the symbolism in E.T. with a lot of thoughts tending towards the introspective. I had to rewatch E.T. to…
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Classic Movie Review – E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
What an enchanting film! E.T. The Extra Terrestrial is deservedly among the greats. Steven Spielberg proved he was mighty with the movie-making. Who else can take a goofy premise (suburban boy befriends gentle alien) and make it so compelling? So buoyant and wondrous. It seems like it would be a kiddie flick, but to be…
