Chased by Children

The Tooth Fairy

I have developed a crush on Dwayne Johnson.  I liked him enough when he was the "Rock" (the Wasband loved pro-wrestling).  But these family films put me over the edge....   The Game Plan, Escape to Witch Mountain and now The Tooth Fairy.  It might be love.

Look at him:

And his report (albeit onscreen) with young children is delicious.  Irresistable!  And he makes me laugh.

And he doesn't want to get serious.

And he's not demanding.

And he doesn't criticize the way I do anything.

He's the perfect man.

Do any of you have his number?

Disney on Ice Ice Baby

One of the perks of my job (which I no longer have) is that occasionally the marketing department would get free tickets to stuff.  When I still had my job (that I've since lost) I received tickets to Disney on Ice.  And tonight we went.  Wahoo!

Can I just say, these Disney people have marketing down to a science.  We bought Cotton candy, ice-es, pictures, and a stuffed Gus Gus (do NOT pretend that you are too cool to know who Gus Gus is...I will cut you).  I spent roughly the national debt, without breaking a sweat.

It was fun.  Very entertaining.  I highly recommend it for those of you who have it coming to your area. 

The Royal Review - Slumdog Millionaire

Okay, I didn't take the princesses to this movie (stop panicking MOTHER).  So only the royal I is voting today.

You've read the reviews, right.  They are all raves.  Everybody loves this movie.  And while I would love to tell you that the hype is too too much...(I really relished my role as the only person on the planet earth who HATED The English Patient)  I cannot.

It was beautiful.  With the sweetest human moments I've seen in a movie in a very long time.  I have to say that I loved it.

The story is about a mischeivous boy, Jamal and his older brother Salim, growing up in the crushing poverty of India's slums.  What's interesting is that this story is told in flashback as he remembers scenes from his life that answer questions he's being asked on India's version (slightly more entertaining than our own) of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. 

The story is shocking.  It has moments of brutality and heartbreak, like the scene of the Jamal losing his mother in an anti-muslim riot.  But the biggest ingredient is    magic.  Pure and simple, it's magical.

You must go see this movie.  I'm not promising that it will change your life (can any movie really do that?) but I am saying that it will make your day.

Three Diamonds: 

The Tale of Despereaux - The Royal Review

I took the princesses to see The Tale of Despereaux.

Remember that CoCo is 11,  LuLu is 9 and MiMi is almost 5.  Each of us can award a Diamond to the movie in this review process.

It also bears noting that we've read the book so our review may be entirely off the mark for those of you who haven't.

In summary, the movie is the tale of a smaller-than-average mouse with very large ears who basically never fits into the "cower and scurry" lifestyle of his mouse community.  He is extremely brave, creative, curious and all together un-mouselike.  All of these attributes converge to put him in the path of the kingdom's only princess, Pea.  Their odd relationship drives the story as they and their friends are tested in dramatic ways.

Each of us liked portions of the movie very much.  For MiMi the best scene was an affectionate reunion between a cook and his soup genie.   The soup genie is a highlight.  He is made of vegetables and cookery.  He is a visual feast.  Ha.  I digress. 

In fact, visually speaking, Despereaux is perfect.  The beautiful animation (in combination with CGI) is extremely satisfying.  What the story lacks (and this movie is lacking in story) is made up for in the aestethic sensibilities of the medium and art direction.

However, as I alluded earlier, this story is vastly different than the book and scrubbed clean of some of it's more nuanced delightfulness.  Despereaux's mother in the book is borish but in the movie is almost likable.  The betrayal of his brother is completely left behind.  Some of the emotional richness of the book is missing.  And frankly, we missed it.

And so  we give this movie  

Two diamonds out of four.  Good enough to see, but you really should read the four diamond book.  Click the widget on the side to order it from Amazon.