Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie

Posted on September 21, 2009 at 3:59 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Preschool
MPAA Rating:	G
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Mild comic peril
Diversity Issues:	Different species of vegetable
Date Released to Theaters:	2002
Date Released to DVD:	2002
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00007M5J1

“Jonah’s” production company, Big Idea, promises “Sunday morning values, Saturday morning fun,” and in my opinion they have more than delivered on both, with a series of videos that are right up there with the best in entertainment and humor and unsurpassed in communicating with kids about honesty, compassion, sharing, and kindness. Some of the videos are based on Bible stories and some are original, but all star computer-animated vegetables and all have gentle morals that create opportunities for families to talk to kids about the issues that matter most. Though Christian in origin, the values in the videos are universal. The references to God are explicit but non-denominational. However, crucifix imagery does feature in the film.

In their first theatrical release, Bob the Tomato and his friend are driving three veggie children to a concert when they meet up with perennial veggie favorites, the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. The Pirates tell the story of Jonah, a messenger who enjoyed delivering messages from God until God asked him to deliver one to a place he didn’t want to go to. So, he ended up swallowed by a whale. Fortunately, God believes in second chances, so Jonah ends up just fine and a little wiser, too.

The movie may be a little long for the youngest fans of the videos, who are used to a brisk 30 minutes, but kids five and up will be delighted with the fast, funny, and touching story. Parents even may find that it goes by quickly, because it has some of the funniest jokes of any movie this year, including those intended for adults.

Parents should know that the moments of peril are handled with such a light touch that they are unlikely to scare children. Jonah may be tossed into the water, but he is wearing a very reassuring ducky lifesaver ring, and the credits explain that no vegetables were hurt in the making of the movie.

Families who see the movie should talk about when we must be obedient and when we think for ourselves. Some parents may be uncomfortable with the references to God and the Bible, but they should use the opportunity to talk about their own spiritual views – and ask children about theirs.

Families who enjoy this movie will enjoy the Veggie Tales company’s latest creation, 3-2-1 Penguins, in Trouble on Planet Wait Your Turn and The Cheating Scales of Bullamanka. They may also want to try my favorite Veggie Tales video, The End of Silliness.

If the World Were a Village

Posted on September 8, 2009 at 7:31 am

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	All Ages
MPAA Rating:	NR
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Very mild references to poverty
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	2009
Date Released to DVD:	September 8, 2009
Amazon.com ASIN:	1604800828

Based on David J. Smith’s best-selling and award-winning book If the World Were a Village: A Book about the World’s People, this is an animated story about global culture that helps families understand our differences, our commonality, and our connections.

It asks us to imagine that the whole world had just 100 people. And then it tells us how many of that 100 would speak English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and Bengali, how many would have running water, how many would be children and how many would be elderly, how many would have enough money for toys or food, how many would be able to read, and how many would be Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, or Animist.

It may be difficult for young children to process all of the information, but this film is an excellent way to begin important discussions with children about how we fit into the world and how our lives compare with others. It is available in English, Spanish, and French, and now, because I have watched the film, I know which five other languages it would have to come in to be able to be understood by half the world.

Trailer: Fantasic Mr. Fox

Posted on August 2, 2009 at 8:00 am

This movie, opening in November, looks wonderfully cool. Owen Wilson, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Anjelica Houston, and Bill Murray star in this animated film based on a book by Roald Dahl, author of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” and directed by Wes Anderson

Mr. and Mrs. Fox live an idyllic home life with their son Ash and visiting young nephew Kristopherson. But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr. Fox’s wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers — Boggis, Bunce and Bean — who are determined to capture Mr. Fox at any cost.

Chicka Chicka 123… and More Counting Fun

Posted on July 29, 2009 at 12:21 pm

First-time preschoolers can get a head start, kids returning in the fall can get a refresher, and everyone in the family can have fun with this terrific new DVD of counting stories from my very favorite series by Scholastic. I was especially glad to see that the stories include some very big numbers (this one may be useful to older kids and adults trying to understand the bailout and deficit figures) and one about money that makes it clear that counting is fun, money is nice, but “enjoying your work is more important than money,” and “making money means making choices.” Again, some good lessons for everyone.

The DVD includes:

CHICKA CHICKA 1,2,3 (By Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson, illustrated by Lois Ehlert, sung by Crystal Taliefero) When one hundred and one numbers race each other up the apple tree, bumblebees come buzzing. Which number will save the day?

EMILY S FIRST 100 DAYS OF SCHOOL (Written and illustrated by Rosemary Wells, narrated by Diana Canova) School begins and as the days and weeks go by, Emily and her classmates learn new ideas and expand their world.

HOW MUCH IS A MILLION? (By David M. Schwartz, illustrated by Steven Kellogg, narrated by Bruce Johnson) Marvelosissimo the Mathematical Magician explains the concepts of a million, a billion, and a trillion.

IF YOU MADE A MILLION (By David M. Schwartz, illustrated by Steven Kellogg, narrated by Bruce Johnson) Marvelosissimo the Mathematical Magician explains various forms of money and how to use it.

Coraline

Posted on July 21, 2009 at 8:00 am

In the grand tradition of Alice, Dorothy, Milo, and the Pevensie children, Coraline enters a portal to a magical world that is both thrilling and terrifying, one that will both enchant her and demand her greatest resources of courage and integrity. And it will teach her that she does being given whatever she wants is not what she thought — that what she thinks she wants may not be what she wants after all.

Coraline (voice of Dakota Fanning) is bored and lonely. She and her parents have just moved into a new home and she does not know anyone. Her mother (voice of Teri Hatcher) and father (voice of John Hodgman, who plays the PC in the Mac commercials) are distracted and busy with work. While they type away furiously on their computers about gardening, they never actually go outside and plant anything. Coraline meets her neighbors, a pair of one-time performers (voices of Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French), a man training singing mice (voice of Ian McShane), and a boy her age named Wybie (voice of Robert Bailey Jr.), to whom she takes an immediate dislike.

She explores her surroundings and finds a mysterious locked door. Her mother tells her since the house was converted to make apartments it only opens onto a brick wall. But when she tries it herself, it opens into a tube-shaped corridor that leads to a place very like but also very unlike her own home and neighborhood. Everything is brighter and more colorful. The mother and father tell her that they are her Other parents. They sound just like her real parents and they look like them, too, except that they are utterly devoted and attentive and generous, and except for their eyes, which are sewn-on black buttons.

The Other world is enchanting for a while, with all kinds of diversions and performances. Many, like the Other parents, echo the places and characters from home. But then it begins to feel too synthetic and a little creepy. When the Other mother asks her sweetly to replace her eyes with buttons, Coraline goes home. But home is not the same. Something has happened and she will have to return to the Other place for an adventure that will require all of her courage, perseverance, and some growing up, too.

Coraline must follow the storyline and grow disenchanted with the Other place but we have the luxury of reveling in it. The creepier it gets, the more mesmerizing the visuals, ravishingly grotesque and dazzlingly inventive when the Other Mother suddenly elongates, her cheekbones sticking out like flying buttresses and her arms and legs getting spider-y. This is the first stereoscopic 3D film made in the painstakingly meticulous stop-motion system in which no more than 2-4 seconds can be completed each day because every frame requires as many as a thousand tiny adjustments. The 3D effect is all-encompassing and utterly entrancing as we feel as though we are inside the Other world as its uneasy false cheeriness slides away and we discover what is really going on. Like her parents, Coraline has been separated from authenticity of experience, in her case because she is a child. But the journey to the Other world shows her that she has what she needs to become more fully herself and to find a more vivid and vibrant life in the place she once thought of as drab and uninvolving.