January 12, 2006
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Five Children and ItTonight, we were watching a movie (which I reviewed below). I noticed in the credits that Jim Henson’s Studio did the puppet work. I commented, “Oh, the same guy who does the Muppets does this show. Well, actually, he’s dead. It’s his studio.” Libby piped up and said, “Oh, I wondered if they’d just stick his arm in the puppet and hold it there.” We all howled.
I had to chuckle when I read my comments. Tim, what if my news service is saying to my children, “Was there anything worth hearing about on CNN today?” (Watching CNN is part of their school.) Also, it takes forever and a day for Wikipedia to load for me for some reason (even with cable internet!), so I never use it. As to Scrabble, I still am not a huge fan, but I’m appreciating it more. Boggle is my sport. If you like the romance of rain, check out Frears today. (Hope you don’t mind my sharing; it was just so good!) Lynn Truss’s new book is called Talk to the Hand.
Now, to the review!
We just finished watching the new movie version of Five Children and It. We listened to the book on tape (by E. Nesbitt) a few years ago and enjoyed it, as we have all of her books. I recommend it as a clean movie that kept us all entertained from Rachel to 14 year-old Nathan to Mom. We were so engrossed that we forgot to make popcorn!
First, a caveat: if you recently saw Narnia, you might think the movie is “copying”–two boys and two girls (and their toddler brother) are sent to an uncle’s house in the country as their mother is a WW 1 nurse and their dad is a fighter pilot. There are similar issues (the older brother “in charge” and the younger brother not happy about it), but the stories aren’t copies of one another and didn’t intend to be! They are both just movies of really good children’s books.
As to staying true to the original novel, there are liberalities. However, there are a number of scenes which are similar and some which are just for the movie. The wise-cracking psammead (sand fairy) makes some amusing comments, but thankfully, none of his jokes (or anyone else’s) descend into that crude humor which is so prevalent in children’s movies today.
Yes, the acting is a bit weak; the kids seem to always have smiles on their faces for some reason. And the girls aren’t developed very well as characters. And I never really enjoy talking puppets in my movies. But, with all that said, we still enjoyed the movie quite a bit!
Do you have any clean, entertaining movies you’d recommend?
Comments (4)
That’s too funny! ((lol)) Kids are so cute. The movie sounds great, I might try to find it this weekend.
You mentioned heading to Blockbuster. We don’t do that any more now that we have Netflix. Have you checked them out? Busy mom’s best friend! Since we don’t have cable (my children are SO deprived)we order a lot of DVDs of old TV shows and enjoy them, commercial free.
Thanks for the movie suggestion!
Well I’m not a busy mom, but I also suggest Netflix. It is reasonably priced and very easy to do. As for the movie I think I might check it out! And LIBBY, is too funny, she always chacks me up!
Johnny English (starring Rowan Atkinson, 2003) is a hilarious spoof on James Bond. There are a few instances of brief language, but overall, it is a rollicking good time. I laughed so hard I thought I wouldn’t make it to the end of the movie. It’s a good one to watch with your husband, and then you can decide if you want the children to see it. You won’t mind seeing it again. When we watched it, I immediately thought of you.