First was a couple weeks ago when Liza and I went to see Earth, that new Disney nature film that is really just a 2-hour rehash of the best of the Planet Earth series. Liza hadn't been to a theatre since the summer after we moved up here. That was a disasterous attempt to see a free screening of the Curious George movie, which she enjoyed until she noticed that the boy in the seat behind her was looking at her, and she got so freaked out we had to leave the theatre about halfway through the movie. There really haven't been many movies that I wanted her to see since then; her aversion to anything that has a "bad guy" in it means there are precious few movies that won't induce screaming fits.
But Earth was perfect, since she had already seen parts of the stuff before, and I had watched enough of the Planet Earth series to warn her about any potentially worrisome parts that were coming up. There were lots of whispered discussions about how the cheetah wasn't a mean cheetah, it was just hungry, and cute little baby gazelle things are what cheetahs eat, and yes it's sad for the cute little gazelle thing, but maybe the cheetah has babies at home that need to eat, too, and we don't want the baby cheetahs to starve, do we? That worked surprisingly well, and the only parts she has described as "scary" or "sad" afterward were the parts where the daddy polar bear was going to starve if it didn't find food soon. They were hitting the pathos on that pretty hard, so it's not surprising that she remembers it ... and I'm glad that she also remembers that the polar bear was hungry because there wasn't enough ice for it to use as a hunting platform, blah blah blah global warming.
And then last night my mother-in-law offered to babysit for us, so Jason and I got to go out for a date. With dinner and a movie and everything! On opening night of the movie! Okay, so I got to sit through the new X-Men movie that was long on special effects and short on actual plot, but it was the first time we've been out to do something like that in a long, long time. And Liza was fine with it, going to bed on time with no trouble and staying in bed all night and asking me this morning if I had fun on my date. Hallelujah!
The one thing I've noticed about our movie viewing habits over the past few years is that with the scarcity of child care opportunities, we have to pick and choose which movies are "babysitterworthy." Chick flick? No, it looks just as good on DVD. Epic action movie with lots of special effects? Yes, it's worth going to see it in the theatre because otherwise you'd be completely unable to see Batman amid all the dark and brooding scenery.
Which is why we'll be hitting up my parents for babysitting when they come out to visit at the end of the month ... because that new Star Trek movie isn't going to look nearly as good on DVD as it will on a giant screen that costs us $9 each to sit in front of.
3 comments:
So if you want to come to Chicago we will baby sit for you as much as you would like. She is a beauty and smart, etc., etc., etc.
Aunt Susan
For those of us who loved the Planet Earth on DVD, is the Disney movie worthwhile? All of us loved the DVD. Does the movie screen add anything beyond the plasma screen over the garage?
(BTW, thanks again for your original recommendation of the DVD series)
The movie was not as good as the DVD, but the plot line was more accessible to the kids.
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