Brave

Pearl, Grandma Karen, and I had a movie date this week to watch Brave, the perfect choice for an all-girl summer outing, although this is a movie that boys should enjoy too. We left three-year-old George at home primarily because the trailer showed some scary bear scenes. This was a good call, we all agreed, as the nightmarish Mor'du made his ferocious appearance onscreen.

The reviews for this film have been mixed, and some have criticized it for having a thin plot, or showing less innovation than Pixar's earlier works. What is notable, however, is that this is the first Pixar feature in 13 to have a female protagonist. What?! Yes, that is right, and it's about time, although the fact that the female lead is, of course, a princess, and serves to feed the Disney princess marketing behemoth, has also been the subject of criticism. No doubt, the predominance of princesses in films for girls continues to frustrate parents seeking alternative role models for their daughters. Peggy Orenstein's best-selling book Cinderella Ate My Daughter gives some context to this issue and is on my summer reading list.

Merida, the princess in Brave, however, effectively and refreshingly breaks the traditional mold, as a fiery, self-confident, daring young girl who is an expert archer and horseback rider. She delights in riding her trusty steed, Angus, through the Scottish highlands, and hitting targets with her bow and arrow. All the while, her magnificent mane of red curly locks billows around her with a life of its own, a wonder of animation in a film full of gorgeous scenes and expertly rendered details.

The film's main conflict develops when Merida's mother, Queen Elinor, tells her daughter that the time has come for her to marry, and that the first-born sons of her kingdom's clans are on their way to compete for her hand. The furious Merida refuses to play along, until she cleverly schemes up a way to win her own hand in marriage. After this plan fails, Merida looks to a witch for a spell that will change her mother, and let her pursue her own fate.

Her mother changes, but not in the way Merida had expected, and the girl's efforts must now turn to saving her mother, and ultimately the kingdom. This is the part where, to me, the film gets really interesting, in large part because it explores and actually gives some insight into the timeless, sometimes thorny, and complicated topic of mother-daughter relationships.

Queen Elinor has given her life to training her daughter in the feminine arts, knowing that she will one day take the throne. For the sake of the kingdom, whose clansmen expect that their sons will have a chance to share that throne, Elinor must offer her daughter's hand in marriage.  So, we see her strictness and insistence on bending her daughter's will as not simply cruel acts, but rooted in larger concerns and the responsibility she feels for the kingdom itself. A selfish break with tradition, we learn from a legend Elinor tells in the beginning, can lead to the demise of all. This is to say that Elinor is a more complex and sympathetic character than so many wicked mother and step-mother figures we've met in other stories.

As the story unfolds, compromise and the art of listening emerge as redemptive forces. The mother-daughter bond is threatened, but both Elinor and Merida go through major transformations that allow them to see each other in a new light. I actually found it quite moving.

The men and boys in the film serve mainly as comic relief: Merida's raucous and fun-loving father, King Fergus, seems more boy than man; her brothers, red-headed triplets, bounce around, impishly pursuing their own fun; and the clansmen, with their thick brogues and love of food, wine, and fisticuffs, play to every stereotype of ancient Scots you can imagine. The male characters in this film lack the depth and complexity found in Merida and Elinor, and  it seems Pixar is betting that's OK. The film targets a female audience, but boys who like a good fight scene will find satisfaction. Hopefully boys will also enjoy and be moved by the story of a girl determined to make her own way in the world. Merida is certainly struggling with issues that all young people encounter at some point.

I asked Pearl what she thought the main messages of the film were. She said, "To find strength inside yourself, to do what you want to do, and to be brave." I thought that was a pretty amazing take-away and I am happy for Pearl to have seen this film. Yes, this is a princess tale, but it has heart, and Merida serves as a perfect anti-Cinderella. For girls, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

If you go see Brave in the theater, be sure and arrive on time to catch the animated short La Luna, which precedes it. Directed by Enrico Casarosa and nominated for an Academy Award, it is a sweet story about a boy going out one night with his father and grandfather, whose job is to sweep stars on the moon's surface, changing its phase. With a simple but magical premise, and no words, the film, like Brave, sheds light on generational differences and a child's desire to do things his own way. A delightful short film!

The Secret World of Arrietty

The tooth fairy paid us a visit last week, leaving behind her usual gold dollar coin and a handwritten note. Sometimes the fairy leaves other signs of her visit: a pen set down in a different spot, or objects rearranged on the nightstand. I recently overheard Pearl and her friends comparing notes about such evidence. One time, Pearl’s friend Sasha saw footprints on her windowsill. According to Pearl, the tooth fairy is small enough to sit on your hand and lives in a glistening white castle made of teeth.

With tiny visitors on our minds, it seemed fitting to watch The Secret World of Arrietty, a story about a family of four-inch high “borrowers” who live beneath the floorboards of an old house.  The borrowers are so-named because they take things they need from human homes—a pin, a tissue, a cube of sugar. After we watched it, Pearl told me she understood now why small things sometimes go missing.

Based on Mary Norton’s 1952 novel, The Borrowers, The Secret World of Arrietty is the latest production from Japan’s Studio Ghibli, with a screenplay written by Hayao Miyazaki. The film features Studio Ghibli’s trademark stunning animation and careful attention to details, creating a magical world for the audience to enter.

In the film, we meet a boy named Sho, who is awaiting surgery for a heart condition. His parents, busy with their own lives, have left him to rest at his great aunt’s house in the country. Sho is a lonely, sad, and sickly character, but his life starts to change when he spies a tiny girl named Arrietty in the garden one afternoon. Despite her parents’ grave warnings, Arrietty communicates with Sho, and a friendship develops.

This friendship, however, puts Arrietty’s family at risk. A dwindling population, borrowers depend on secrecy for their survival, and discovery by humans has historically led to their demise. When Arrietty’s parents learn that a human knows of their existence, they are terrified and ready themselves to abandon the home they have lovingly built.

Arrietty and Sho’s innocent friendship leads to danger and upheaval, and the unfolding story kept us all (me, three-year-old George, six-year-old Pearl, and their dad) at the edge of our seats. Arrietty is an independent, clever and spunky character, a strong female lead, which I always appreciate. Her independence, however, is also her downfall, as she insists on disregarding her parents’ warnings. This makes her feel very real and all the more sympathetic as ultimately we see her striving to right the mistakes she has made. 

The Secret World of Arrietty is another testament to the brilliance of Miyazaki, a beautifully rendered, creative and entertaining film that will appeal to a broad range of viewers, from small kids to grown-ups.  It’s available now on DVD, so add it to your summer film viewing list. You’ll be glad you did.

And don’t be surprised if you or your kids start to notice evidence of small visitors in your own home. A lost coin or pen top might just mean there are borrowers afoot.

Ponyo

After watching My Neighbor Totoro a while back, I started asking friends for recommendations of other Miyazaki films that would be good for a sensitive three-year-old and got two strong recommendations: Ponyo and Kiki’s Delivery Service.  So off to the video store I went.

(And here I will make a plug for an awesome video store called Five Star Video, the only video store left in Berkeley. They have a great selection of kids films, independent films, new releases and documentaries. A whole wall is dedicated to the Criterion Collection. So please pay a visit, and help keep them open!)

But I digress. We have just watched Ponyo and again, we’ve found a winner for the whole family. Like the classic story of The Little Mermaid, Ponyo spins a timeless, yet modern, tale of love between two worlds.

In the film, a five-year-old boy named Sosuke discovers a strange fish in the ocean near his home and names her Ponyo. When he cuts himself, Ponyo heals his cut with a kiss accidentally ingesting a small amount of Sosuke's blood, and putting herself on the road to transformation from fish to human.

Ponyo, child of an underwater wizard and the goddess of the sea, is a willful creature and unleashes her father’s magic to hasten her transformation. While turning Ponyo into a little girl, the magic spell also throws the world out of balance, pulling the moon perilously close to the earth and causing the ocean to rise and cover the earth’s surface.

There are some amazing, and somewhat alarming, scenes of Sosuke’s town being flooded, and his mother leaves him alone to go rescue people from the local senior center. But ultimately no one is harmed, and the flooded world is actually rather fun and interesting to Sosuke and Ponyo. The two cross town by boat in search of Sosuke’s mom, running into neighbors along the way, and watching fish swimming on the streets below. Ponyo performs several acts of magic, including blowing a toy boat up into a real boat, communicating telepathically with a baby, and walking on water. She is a wonderfully cheerful, enthusiastic and helpful girl, and Sosuke cherishes her.

But, of course Ponyo’s father is not keen on losing his daughter, and something must be done to put the world back in order and end the flood. Ultimately, Sosuke declares his love and acceptance of Ponyo as both a fish and a human, saving the day and making it all turn out right. Both children are great role models, and the parents in this film are caring and loving (although Ponyo’s dad comes across as a bit scary at times). The story has enough twists and turns, and is visually so interesting and beautiful, that it definitely qualifies as a film to please all ages. Our kids watched it twice and will definitely watch it again.

And, by the way, if you do watch it, and you stick around for the credits, you will have this going through your head for days:

Ponyo, Ponyo, Ponyo, fishy in the sea;
Tiny little fishy, who could you really be?
Ponyo, Ponyo, Ponyo, magic sets you free;
Oh she's a little girl with a round tummy.

One of the catchiest (and cutest) theme songs I've heard for a long while!

My Neighbor Totoro

“Wish I had a big friend like that,” said three-year-old George after watching My Neighbor Totoro. Yes, I thought, who wouldn’t want a friend like Totoro? He’s a big furry, bunny-like creature, endowed with magical powers, a forest spirit who never speaks a word, but offers protection to young children and other living creatures. And he flies, standing on a little spinning top that lifts him up above the trees. How cool is that?

Our whole family watched this film together, and we were all pretty enchanted. Directed by the Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki in 1988, this now-classic children’s film is visually gorgeous, with beautifully rendered scenes of the lush woods and pastoral landscape of rural Japan. The story follows two girls, Satsuki and her little sister Mei, who have just moved, with their father, into a decrepit country house at the edge of a forest.

A university professor, the father is gone for long stretches of the day, leaving the girls to make their own discoveries and have adventures. When at home, their father is a devoted and loving parent and there are many joyful scenes of family life. Their mother, however, is very sick and in the hospital—a plot line which was at times troubling as there was suggestion of her health declining.

But the overall sense of magic and happiness that fill this film override the few fear-inducing moments. For example, when the girls are first exploring their new house, they find it is over-run by "soot sprites"—mysterious black furballs that scurry across the floors and walls. These are spirits, like Totoro, seen only by the girls, but loud laughter easily dispatches with them. 

Totoro himself at first seems a bit alarming. Mei stumbles upon him at the base of a tree, in a nook protected by a briar patch. She mistakenly lands on his stomach while he is napping and he makes a loud growling and rumbling sound. But she soon realizes he is a friendly creature. Her father later tells her that Totoro is the “keeper of the forest.”

Far and away, the most magical and memorable part of this film for our kids was Totoro’s “Cat Bus”—a giant, bus-shaped feline with 12 legs who bounds across fields and nimbly walks along telephone lines. One evening when Mei is lost, the Cat Bus comes to Satsuki’s aid, inviting her inside and announcing, “Next stop: Little Sister!”

My Neighbor Totoro is a great film for kids of all ages, and grown-ups too. It portrays a loving family, and a sense of childhood discovery, fantasy, and the inner life of children. There is a message of respect for nature, and an overall gentleness about this film that is appealing. One thing I love is that there are no villains. So many children’s films rely on plots of good-guys-versus-bad-guys. My Neighbor Totoro offers a welcome departure from this tired formula with a well-told story and subtle yet compelling dramatic twists. We highly recommend!

Paddle to the Sea, by Guest Blogger Pearl

When she noticed me working on my review of Paddle to the Sea, my daughter Pearl asked if she could also write a review. So, please join me in welcoming my first guest blogger!

The   interesting   thing   about   Paddle   to   the   Sea,  is,   this   little   boy   hase  a  dream   thet   he   can   carv   a   toy   boat   thet   may   be  able   to   paddle   to   the   sea.   On   the   bottom   he   writes;  PLEASE   POOT   ME   BACK   IN   THE   WATER.   At   the   end  of  Winter   he  goes   to  a   large   slope   thet  is   covered   in   snow. In   Spring     the   snow    will   melt  and  Paddle   to   the Sea    will  began  his   jorny.  I loved the part where the frog jumped onto the boat and a water snake tried to eat the frog but the frog jumped on a lily pad.

By  Pearl, age 6                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Paddle to the Sea

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I went with some friends to the Bay Area International Children's Film Festival. This was a great event! We’ll definitely go back next year—a diverse slate of movies, and really fun-sounding workshops for kids. The films are screened in a 1920s art deco theater in the strange no-man’s land of Alameda’s abandoned naval base. Not exactly an event one might stumble upon, so am glad to say we are now “in the know”—and you are too!

One of the films we took in was Paddle to the Sea, William Mason’s Academy Award-nominated short about the adventures of a wooden boat.

This 1966 children’s film classic was shown in classrooms throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s. While I don’t remember seeing it personally, I recognized the narrator’s voice in an instant as the voice of countless educational films from my own childhood. Now I realize it wasn’t the same narrator, of course, but there’s a certain quality to the voice—if you heard it, you’d see what I mean.

Many viewers will appreciate the retro educational film vibe, but Paddle to the Sea in fact offers much more, especially given its deceptively simple premise. The film stars a toy boat, an inanimate object that actually becomes heroic before our eyes. The story begins one winter when a Canadian Indian boy, living in a remote cabin, carves the boat out of wood and writes on the bottom: PADDLE TO THE SEA. PLEASE PUT ME BACK IN THE WATER. He places it on a hill, and in the spring when the snow begins to melt, Paddle to the Sea slides down the hill to a creek. So begins an epic journey, passing through the Great Lakes, Niagara Falls, and ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean.

Mason's camera follows as Paddle to the Sea bobs along, through seasons and changing locations. The boat survives a forest fire, a ship’s propellers, and the toxic sludge of Detroit’s polluted waterways. Various animals interact with the boat, including birds, a water snake, and a frog who uses the boat to escape the jaws of a hungry fish. These scenes are quite magical, and left me wondering how many hours of film they must have shot to get these “non actors” to perform so perfectly.

Paddle to the Sea also meets a few humans along the way—in one scene a delighted little boy picks up the boat and then sets it down in the water to float. When the boat moves beyond his reach, the boy commands his dog to fetch it, and the dog refuses.  When others find the boat, they are also delighted, but then read the maker’s instructions to put it back in the water, and they obey.

While Paddle to the Sea features some stunning imagery, what really makes this film a classic is the power of the idea behind it—that a boy can have a dream, and that nature (the unstoppable flow of water running downstream) and humans (those kind-hearted people whom the boat meets along the way) can help that dream be realized. The film imparts a sense of wonder in the natural world, and a sense of benevolent forces at work. I found it uplifting, and the kids? They loved it! In fact, Pearl noticed me working on this entry and asked if she could write a review herself, which she did.

Ready to watch Paddle to the Sea? The 28-minute film is available for download from Canada’s National Film Board.  Or you can purchase the DVD from the Criterion Collection.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

When I found out that one of my favorite directors had made an animated version of the children's story Fantastic Mr. Fox a couple years back, I was intrigued to say the least. After watching this film for the third time recently, I must say it is one of my all-time favorites. Fortunately the kids like it too, so it’s one of those rare films that our whole family can happily watch again and again… and undoubtedly again!

Director Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, etc.) applies his signature style and sensibility in this re-telling of the classic tale by Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach). The stop-motion animation has a crafty, hand-made look to it, and features Anderson’s visual aesthetic—each shot is artfully composed, uncluttered, but with clever attention to small details.

The soundtrack is also reminiscent of Anderson’s other films, a mix of classic rock (Rolling Stones, Beach Boys) along with some wonderful Burl Ives songs and quirky—often hilarious—original compositions. And Anderson employs several regulars from his previous films, including Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray—so there's much to please diehard Wes Anderson fans.

The film stars George Clooney in the title role and Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox. A newspaper columnist and reformed chicken thief, Mr. Fox presents a complicated character. Upwardly mobile, he wants to provide the best for his wife and son, Ash, a discontented, underachieving high school student. A real estate agent sells him a home in a tree, a considerable step up from a fox’s hole in the ground, and from there, the problems begin.

From their new abode, the Fox family has a clear view of three local farms owned respectively by Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. Remembering the excitement of his past life, Mr. Fox enlists an opossum friend to help him steal some chickens from one of the farms. This “one last big job” quickly turns into a triple-header as Fox can't resist hitting up all three farms.

Meanwhile, the Foxes' nephew, Kristofferson, comes to stay with the family. Unlike Ash, Kristofferson excels at sports, knows martial arts, and exudes a calm coolness. From day one, the misfit Ash resents his cousin, and the tension mounts.

Ultimately, Mr. Fox’s greed and secrecy put his family, and the entire animal community, at risk. There are some tense chase scenes, which are all peppered with enough humor to keep them from being really scary. There are also personal conflicts to be ironed out—between kids, between husband and wife, and between neighbors—along with some existential soul searching that should ring familiar to many hitting the middle years of life. 

All in all, there’s a lot packed into this beautifully crafted film about a bunch of cute animals, and a lot to appeal to grown-ups and kids alike. We highly recommend!

Children's Film Festival this Weekend!

Sure it's a beautiful weekend here in the Bay Area, but we're going to be spending some quality time inside (and not feeling the least bit guilty about it!).

Today we're heading out to see a double feature of White Mane and Paddle to the Sea at the Bay Area International Children's Film Festival. The festival promises a great line-up throughout the weekend, including two shorts programs presenting work from around the globe, and two animated features, Un Vie de Chat (France) and Light of the River (Japan). Tomorrow there's a wonderful sounding documentary about young people performing in the troupe Circus Smirkus, Taylor Signe's Circus Dreams.

Hope to see you at the movies!