Monday, February 20, 2012

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.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

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!