Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Mixed review

We see a lot of movies, but not many in theaters. I'm thankful for Netflix, since taking a family of six to see a movie in the theater is costly. That said, pardon my very late review of a movie you've probably all seen already. We just saw Horton Hears a Who today since it was the free movie of the week at our local theater.

I have to admit that I went into this movie expecting to hate it. I'd read just enough about the movie to know that it has an anti-homeschooling slant, and that was enough to irk me.

So here is my very short review:

The movie is adorable - beautifully animated, great voices, amazing music - overall a totally enjoyable movie.

I loved the "a person is a person no matter how small" concept that streams throughout the movie. As a very pro-life person, this was a sweet sentiment to me.

I did indeed dislike the "pouch-schooling" comments. Some have said it was just one comment. I totally disagree. The mother was self-righteous, narrow-minded, fearful . . . all things people tend to think about homeschooling mothers. She is the villain throughout the movie, guarding her son from all that she perceives to be evil, and her son is depicted as the "poor little pouch-schooled" kid, looking frustrated and sad and downtrodden throughout the movie. In the end, he becomes a hero by disobeying his mother. Yes, a happy thing occurs because of his disobedience, but he flatly tells his mother, "no!" and it's like we're supposed to applaud that.

Like almost every movie out, this movie had its share of innuendo that I consider totally inappropriate for a G-rated movie. I don't understand why these things have to be included. Can't we just have a pure movie and leave out the yucky stuff? Like I want my kids to go around calling people "boob". Really nice - thanks for that, Hollywood.

So there's my review. I'm glad we saw the movie because it was fun to watch and sweet, but mostly because it was a nice time out with my children and a friend.

5 comments:

  1. Yeah! Does not sound so great! Kind of bummed Kate's already sleeping in her Horton onesie right now. LOL. Oh, ALSO really bummed we gave you the Dr Seuss movie I'd not seen until a month ago. WOAH BABY. I am so sorry!

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  2. Hey, seriously Megan, Horton's a very CUTE movie. Don't ditch that cute onesie! LOL Which Dr. Seuss movie do you mean? The Cat in the Hat? I like that one A LOT more than Horton, and Canaan loves it too - he calls it the Cat-Man Movie. ROFL

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  3. Thanks for the warning on that, Emily! On more positive note for homeschooling in movies... have you seen Nim's Island? We went two weeks ago expecting to see the Tale of Desperaux, but they played Nim's Island instead. We LOVED it!!

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  4. I haven't been too impressed with any of the Dr Seuss movies I've seen. Or the TV show from what I've caught of it. I guess it comes down to making a 5 minute kids book fill 120 minutes of movie. There's bound to be corners cut or quality pushed aside in favour of quantity. I thought Horton was a cute movie but I certainly felt that I would have liked my kids to be a little older when they saw it.

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  5. Great review, Emily! You are not alone in those accurate sentiments!

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