Do kids like these films?

Thanks, Farmerman -- We don't want 'em snoozing! Sky Captain has been crossed off this list. Sounds like it might only be useful if I do a Mystery Science Theater 3000 festival..... first we show MST3000, then a couple of other SciFi duds & encourage the audience to make comments. <grin> I love audience participation.

The Aviator would be great to show (around here, people love to come to the newest films & see them for free on a big screen) but it is not on any schedules for DVD release yet, so we'd be leery of advertising it ahead of time. You're probably right though, it'll be out in August. Our advertising needs to get started next week.

Jeremiah Johnson over Good, Bad, Ugly? We have folks who want us to do a full season of Westerns at the library... where we can show a wider variety of films, so this recommendation won't be lost. Unfortunately, I've found that it and GBU were rated (after release) for mature audiences. PG-13 is the highest we planned to go for the Outdoor shows.



Thanks, JB. I grew up on heroes, too. (That is soooo old-fashioned!)

"Sky Captain" shouldn't be written off for thirteen and over -- Ebert liked the film for it's success at recreating the old serials (with all their crazy gadgets) in the production design and the story is necessarily simplistic. It may only annoy some adults, however. "Jeremiah Johnson" would be far more appropriate for younger kids than "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Of course, I prefer HBO's "Deadwood," but defintely not for kids!

Hmmm. So Sky Pilot may be worth seeing? Well thanks, LW.

Have you seen Swashbuckler? It would be cool to show a film with tall ships during the weekend we have tall ships around here.

"Sky Captain" is also reminiscent of "Things to Come" -- its technique may not catch on as it did not do land office business. All of the actors are filmed against a blue screen and the backgrounds including interior sets are all CGI. Really technically amazing but the story is rather sparse -- which is what old serials were like.

Things to Come -- would that be another good film for the MST3000 festival?

THINGS TO COME is too good a film to be made fun of!!

Not really... many parents will come w/a spouse or entourage to help them carry their stuff, the blankets and all, just like 4th of July stuff... Some of the littler kids will fall asleep and be carried or strolled out of the park, the older ones will stay awake for it since it's different from the average stuff kids do with parents. I would picture my littlest one going to sleep rolled up in his blanket, maybe SO's son as well, but my very nearly 8 year old daughter wold force herself to stay awake for the event.

I only referred to "Things to Come" as far as the technocratic bend of "Sky Captain" which bears more resemblance, as I said, to the old serials. The last time I saw one of the oldies it, of course, appeared clunky and crude compared to "Sky Captain." The production design is ver imaginative so it held my interest despite the too simple plot. The truth is production rely less and less on sets and matte painting as computer art advances. In LOTR, most of the sets were only the foreground buildings needed for the action and the CGI filled in the rest.

You're making me want to check out Sky Captain, LightWizard.

Current working list: The Swashbuckler; Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo; and ET. Some concern about Swashbuckler not being enough of a draw.

If My Life as a Dog is too brainy, how about Ronia, the Robber's Daughter as an alternative from the same country. The story is told as much by the images as by the dialogue so sub titles will not be too disturbing (and perhaps there will be a dubbed version, who knows). What's more it also sends a strong positive message. The advantage of foreign films is that there is a smaller risk that the kids have already seen them and an added benefit of educating them with something out of the ordinary.

More European films that I would consider:
- Watership Down, my favourite animated film
- Dunderklumpen, a very lovely Swedish cartoon
- If You Know What I Mean (a.k.a. The Dragon That Wasn't (Or Was He?)), a Dutch cartoon which covertly deals with the issue of raising a child.
- All the Asterix films, both cartoons and live acting
- The Taxi films, good fun and car chases (if the US censor has edited out the inevitable love scenes (they are after all French films)
- French comedies like The Gendarme of Saint Tropez are often quite funny.
- Krabat is a Chech animated feature about a sorcerer's apprentice, but a lot darker than Harry Potter.
- Minoes (Dutch kids film about a cat who turns into a catty young lady)
- Abeltje (I have no idea if this and the preceding film are at all available in the US)
- Floris, a comic Dutch adventure film with knights and castles.
- And finally from my home country: Comet in Moominland is a sweet cartoon based on Tove Janssons Moomin books (My favourtite film written by her is Vem skall trösta Knyttet? a short feature with a great sound track and lonelyness as theme, but I don't know whether it was ever released in the US)

Other films that I would consider (don't know which ones are Disney releases, though)

-Cool Runnings (most John Candy films are suitable for kids)
-Splash (unless a topless mermaid is out of the question)
-Legend (with Tommie Cruise)
-The Goonies
-For a western, I would consider a slapstick with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, like My Name is Trinity rather than the Good the Bad and the Ugly, which is rather violent.
-Spaceballs is also a very funny movie, although not all the jokes may be understandable to small kids.
The Muppet films are of course safe for kids
The Dark Crystal is also wonderful
The Gods are Crazy and its sequel are harmless fun.

As a total outsider: Guesthouse Paradiso, very violent, very politically incorrect, very hilarious; my nephews loved it, but perhaps it is too much for a US audience?

Lightwizard I didn't mean you were making fun of THINGS TO COME. There was mention of giving it the MST3K treatment. I had very mixed feelings about that show because even though they were funny they used films that I loved to watch as a kid.
Give me a cheese monster movie and I'll be your friend for life!!
GOONIES would be a great choice, there is a huge cult following for the film.They sell t-shirts, stickers and lunch boxes with images of the film at the local underground CD store here. I think both parents and kids would be into seeing it. And it has a Pirate Ship!!!

Goonies has a pirate ship??? Oh darn it... where were you when I needed you, Thief?

Because things have changed since I told you what the choices were going to be. Some of my group hated the idea of showing The Swashbuckler because they want all the films to have big names and Swashbuckler was so badly panned when it came out that hardly anybody knows it... so it was dropped without even being viewed. Somebody mentioned replacing it with Hook, but jeez, the only thing good about Hook was Dustin Hoffman and anyway, it is older and I know this community prefers seeing new films. Because we couldn't find any other tall ship films we decided to go for the American theme -- hence Apollo 13.

Then I re-watched the Good, Bad, & Ugly with a more jaundiced eye. While I still loved it (though I had to turn away at a couple of the scenes of brutality), I had to drop it from the series. It was totally mesmerizing though, I meant to turn it on just a few minutes of it (the famous first 10 1/2 minutes) and planned to watch it later, but instead I couldn't bear to turn it off and we watched it twice... never noticing the time going by. (It was a rainy weekend anyway.) It would be so cool to see that on the big screen so maybe we'll run a Western series this fall or winter for what I would call the Adult movies series except for that unfortunate connotation. Instead, I call them "Showcase Films."

These outdoor films have to be family-friendly and I just can't show GBU as a family movie even though I know all my young nephews would love Love LOVE it. Last night I watched Mean Girls. <sigh> Very funny, but again I think that too many parents might complain.

The new plan (which will shortly become official when the advertising is completed) is to show Apollo 13 on the 4th of July weekend and hang the darn tall ships and the lack of films that I am allowed to show with 'em. The second film is E.T. which should be a crowd favorite and the whole committee loves.

The third film is going to be a "People's Choice" and I've been looking for likely candidates. So far and thanks to your kind recommendations, I have this list of PG-rated films for the People's Choice ballot:
Matilda
Iron Giant
Dark Crystal
Finding Neverland
Spy Kids.

I think I'll add Goonies.

I found out that the city next to ours will be showing Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow for their outdoor series this summer. I'm still tempted to add that.

What do you think? Any additions or deletions? Which would you vote for? Should I drop Neverland or Dark Crystal?

Goonies is a great choice! And it does have a pirate ship. And Rocky Road ice cream .....

Okay, thanks Ticomaya for seconding the thief's recommendation. I'll rent it & check it out.

The Secret of NIMH

My youngest loved Milo and Otis and my oldest claims that she learned to imitate an English accent because he watched it so much that it was always in our consciousness.

The newest version of Little Women and the oldest with Katherine Hepburn but, under no circumstances should one ever view the version with Liz Taylor.

What about the Asterix cartoons? My kids loved them.

I should say that we find many R rated movies less objectionable than many PG-13. The R rating often comes from the theme while PG-13 films offer brainless plots but full frontal nudity and cursing.

I see someone recommended Jumanji. That was a great overlooked film that played at the local (Arlington, MA, right next to Cambridge) second run for a year. I saw that movie as defining adulthood for men and describing the ideal father.

Piffka - telll your folks that you need to come to Toronto to be part of this

http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/sprockets/index.asp



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glove link

Thanks, Beth. (Dang, wouldn't it be cool if I could be sent to Toronto to watch films?? Haha, not much chance of that, however. If anyone were to go, which they're likely never going to do, they'd send the children's librarian.)

I liked this:



Sounds like those kids quoted already had some transformation.

I saw a list of notable children's films by the American Library Association -- can't remember where the link is though.

I've been at the airport a couple of times in the past, when Sprockets people were coming in. They always seem like the most marvellous folks. I can never help but smile as they bound into the arrivals area, looking for their hosts.

If my house was a bit bigger, I'd volunteer to house a couple of them.

Sprockets people? LOL

That would be fun & interesting to house people for special events.