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Switching Reels
"Doesn't like popcorn and the movies? Are you sure he's yours?"
A friend wrote this to me after I told her of the truncated excursion Felix and I had to Kung Fu Panda a little while ago. Felix was quite certain he wanted to hit the road during the climax, and I obliged.
This was the first time I tried taking Felix to the movies, and we went mostly because a friend of Felix's was going. (As a point of interest, the friend lasted through to the closing credits.)
Now, I have long mintained that taking Felix to the movies at this age is, from a parents' perspective, questionable. The chances that he will want to leave have an exact inverse correlation with my enjoyment. (This lived itself out with Kung Fu Panda, which I didn't particularly love, but which wasn't rare torment, which was why he lasted as long as he did.)
Hoping to have a happier result, my husband, ignoring my theory, took Felix to see WALL-E the following week. As I could have predicted, given how good everyone thinks the movie is, Felix insisted on taking off about 20 minutes into the picture.
In spite of my friend's missive, I'm not particularly disappointed (and I think I know how Kung Fu Panda wrapped up). Felix is still too young for movies. He really won't watch short shows on television. So even the allure of the theater wasn't enough to hold him for hours.
This doesn't mean I've given up, even temporarily. Buster Keaton's short movies are just right for the Felix. He's currently liking One Week, a 1920 short in which Buster builds a prefab house.
So that's happy enough, I suppose. Less happy was my grown up trip to see Wanted just before the holiday weekend when a small family plunked itself behind me. I don't really enjoy the presence of kids at adult movies, but my irritation is selfish since kiddie racket ruins my pleasure. On this occasion, however, I was a bit worried about the children. There were two kids, one was definitely not yet two years-old and the other must have been about five, and I became quite worried for them as (spoiler alert)...
people were used as human shields, got beaten up to within an inch of their lives, got sliced with knifes, gored, shot, the works. The style may be cartoonish and "unrealistic," but I think that is a conceptual subtlety to which the five year-old might not have been sensitive.
Did those kids have nightmares last week? Did they care about what they saw? Should I care (in an abstract way, not a Child Protective Services self-righteous way) about their experience? So this is the latest weird side-effect of having children. I am now more preoccupied by that little social non-encounter than I am by the movie. Which is annoying in many ways.
posted by Elise at 7:04 AM
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Brooke (or Whimsy or HP) said...
I completely agree with you about kids in movies that are just too mature for them. There were so many kids in Batman this weekend and it's just not a kids movie. At all.
But I really wanted to say YAY for you introducing Felix to the genius of Buster Keaton! We fully intend to educate our kids in the history of the silent era AND our cat is named Buster Kitten for our hero Buster! :)
7/21/2008 10:23 AM
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Brooke (or Whimsy or HP) said...