Sunday 12 July 2009

Dog days


We've been watching films here in the PM household over the last couple of days. It's been raining and, after a spell of lovely sunny weather it's sometimes nice just to kick back with a good movie (or three).

Yesterday we headed over to Cardigan to watch Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs at Theatr Mwldan. This was one of those Saturday cinema visits when they have to turn up the volume to cover the good-natured crunching of a hundred little hands into buckets of popcorn. It didn't drown out R5, however, who laughed so joyously at Sid the Sloth's antics with his three dinosaur eggs that people had to turn around and Look.

It is totally hilarious. Sometimes sequels can be disappointing, but I think Ice Age gets better and better with every film. The biggest laugh of all though was when we heard the first cry of Ellie the Mammoth's new baby and it was answered by the baby in the audience.

We've also been watching two more Disney Blu-ray discs supplied by ThinkParents.Net. This time we were treated to Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Bolt. The former has real life action and has a somewhat thin plot whereby Chloe the Beverly Hills chihuahua gets lost in Mexico and roughneck chihuahua Papi goes to rescue her. On the way Chloe discovers her 'bark' and that, though diminutive, chihuahuas can be tough and save the day. Not my cup of tea, admittedly, but H7 and R5 loved it to bits. Real dogs 'talking' is very much their kind of thing.

Much more to my taste was the animated Bolt, with the lead (geddit?) voiced by John Travolta. I'm not a massive Travolta fan, but he does good dog. Astonishingly even the annoying Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) is excellent as the voice of Penny, Bolt's devoted co-star.

Bolt is the super-powered dog star (with Penny) of the biggest show in Hollywood, but he does not know that really he just an ordinary dog with special effects. He accidentally gets sent in a parcel to New York and has to find his way home aided and abetted by Mittens the cynical cat and Rhino the hamster. In Disney-speak on the journey from East cost to West Bolt discovers that he doesn't need his superpowers to be a hero.

I roared with laughter all the way through. So much so that H7 and R5 were forced to turn around and Look. Like Ice Age III it has many levels, the kids laugh at the slapstick and the toilet humour (as do the dads) and the mums laugh knowingly at the other bits. Clever stuff.

8 comments:

  1. You're holding up very well in the face of all those children's films, I have to say I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore, although I saw Ice Age 1 (whatever that is) and loved it. UPL liked 'Bolt' too. I did like the story about the audience baby responding to the screen baby. I bet you needed to flop on the sofa for a while as you are so busy now... I hope some chocolate was involved too!

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  2. ChrisH: I have to confess that I have always been a fan of anything Disney. I had a collection of so-called children's films long before I had children! Yes the baby was very funny (It made 'comments' all the way through too, but in a cute way.) Chocolate wasn't involved, but there was a nice bottle of white zinfandel...

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  3. You can't beat the Jungle Book in my book. But I do like curling up with any good film (especially a kids' one) when it's raining.

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  4. My 26 year old daughter came across one of the Ice Age movies on tv the other day and set the tivo to record it. I raised my eyebrow but she said that it was a great show and she loved it. She had also pounced upon a copy of Fern Gully in a remainder bin and then bought another copy for a friend.

    She seems to be the oldest of the generations who have grown up being able and wanting to watch the same shows over and over. And, it seems the more they watch them- the more they love them. I don't know what we did before videos and dvds- waited for The Wizard of Oz to come on once a year?


    My favorite for playing to amuse young ones is The Black Stallion. Beautiful music and lots on the screen to watch.

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  5. Thanks for that - Bolt it is for the boys' Christmas stockings. Well, one of them at any rate.

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  6. I love Ice Age too. Haven't seen this one yet as can't quite bring myself to go to the cinema without a child! It will have to be an indulgence at home with one of my adult children and a bottle of wine.

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  7. G has seen the Ice Age III film and loved it. Despite being 20, she has been building up a collection of all the Disney DVDs she had as videos and we passed on. She and her friends watch them when they need to de-stress after (or even before) exams at Uni.

    The only adult films I can watch again and again are Dr Zhivago, and the 13th Warrior - Keith and I have seen the latter about 10 times now. I think it's the beautiful grey Arabian in it for me, and possibly, just possibly, Antonio Banderas . . .

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  8. OK, the video clip is pretty re-Bolting. After watching it, I feel like I'm suffering Disney spells.

    Sigh!

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