Ramona and Beezus

Ramona and Beezus. Produced by Fox 2000. Released 2010.

So apparently, I am a Selena Gomez fan because it seems to be the only tween movies I've watched over the course of the semester. But as I've said in an earlier post, she's likable. I thought this movie choice was appropriate as it was based on the books by Beverly Cleary, books which I actually haven't read and probably should.

This movie follows the Quimby family as they deal with the dad losing his job and trying to find what he wants to do with his life while not wanting to move the family. Ramona, of course, tries to help but tends to get in the way and cause more problems then she actually helps with. Its cute and creative and the subplot with the aunt and her high school boyfriend is fun for the adults to follow along with. We see the world through the eyes of Ramona which is a fun way to see the world especially when it makes the town look like a dollhouse.

Rated G.

Wizards of Waverly Place

Wizards of Waverly Place. Produced by Disney. Released 2009.

I was curious. I had to know what this show was about and not being able to sit through High School Musical and after watching Selena Gomez in the Princess movie, I decided to jump in with this one. I can say that I see the appeal with Selena in that Shia LaBeouf kind of way. She has comedic timing, she's pretty but not so pretty that she isn't likable. She's a good actress. So that part had me in.

As for the movie...not so bad, I mean for Disney tweens at least. There's the super sugary bumble gum humor and the strange casting for parents that make them seem never like real parents, but the story line worked for what it is. I liked that Alex isn't the perfect tween and that her character is the one getting in trouble rather than doing everything right. Not having seen the TV show I wasn't expecting that. I thought the way she was acting to her parents was spot on for kids in their teens and it served the storyline in the end but in a way that you could believe. I also liked the added story about her brother wanting to be more like her and her wanting to be more like her brother. Again, not having seen the show, I don't know if that was a fulfillment of something that had been there for a long time and I don't know how long the wizard battle premise had been set up, but I thought it was a nice way to show sibling rivalry as well.

Overall very cute family film.

Rated G.

Supposedly there is a sequel in the making.

Princess Protection Program

Princess Protection Program produced by Disney. Released 2009.

I babysat this weekend and the girls insisted that they watch this movie. While cheesy and so quintessentially Disney, I have to admit that if I were younger this is exactly the sort of movie I would have loved. I am not one of those I don't want to be a Princess girls, in fact, whisk me away and give me the all star Princess Diaries makeover. When I was young, I loved the movie Pretty Woman so much, which was so wrong, but I had no idea what a hooker was or what any of the bad stuff really meant, but had I had alternatives to watch like this one or Princess Diaries it probably would have been a more appropriate choice of movie for me to watch.

Basically, Selena Gomez's character, Carter, has a dad who is a General in the Princess Protection Program. When a small island is threatened, Princess Rosa, played by Demi Lovato, is taken away in the Program and sent to live with the General and his daughter in Louisiana. She has no idea how to act like a normal girl and its sort of the makeover, rags-to-riches story in reverse. Of course, there is the making fun of her for not understanding cultural norms and the cute boys asking them to prom and the moments where they hate each other and then become friends like any good Disney movie would incorporate, but what I really liked was the positive message they reinforced. The Princess kept telling Carter that you had to be a Princess on the inside first and then it would show on the outside. Rather than choosing the good looking guy with no soul in the end, she opts out because he is not nice on the inside. I thought this was a great role model like story for young girls compared the the movies I may have been watching when I was younger.

Rated G

Real Steel

Real Steel produced by Dreamworks. Rated PG-13 for some violence. Released 2011.

I went to a free showing of this thinking that it was suppose to be a cheesy sci-fi movie for adults, but it turns out its actually a movie for kids and I thought how sad for their marketing campaign if they didn't get it to the right audience. For kids, it was a pretty decent movie.

It's a story of redemption for a man both in his boxing career and for the love of his son that he's never taken care of before. It's set in the future, but a believable future, where things are shiny and glossy, just an amped up version of what we already have. But in this future, humans don't box anymore because spectators wanted total destruction, so now robots do the fighting. After destroying all his fighting bots, the father, Charlie, goes with his son to a junkyard where an old sparing bot's arm saves the boys life when he falls off a cliff. He decides to rescue this bot and bring it into the ring without his father's approval. It turns out that this little bot (whose hinted at having some level of Artificial Intelligence but its never confirmed) packs quite a punch. The two guys hit the road winning fight after fight and challenge the reigning champion for a full on battle.

While this movie has a PG-13 rating for some violence, I thought it would have been PG because there is no blood or human killing and no sex and no cuss words. It seemed pretty wholesome as far as movies go these days. Obviously, the robots do fight to the death so if you don't want to promote violence of any kind then I guess this wouldn't be the movie for you. I just hope it gets to the write audience.

Book connections: Based on a 1956 short story called "Steel" written by Richard Matheson. The Twilight Zone also based an episode "Steel" off the same story.

Megamind

Megamind the movie by Dreamworks Studio. Released 2010.

What is good and what is evil? This is the premise behind Megamind. Obviously the same premise was done in Despicable Me as well, but they had different enough plots to both be enjoyed. I think I like Despicable Me's version better only because of the connection to the children instead of him changing for the love of a girl, but I'm sure they were both entertaining for kids to watch.

In this movie, Megamind inadvertently succeeds in "defeating" his arch-nemesis Metro Man. Without a superhero to battle, his purpose in life is lost. Rather than turn to a life of good, he creates a new super hero to battle him, only his creation goes bad and now they are faced with the threat of two villains and no good guy. [spoiler alert] More than an hour in, thinking Metro Man has been killed by evidence of his skeleton that comes flying in in the first ten minutes (don't know what the younger kids thought of that one), the audience now discovers Metro Man faked his own death to live out his dreams of a new identity. He urges Megamind to stand up and become the new hero. Will he or are his evil ways too deep?

It had a satisfying conclusion and good animation and cheeky humor but it wasn't a Pixar film, so few are...

Rated PG
Genre: Superhero/Action, Animation

Comparable films: Despicable Me, Superman

Book connections: Superman comic books