I VETOed the new Pooh Movie for my son's first flick...

[4_Legs_Good]

I have a 2.5 year old son who has never been to a theater movie. I don't know how much he'll like them, but somehow I've got it in my head that it will blow his mind and change his world, so I'm waiting for the perfect kids movie to come along. Or at least something perfect enough.

I'm not a HUGE Pixar fan, but I think Finding Nemo or either of the Toy Stories (all of which he likes a lot) woulda been fine first films. There are other films too, which I'm sure woulda been fine. I'm not a big Disney fan either, but some of the stuff they've put out (especially early on) would be fine too.

But anyway, today his Day Care provider wanted to take all the kids to see the new Pooh movie, and I said "no". It's not an inconvenience to the daycare (he just won't go), but I feel really bad about it. Everyone else gets to go, but his over-protective father keeps him home.

The big thing is that **I** want to go with him to his first film, which means I should probably do it soon, but I don't really want to do it to get it out of the way, but I also want to be able to say "yes" next time someone invites him to a movie...

What do I do???

david

[Placebo]

1. You savage.

Pixar rules! :D

Maybe take him to see 'Robots' when it comes out?

[4_Legs_Good]

5. Pixar is okay

I just don't love them. I don't like the use of celebrities as voice actors - I prefer professional voice actors. Plus they're too glitzy sometimes.

But still, I do think they're good, and they haven't really made a bad film, I just don't think they're the be all end all of kids films.

Robots is Dreamworks, right? I like them much less than Pixar, and usually they're less accessible to kids, I think. I hate any movie where there's a sidekick.

:)

david

[Placebo]

7. True, Pixar isn't divine, but it's as good as it gets...

for computer animated film.

That being said, maybe take your child to a movie that isn't made for kids. My first movie was 'The Untouchables' and look how great I turned out! :)

[4_Legs_Good]

10. Hee hee

Mine might have been Star Wars at a Drive in. I don't remember. I woulda been 6 at the time and it sounds about right.

Anyway, when does CARS come out? That's the last Pixar/Disney film, I think.

david

[Placebo]

11. June 9, 2006

That's quite a wait! :D

[4_Legs_Good]

20. Gah! That is a long wait

Hmmmmm...

david

[stepnw1f]

2. You Know What They Say About Pooh?!

He and Squarepants have a left-wing agenda. He he he.
:evilgrin:

[4_Legs_Good]

8. Oooh, then sign me up!

[Lisa]

21. I've also heard that the new Pooh movie takes a swipe at Bush ...

... the Heffalumps are said to be dangerous animals (I don't know whether the word "evil" is actually used, but it's implied) -- and it turns out that they really aren't. At least that's how the Globe and Mail reviewer saw it.


My first big-screen movie was "Fantasia". (If you know your Disney release dates, you'll know that I must be a lot older than you!)

I was only a couple of years old at the time ... I've always felt kind of guilty because I remember that Dad (a huge animation fan) had to take me out of the theatre partway through because I got bored. (My attention span is a lot longer now!) So, I think that there are good reasons for not taking very young kids to the movies -- as someone remarked earlier, the sound IS pretty loud these days, seeing things in the dark on a big screen can be scary for a first-timer, and most kids of that age won't be able to sit long enough to enjoy a full-length feature.

[khashka]

29. Not Possible

Pooh is a Bear of Very Little Brain. He must be a conservative.

Khash.

[johnnie]

3. The thing is

He probably won't even remember. I went to a lot of movies with my parents when I was a child, and I don't remember most of them until "Live and Let Die". They thought I was asleep...lol.. I wasn't.
It's fun to blow a little kid's mind, but unfortunately the mind forgets the early blowings and only remembers the good ones.
So I wouldn't be too hard on myself... At 2.5 the poo that he will remember is probably different than the one you didn't LET him see.

[4_Legs_Good]

6. LMAO

That last line is the best EVER!

But like you mentioned, he may not remember it, but the enjoyment of blowing his mind is every bit as much for me (probably more) than for him. I enjoy watching it.

david

[oregonjen]

4. You're a great Dad!

I remember my first film-at the drive-in to see Cinderella. My daughter's first was Stuart Little and my son's was Lilo and Stitch. I think it's wonderful you want to have that first movie experience with your child. :hi:

[4_Legs_Good]

16. Thanks Oregonjen!

I try. I love movies, so I really want to share the first one with him at the least...

david

[rwheeler31]

9. I would wait a year or so,

no matter the movie, the booming sound and lighting of a theater can be very frighting to small children.

[wideopen]

12. Assuming you like to go to the movies

Find one and take him yourself. I deal w/this problem regularly. My mother and m/i/l want to take my kids (2.5 and 5) to the movies all the time. I always check out the movie (rottentomatoes.com) and decide if *I* think it is appropriate and decide accordingly. The grandparent get pissed-off on a regular basis because I say no a lot more than yes. I feel it is my job (at this age) to decide what goes in their precious little heads. They here about a new "kids" movie and without any investigation it's automatically ok. Use your own judgment and fuck what anybody else thinks. ---btw- I said no to nemo but the reason escapes me right now.

[4_Legs_Good]

17. Oh I'm a big screener...

but I think I screen for reasons different from other people. I've let him watch tons of stuff my sister-in-law thinks is crazy, while I shelter him from stuff most people would find far less offensive.

E.g. His favorite TV Show is Futurama. Yellow Submarine is his favorite movie at the moment.

I try to avoid him watching Bob the Builder, Sponge Bob, Blues Clues, Thomas the Tank Truck, etc. I also don't like anything that treats him like an idiot, or talks down excessively to him.

Basically anything that's a phenomenon or heavily commercially tied in, I am VERY leary about. Slightly more adultish content, particularly stuff he doesn't understand or is innofensive at his age, usually get's a thumbs up.

I like Nemo particularly because there are no vilians, there's no "morally" good guy, there's no real hero. Just some fish separated by circumstance and driven by their love for each other. That doesn't happen often in kids' movies.

david

[InvisibleTouch]

13. My first theater movie as a kid...

...if I remember correctly, was "Snow White." I was probably about four. The only thing I remember was the scene near the end where the dragon was killed. I cried. The only thing that could calm me down was to be told afterward that it hadn't been a real dragon, but the witch in disguise. Or I'd have been traumatized for life, I tell you. ;)

Er, that was "Snow White" that had the fight between the prince and the dragon, wasn't it? It's been a few years, what can I say....

I have fonder memories of seeing "2001" at about the same age - not that I could really follow the details of the story, but I was left with a sense of "this is very cool" afterward. Probably a big factor in my love of sci-fi throughout life.

So yes, your kid's first theater experience may very well have a lasting impact on his life, 4_Legs_Good - I don't think you're wrong at all, to put some thought into it.

[dback]

15. Actually, that was "Sleeping Beauty"

Oddly enough, I just played a clip from that for my English class studying "The Odyssey" today--wanted the scene where she gets that strange, haunting female voice luring her up to the tower (and the spinning wheel) as what a Siren might sound like. :)

My first movies--seen at the Bay Theater in Ballard (part of Seattle) were with my father. And actually, I'd take him to "Pooh"--it'd be a warm and fuzzy, non-scary movie, perfect for little kids.

Lemme tell ya, three of the earliest movies I saw were "101 Dalmatians" "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" and "Pinocchio"--and ALL of them had something to scare the living crap out of me as a little kid. (Cruella De Ville, the Banshees, and Monstro the Whale, respectively.) So most of my memories of those are my dad holding me very tight, and burying my face in his shirt.

The first movie I remember seeing that I LOVED--and it inspired lifelong devotion--was Disney's "Peter Pan," when I was just about 2 1/2 or 3(it was '69, and I was born in December of '66), and it was perfect because it was one of the ones that DIDN'T have any really scary material in it. So I'd definitely consider the "Pooh" movie, especially if you can show him one of the classic Pooh DVDs or videos ("Blustery Day" "Honey Tree" "And Tigger Too"--all of which are contained in "The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh"), so he'll be comfortable with the characters.

Folks, I gotta tell ya, I was ASTONISHED at how many kids in my 4 classes had never seen any of the Disney classics. Please don't let 2-D animation die as an art form; show your kids the old classics, as well as the Pixar and other computer-animated stuff! It's great for them to get a variety of styles. ("The Iron Giant" is a great one for boys of about 3-4 as well.)

[4_Legs_Good]

18. Pinocchio is one of my son's favorites

I'm a HUGE 2-D hand drawn animation fan, so there's no fear that I won't indocrinate him into the fold! I'm not a huge Disney fan because I think they helped to ruin animation as an artistic form by relegating it to a children's medium.

That said, many of the classics are great. I just wish it had blossomed a bit more in the adult "market", films like Animal Farm, Watership Down, Fantastic Planet, Heavy Metal, and Ralph Bakshi's works are sadly the exception to the rule. I guess Anime is kinda breaking that mold, and hopefully that continues and eventually spills over back into other countries' works.

david

[InvisibleTouch]

22. "Sleeping Beauty" - of course!

I knew something wasn't quite right. Thanks for the reminder!

[Lisa]

24. I actually had to play a clip from "Sleeping Beauty" ...

.... for a 3rd-year college course I'm teaching. I was trying to get a discussion started on landscape symbolism in art, and had assumed that the forest scene near the beginning would be familiar to most of them. Most of the students (born in the late 1990s) had never heard of it -- much less, that it was a landmark film when it was released, setting the pattern for many animated features after.

[Ariana Celeste]

14. I can see myself in the same position

someday when I have a kid- the way I see it, better to fret over what the best movie for a first time would be, then be like some parents who take their toddlers to gory violent movies. :)

[4_Legs_Good]

19. It's amazing what parents take their kids to see.

And scary too!

david

[tjdee]

23. My sister took my kid to her first movie.

:grr:

But Pooh movies are good because there aren't any terribly serious undertones... like your mother dying or being left behind....that was my thinking, anyway.

But then, my kid loves The Lion King :scared: .

[BigMcLargehuge]

25. you can't take the day off and go with the class?

When I was a preschool teacher we always had some parents that came along to experience the first film with their kids.

I took Ian to a Three Stooges marathon for his first film, it was in a great art house theater here in New Hampshire named The Ioka Theater. He was about 2 and a half.

[4_Legs_Good]

26. Had I had more notice I would have done that...

But she called last night at 9:30, and I had some major stuff to get done at work today.

Next time I certainly will!

david

[seemunkee]

27. Go as a chaperone

You get to be there and he gets to see it with his friends/classmates
I love Pooh. I have a few animation cels from the early movies.

[khashka]

28. I Wish More Dad's Were That Involved

It will be a mind blowing experience for him. Especially if you are there to experience it with him. But not because of what movie it is but because of the experience of seeing something so big and so loud and so absorbing.

I guess it's too late to go with his day care to the Pooh movie?

At his age the exact movie isn't all that important. Something colourful and exciting (but not too exciting). Why not take him to the Pooh movie yourself? (I'd say boycott all Pooh movies because I'm a literary purist - but the A.A. Milne books lie in his future.)

The movie doesn't matter as long as it's a kid's movie that's age appropriate. Pooh sounds like a good choice. Colourful, funny, and not scary.

At all costs avoid Bambi - generations of children have been traumatized by that particular movie.

And you're not being overprotective (just overthinking it a bit), because one of the great things about having children is being able to experience all those "first times" with them. So if it's too late to go with him on the day care outing or you can't be there if he went - take him yourself as soon as you can.

(Actually when I first read your post I thought you said you had a twenty five year old son! Now that would be overprotective!)

Khash.

[KaliTracy]

30. I totally relate -- my MIL wanted to take my son to Finding Nemo

when he was 3 (he's 5 now) -- I pretty much, as politely as possible, stated that his first movie was going to be with us. As it is, he has the DVD now, and has only watched it once, when DH and I watched it with my mom who hadn't seen it. The Shark scared him a bit (though one of his favorite things now is Scooby Doo (anything scooby doo, and there are a lot of dark images).

I also have screened for the "commercial" factor (we don't buy merchandise (though MIL does....*sigh*) -- and I wanted him to have nothing to Do with Disney movies until he was about the age he is now -- yet MIL got Dumbo (crazed elephant scene), and others when he was little -- although I told her again and again no Lion King -- (I have since allowed him to see it, I just didn't feel it was appropriate for him at 3 because he's pretty sensitive).

In-Laws also wanted to take him this winter to see Polar Express -- Trains are his most favorite thing in the world, and his grandfather is the reason for this -- but I planned on taking him for his birthday as a surprise. Which I did. He absolutely freaked out when the train lost control. (This was his 5th birthday) -- he wanted to go (we had invited two friends as a surprise) -- I kept whispering in his ear this is a G movie, no one is going to get hurt hoping that it was true.

Big screen movies can be very overwhelming. Though Pooh is definitely a G (I wouldn't have called Polor Express a G, though that's what they called it.) I think it was a good thing you decided not to let him go with the class and to have his first experience with you.

[Lorien]

31. Being a former Disney animator, I may be biased but

from what's been said in the industry, the Heffalump movie is fairly well done, and about as appropriate as it gets for a very young child.My biggest complaint about it is that it wasn't animated here, but was done overseas. Still, they have some excellent animators in Australia and the Orient.

My first movie as a tot was "Winnie the Pooh and the blustery day", and I can't remember anything but positive feelings about the experience. Personally, although I love Pixar's films, I think they can be a bit intense for very young kids (think about the sharks and the deep sea fish; a bit much at that tender age, IMHO).