Public Service Announcement/Rant

If you're not a huge fan of violence and/or the Narnia books, don't go see Prince Caspian. It was one of the most violent movies I've ever seen. My neck hurts from flinching.

Why, oh, why did I do this to myself? Why? The racism was as overt in the movie, as it is in the book. Even amongst the Narnian dwarves, for example, dark = evil, light =good.* The violence was sickening. Arrgh.

In other children's book franchise news, Scaredy Squirrel will be a cartoon series. Scaredy is obviously more my speed.
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*Also, apparently, big noses are evil, as are accents other than British English. (More on the racism in the comments, if you're interested.) Thanks, Disney.

Movies from Children's Books

You know that making movies from children's books is big business when MTV covers the story.

Shawn Adler lists the 10 children's books MTV thinks should be filmed next with explanations as to why. I must admit, their choices are pretty interesting.

Note: Unless you're a huge fan of MTV-style bumper music, turn the sound off before clicking over.

Movie Recommendation: Flushed Away

The youngest and I finally got a chance to watch Flushed Away this weekend, and it was wonderful. It's great looking, hilarious, and the characters are compelling without being obnoxious. After a year of mediocre animated children's movies (Barnyard, Open Season, Cars), check this one out. I have a really hard time reviewing movies, so I'm just going to tell you what I especially liked in this movie.

• Flushed Away is an Aardman Animations Production and it shows, even though Aardman's clay creatures are absent. Somehow the animation in Flushed Away resembles the trademark clay.
• This movie is FUNNY. To kids and adults. The slugs populating the sewer world are especially riotous.
• The movie was touching without being sappy. When the main hero realizes he doesn't have a family and is missing out because of it, he doesn't run away or have a wise elderly type advise him. He simply takes action. Finally!
• All the creatures--from toads, to rats, to slugs, to tadpoles with teeth--are cute, cute, cute.

I can't wait to see Flushed Away again.

On a related note, I highly recommend giving Santa Claus 3 a pass.