A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

We watched the 2005 (Adam Adamson directed) release of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with some friends as part of a birthday celebration. The kids who watched are 16, 14, 13, two 9 year olds and a 4 year old. It was a repeat for the older kids but the first time for the younger ones.

It was fun to listen to the discussions between the kids about the imagery and symbolism.  Throughout the movie and after, the younger kids would ask questions like:

How is the wardrobe the entrance to Narnia?
How did the tree get on the door?
Who is the snow queen?
Why didn’t Aslan fight her, he’s a lion after all?

It was a running and continuous conversation! The older kids would respond, surprisingly patiently, with answers often referencing the books. They said more than once that the books are always better. That melted my heart!

Angela

Need help commenting meaningfully on plot, characterization, make-up and costumes, acting, setting and even film editing? Check out our eleven page guide, Brave Writer Goes to the Movies. Also, tell us about a film you and your kids watched together (along with a pic if you have one) and if we share it on the blog you’ll receive a free copy!

6 Fun Ideas to Turn Your Home into a Mini-Movie Theater!

Invitations

Design an invitation like the one in the photo above, or check out how Meg (who blogs at whatever…) did it using a simple poster board taped to their bedroom door.

Movie Night Passes

Here are some nifty movie passes you can print by Jamey at Dabbles and Babbles.

Concession Stand Tickets

Cheryl at moms & munchkins shares printable concession stand tickets and has a cool idea for how to use them:

At the beginning of the week, you could let your kids know that there will be a family movie night happening this week. They will have the opportunity to win tickets for the concession stand. How do they win the tickets? That’s up to you! Some ideas are to earn tickets by doing something kind for someone else, tickets for an accomplishment (in school, in sports, etc.), etc.

Homemade Drive-In Theater Cars

Make adorable cardboard cars for kids to sit in while watching a flick. Stacy at Not Just a Housewife shows you how.

Party Popcorn

This candy popcorn recipe sounds delish! All you need: popcorn, melted white candy melts, and sprinkles. From Amy’s at she wears many hats.

Review Cards

Afterwards, when the lights go up, your kids might fill out review cards like these (which encourages writing!):

Enjoy!

Check out our online Movie Discussion Club (kids and parents can participate!).

Images by Personal Creations (cc)

Need help commenting meaningfully on plot, characterization, make-up and costumes, acting, setting and even film editing? Check out our eleven page guide, Brave Writer Goes to the Movies. Also, tell us about a film you and your kids watched together (along with a pic if you have one) and if we share it on the blog you’ll receive a free copy!

Watch a film today with your kids!

Movies are just as important as the novel was in its hey-day. Movies are not a sub-standard art form that only the poorly educated enjoy. On the contrary, film today is just as important as literature and we would do well to enjoy it and study it, rather than to shun, condescend to and disapprove of it.  —from Brave Writer Goes to the Movies

Need help commenting meaningfully on plot, characterization, make-up and costumes, acting, setting and even film editing? Check out our eleven page guide. Also, tell us about a film you and your kids watched together (along with a pic if you have one) and if we share it on the blog you’ll receive a free copy!

Image of WALL-E figures by Morgan (cc cropped)

Participants in our Movie Discussion Club “develop skills that transfer to the study of literature or any textual or visual analysis. Take advantage of this pleasurable way to expand your child’s writing and thinking skills.”

For example, read these excellent observations from a former film class about superheroes:

On The Incredibles

“Identities, there are concrete identities and abstract, there are deep characters, and shallow. Dynaguy is one of the characters who are true to the thought of ‘superhero’. Even though he had a small role in the movie, he fills the role of ‘true hero’. With his cape and his boots, he saves the weak, and destroyes evil. After another’s day work, defeating the bad guys, Dynaguy bows to the damsel in distress, and his cape gets caught on the rocket he moved to defeat evil. His short scene ends with him flying through the air, attached to a rocket, the damsel either laughing, or surprised. Edna Mode, uses his story to outline the phrase “No Capes” (one of my favorite quotes in movies). Now, Dynaguy might not have been ‘the brightest bulb’, but he stayed true to the role of Superhero. His chivalry and honor harkening back to a ‘golden age’. To be ‘Super’, one often is thought to have to have superior intellect, or powers that allow an advantage over the average human. “Super” on the other hand is found in the lives of these heroes, the acts they do to save us, the heroes we love and cherish. Even though ‘Super’ is a word delineated to the powerful and fictional, should it not be used also to describe those with a sense of duty, honor, and chivalry? Dynaguy is not a great hero, not even an average one, but he used his powers and his sense of duty to help those who cannot help themselves. Is that not something we can do as well?”

–Luke

“Near the beginning of the movie, at the end of the TV report, the reporter said ‘Their secret identity will became their only identity.’ I thought that was a cool way of putting it. I believe she was saying that Mr. Incredible will stay Robert Parr from now on. Instead of saving the world, he will stay an insurance agent at Insura-Care, and will have a life the same as every other ‘normal’ person. For Mr. Parr, that is a hard change from the Superhero lifestyle he was used to. He was somewhat blinded by the ‘Glory days’ and was so preoccupied by his memories that he wasn’t really part of the family. It wasn’t until he got his identity back that he became more involved in his family. He became a much stronger person, both in mind and body. At the end of the movie, it shows the Incredible family working together as a team to help protect the city.”

–Kallan

“I decided to talk about Dash.( : I love Dash’s character because he is always wanting to help, he is protective over his family, and he is mischievious. Although he can be the annoying younger sibiling at times and he allows his curiosity to get the better of him, it shows throughout the film that he loves his family.

“”Haha, I love our family.’ —Dash

“Dash often uses his speed to run to the rescue. He runs to protect his sister a few times in the movie, he runs to get the remote to defeat the robot, and he runs to save his mother and sister from drowning in the ocean. Dash’s super power relates to his personality for sure! He is quick to speak and quick to act on things in pretty much any situation. Dash’s power is superspeed and he can also run on water. He is also a bit mischievious and he often uses his superpower to further his little pranks and jokes. He is curious as well he uses his speed to give him easy access into places he may not be invited to like when he eaves dropped on his parents during their argument and also to grab his costum from his mom without her being able to protest. He struggles a lot with being normal because it meant him being limited to do things that other children got to do like sports. Overall though Dash is spunky, fun, and sometimes comic relief in the Incredibles.”

–Jenna

The theme for our fall Movie Discussion Club: ROBOTS! 

SIGN UP TODAY for the next class!

Image by Ginny (cc text added)

Brave Writer mom, Robin, writes:

I don’t know if this is done all over the US, but our local theater has a Summer Movie program for kids each year. For $5 per person you get tickets for 10 kids’ movies, one a week for 10 weeks. For the most part they are old movies, ones we’ve seen before at home, but when temperatures soar over 105°F all summer long any A/C’d activity is appreciated.

Your Movie Wednesday blog post last week inspired me to make more of our Friday morning moving watching, and I incorporated it for the very next movie we saw, Epic. The 20 minute drive to the theater, plus the 10 minutes to pump gas, allowed us plenty of time for discussing character, plot, foreshadowing, and flashback, pulling lots of examples from recent books we’ve read and movies we watched. Since we had seen this movie before, I challenged my kids to be on the lookout for the things we had discussed so that we could talk about them on the way home.

It was such a success! Can you believe my “attention span of a gnat” 7 year old identified the flashback scene while her 11 and 9 year old brothers were still frowning in thought?

All of the kids could identify the protagonist and antagonist, although only my 11 year old remembered how to say the words. They got into a nice discussion over whether Mandrake was a dynamic or static character too. Did he change at all or was how he acted and what he wanted the same throughout the movie regardless of what happened around him?

The concept of plot was equally easy for them to grasp, although this particular movie didn’t lend itself easily to discussing sub-plots so that didn’t come up.

None of the kids could identify the instances of foreshadowing in Epic, but I really didn’t expect it; foreshadowing is subtle. So I told them about how the narration at the beginning told of “needing help” and how the father said something along the line of, “Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not there.” These weren’t the greatest examples of foreshadowing, so we ended up referring to the book Johnny Tremain that we have been reading aloud.

All in all, our first foray into mindful movie discussion was a huge success. We will be doing it again, although we may skip this week’s Summer Movie (Smurfs 2, uh) and watch Mulan or Prince of Egypt or something.

Attached is a photo of my three younger kids waiting for Epic to start (my two teens weren’t interested in the Summer Movie program, so they have been staying home each week).

Thank you,
Robin

Image (cc)

Need help commenting meaningfully on plot, characterization, make-up and costumes, acting, setting and even film editing? Check out our eleven page guide, Brave Writer Goes to the Movies. Also, tell us about a film you and your kids watched together (along with a pic if you have one) and if we share it on the blog you’ll receive a free copy!