Draw your own conclusions.
As founder of The Warren Report, Warren Etheredge hosts over 250 events every year,
a podcast and television series. The Warren Report promotes "slow culture" through commentary, outreach,
events and education. Our principle: Smarter audiences make a better world!
Do we see movies to be entertained or educated? This ongoing debate, with its chicken-egg divisiveness, will never be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. However, I was struck by something my six-year-old daughter, Ava, said the other day before agreeing to see PONYO: “Will it teach me something? I like movies that are about true-life things. Or ones I can learn stuff from.”
I prayed Miyazaki wouldn’t let me down.
With that in mind, I provide the second installment of The Ava Report, our father-daughter tag-team reviews of family films. Whether you learn anything from us is another matter altogether.
As much as I admire Pixar for the consistency of their story-telling and their advancement of computer-generated animation, it is Hayao Miyazaki whose work I truly revere. His old-school approach, simple yet mature plotting and complex emotional content make every one of his movies a kids’ classic. PONYO, surely, is not his best, and still, the Master’s spin on The Little Mermaid charms with its mix of mystery, magic and humanity. The pace is markedly un-American and that is a bonus. Thankfully, Ava was rapt throughout, but did she buy in?
“In the beginning, it was pretty funny. It was really funny when PONYO was telling all her sisters to [hide] because she wants to go up to the surface and if they say a lot, their dad will find out and tell PONYO she can’t go. This part was the funniest but the rest was a really good movie. I don’t think I really learned much but it was still a good movie. Maybe there’s a lesson that you should believe in magic… because PONYO is magic. And the boy learns to believe. Everyone does. Even the old people. But I think the guy who made it could have told me more.”
Back to the drawing board, Hayao?
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS
Must everything be in 3-D now? I have yet to see the family film that benefits from the embellishment and, frankly, my daughter along with many of her peers seem somewhat jarred by the technology. (Ava preferred watching most of G-FORCE
“It’s pretty funny because it’s true that water can NOT turn into food. The lesson is if one thing doesn’t work out the first time, you should keep trying. I like that. It’s true. You have to try. That’s the most important thing. The ratbirds were funny because they were half rats and half birds and they can take away little kids. It’s funny because usually rats are pretty mean but birds are really nice so I don’t know why [they're] bad because birds are supposed to be nice.”
Check back later this week for my longer post sparked by CLOUDY‘s edible forecast, along with its odd relation to THE INFORMANT!
At Rain City Video, sometimes, we just take a chance. I spied this dvd — from the American Girl series — and thought, what the heck. Ava is starting to lean towards live-action features and this seemed innocuous enough. CHRISSA
“I love this one. There is a lesson that you should be brave because it shows you that you should stand up to bullies. The bullies weren’t nice at all. I know I will be brave when I face bullies now because if I do, I will find friends who will be on my side. No one likes a bully. I would tell you more but you probably would want to see it yourself.”
Gotta love a critic who knows better than to provide spoilers. CHRISSA STANDS STRONG
