The Ava Report: NATTY GANN, LITTLE MERMAID 2 & WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

We all know that criticism is subjective. Thus, when reading reviews it is best to formulate opinions of the reviewers themselves. You needn’t agree on everything, just get a sense of what, typically, they like and dislike. Sort of like choosing a cable news host. You don’t turn to Lou Dobbs for an impassioned defense of migrant farmers nor do you tune into Keith Olbermann for an objective take on any thing right of extreme left. So, in the interest of setting parameters for my six-year-old daughter’s critiques, please note the proclamation she made, without hesitation, just last week: “My favorite movie is THE PRINCESS BRIDE.” True enough, she’s watched it a bunch of times thus explaining why she went on to announce plans for Halloween 2010: “I know who I’ll be next year. Hello. I am Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”

So, you have been forewarned and forearmed. You know Ava’s tastes. Argue her opinions at your own peril. (That would be one of the classic blunders. The other being never get involved in a land war in Asia.)

THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN

Set in harsh economic times during which everyone’s desperate for work and will do just about anything to care for their kids and their families — um, the 1930s, not today — a penniless man (Ray Wise) must accept a life-threatening gig out West and must leave before he can tell his daughter (Meredith Salenger) where he’s going. Impervious to the dangers, the young girl sets out to find her father. Lainie Kazan and John Cusack co-star in this ferocious, sentimental tale that plays like a cross between Jack London and Walter Farley. Ava approves…

“It was great. It was also interesting. It was out in nature. I didn’t like the dogfight. I mean it was interesting but it was scary. I wish people wouldn’t make the dogs do that, though I guess sometimes they do in real life. I guess that some of it was a teeny bit scary. The dad had to go on a trip because he was kind of poor so he got a job cutting down trees in Washington. He wanted to tell his daughter he was going but he couldn’t find her. So she tried to find him. She made one friend, a wolf. The wolf was really, really smart. Whenever somebody tried to do something bad to her, the wolf protected her. The wolf always had a good idea. He would run away and make her follow when there was trouble or tell her to hide while he would bite someone who was mean. Little kids* should not watch this.”

* Apparently, that constitutes kids 5 and under.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

I loved this book as a kid and cherish my copy autographed by Maurice Sendak. My initial qualms about its adaptation were quelled by the hiring of Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, then by hearing David Bowie‘s spin on Arcade Fire‘s “Wake Up” play thru the trailer. While the song does not appear in the feature, the spirit of the tune and the soul of the original 16-sentence text pervade this artful recreation. The wild things replicate the look Sendak created and reveal the author’s inspiration for them, his own erratic, Semitic relatives. Voiced emphatically by Catherine O’Hara, Chris Cooper, Paul Dano, Lauren Ambrose, Michael Berry Jr. and Forest Whitaker(!), the creatures are meticulously realized, each distinct in tone and temperament. Towering above all (performances), however, is James Gandolfini as the most hopeful yet scarred wild thing, Carol. His turn is Oscar®-worthy, though I fear the Academy will overlook the actor forgetting there are people under those costumes. Despite my enthusiasm, Ava’s less enchanted…

“I didn’t really like it because it wasn’t exactly very interesting. I like movies that are a bit more scary. I liked the wild things. I liked the one that looked like a bull. Some things were a little scary but not really. It was especially scary when the boy ran away from his family. But he had to go under lots of bushes and lots of trees and on top of things. I would never do that because what would I have to eat or drink? I learned to be brave like the boy who ran away and saw the wild things and wasn’t scared. I like to read books so I guess I like the book a lot, better than the movie. Anyways, sometimes the books are better than the movies. And sometimes, the other way. P.S. Try to see this movie because you might like it a lot even though I did not.”

THE LITTLE MERMAID II: RETURN TO THE SEA

Disney’s first spin on THE LITTLE MERMAID is one of their more ingratiating efforts of that era (despite the controversy surrounding the phallic spire in the background of the movie’s initial promotional materials). The Howard Ashman-Alan Menken songs charm, sold by the sweet Jodi Benson and Samuel E. Wright as the rasta-fied crustacean, Sebastian. Of course, like James Bond pics, kid flicks are dependent on nasty villains and Pat Carroll‘s unctuous Ursula is one of Disney’s darkest. Wisely, the sequel retains these significant voice talents while it rehashes the antecedent’s storyline under the guise of a generational reversal of sorts. Banking on the comforts of familiarity, the movie succeeds. Ava is even more positive…

“I really liked it a lot because it was interesting and maybe a bit scary. But I wasn’t really scared, I guess. But I might have been a bit scared. It was interesting because Ursula was not in it, Morgana was. Morgana is Ursula’s sister. She wants to get the trident from Ariel’s dad. I was a bit nervous at some parts because I thought that something good or bad was going to happen. It all turns out well. I was really happy Sebastian and Scuttle and Flounder came back. The end.”

Apparently, making a decent sequel is not… inconceivable.