Kung-Fu Panda 2

Title: Kung-Fu Panda 2

Selected By: Gideon

Stats: Produced by Dreamworks Studio 2011

Starring the Voice Talents of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Gary Oldman and a whole crew of incredibly talented artists

Rated PG

Running Time: 91 minutes

Our Review:

As big fans of the first Kung Fu movie and of the TV series, we were all set to enjoy this exciting sequel and it did not disappoint. Gideon wants to give it 10 out of 5 stars, he's only allowed 5 but that tells you how much he liked it.

We enjoyed watching Po's back story unfold as he learns (shockingly!) that his father (a goose) is not his biological parent. His origin story intersects dramatically with his current quest to defeat Shen, an evil peacock bent on destroying Kung-Fu and taking over China.

Chelsea was not a big fan of the Shen character. She felt that he was overly evil with weak motivation. Especially compared to the villain of the first movie who was pretty interesting and complex (for a cartoon villain). Gary Oldman, however, did a brilliant job with his voice, making the character much more interesting than he might otherwise have played.

We all felt that the movie was more violent than the original, and more violent than the TV show, and couldn't decide how we felt about the transformation of "Inner Peace" into the ability to throw mystical fireballs, but....overall it was a fun and action packed Kung Fu Cartoon.

We rate this movie: 6 Thumbs Up

4.75 out of 5 stars

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Title: A Charlie Brown Christmas
Selected By: Gavin (with Guidance from Serenity)
Our Review:
At the risk of sounding unAmerican, I have to admit I just have never "gotten" Charlie Brown. I always feel like I am missing something. It's like watching boring, sad, people have uninteresting conversations. To be fair, I often feel the same way about "The Office" another wildly popular, if more recent, bastion of American pop culture. But I thought maybe the problem was just that I hadn't watched any Charlie Brown since I was a kid and now maybe I would understand it more? No. Still boring.
Little boys were completely uninterested in it. Gideon said it was "almost nearly as funny as 'The Penguins of Madagascar'" which I at first thought was a huge compliment, coming from The P of Ms biggest fan, but he later clarified that he meant that it was about half as funny. So take that as you will.
Rob felt obligated to give it a thumbs up for nostalgia sake, remembering that he watched it with his family every year, but it was a reluctant thumbs up.
I did find that I snickered at a few lines and it is hard not to appreciate Snoopy's dancing, but overall I sill have to say this is one cultural phenomenon I don't understand.
Serenity was the one member of the family to give it a strong thumbs up. She apparently clues in to whatever it is the rest of us are missing. She says she found the dialogue very funny and really appreciated all the witty one-liners.

We rate this movie: 2 thumbs up and 4 thumbs down.
2.5 out of 5 stars.

As a side note, pizza this week was fab! Plain white crust, the sauce was salsa sprinkled with taco seasoning topped with fresh cilantro, shredded cilanto lime chicken (leftover from the night before) and mozzarella. So good!!

African Cats

Title: African Cats

Selected By: Gideon

Stats: Produced in 2011 by DisneyNature

Our Review:

We watched this DisneyNature documentary several weeks ago (before we started the blog), but loved it so much we wanted to include it here. We might add a few more reviews of movies we've already seen over the next few weeks.

With gorgeous photography, a compelling storyline, strong "characters" and Samuel L Jackson's incomparable narrative skills, this movie was hard not to love. The film follows two prides of lions in competition for one strip of territory in the African Savannah and a mother cheetah who is trying to move her young family through the same area unscathed. As someone who does not really consider herself an "animal person" Chelsea was impressed by how distinct each animal's personality was. We all felt strongly attached to the animals, found them easy to recognize, cheered their successes and shed a tear at their losses.

This was, I think, the only movie we've watched which successfully captured the attention of even Jasper.

We highly highly recommend this movie, as well as DisneyNature's Earth Day film from 2010--"Oceans" which we watched, and loved, about a year ago.

We Rate This Movie:

6 Thumbs Up

5 out of 5 stars

The Whale Rider

Movie Title: The Whale Rider

Stats: Produced in 2002

Starring Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene and Vicky Haughton

Rated PG-13 Running Time: 101 Minutes

Selected By: Chelsea

Our Review: Chelsea selected this movie because Serenity had recently read the book and that reminded us that we'd heard a lot of buzz about this independent New Zealand film when it was in theaters and racking up awards. We found that we were all quizzing Serenity throughout the film about how it compared to the book and to have her help us fill in plot points we found confusing.

We were all touched by the story of Paikea, a young Maori girl struggling to earn the approval of her Grandfather who is single minded in his search for the next Prophet to lead their people, completely oblivious to the possibility that Paikea might be The One, despite being a girl.

Overall we loved the movie, though Gideon pointed out that it is one of those that seems to be better enjoyed when you've read the book. Serenity felt it suffered by losing the whales' perspective which was an important and interesting part of the book, but none of us could think of a way they could have translated it to film without making it cheesy.

The PG-13 rating, as far as we could tell, was due only to one short scene with some language/sexual reference. The two little boys slept through this film and may have been bored with it if they had been awake, but overall we felt it was age appropriate for our children.

We rate this movie:

4 out of 4 thumbs up (Gavin and Jasper didn't rate this one)

3.75 out of 5 stars