I have been shielding my eyes from all the Tweets and Facebook status updates about Toy Story 3. We haven't seen it yet, but we will super soon. I think Thursday night. Ian started counting the days until the release of the movie last month. Steve wanted to blow off a Father's Day party to go see the movie.
Kids movies are just fantastic. Steve has a theory that every creative person on the planet is working for Pixar. They're not writing novels or painting portraits. They're making computer animated art. Which is fine by us.
This year we've seen Shrek Forever After, Diary of a Wimp Kid, How to Train Your Dragon, and the Lightning Thief. Dragon was the best. Lightning was the worst. Jonah is going to a movie party tonight to see The Karate Kid.
Steve Zeitchik of the LA Times notes,
That's not just a summer phenomenon. Almost every big hit among the
2010 releases has been a movie whose primary, if not overwhelming,
audience is children 12 and under — "How to Train Your Dragon," "Shrek
Forever After," "Alice in Wonderland."
Ditto for the year's biggest sleeper, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." In fact,
there isn't a single big-studio movie aimed at children that failed,
save perhaps for "Marmaduke" (and some would argue that wasn't a movie).
Good kid movies make parenting fun.
Apt. 11d 
I’m skeptical that all of these are in fact “good”, but since I haven’t seen them I’ll not argue the point. (The first Shreck was fairly amusing, even if much of it was an advertisement for toys and a soundtrack even more than many movies. The second was mostly an advertisement and so not really enjoyable unless you like adds. That made me unwilling to watch any more.) On Toy Story, I thought Henry’s post recently at CT was good, and that this was even better:
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2010/06/18/toy-story-proletariat/
(I think the “overthinking” bit in the title is probably right- as I mentioned before, I doubt most pop culture has anything like a coherent viewpoint, or even a semi-coherent one, and so deep analysis is usually more silly than useful, but this was still fun, I thought.)
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That dark Alice was supposed to have an audience of 12 and under? There’s no way I was willing to see that show (and certainly not take my kids). I felt the same way about Coraline.
Laura I think that your take that kids’ films are fun is an example of the way that parenthood can change you. Without discussing the merits of these particular films, I’m guessing that you wouldn’t have necessary been attracted to some of them when you were a 20 something year old who wore black and hung out at bars (I can’t remember if you were, but if you were).
Parenthood (embraced) opens your eyes to some things (including, for example, the value of joy and innocence, but also, for some, the value of the visual, as open to the written).
For us, parenthood has meant we’ve embraced musicals (something odd to think of being part of our lives in the past) and, for me, women’s basketball games and picture books (Daniel Pinkwaters Larry books, David Mamet’s pig book are works of art). We also have developed an enduring love for Pixar. I really really really want a follow-up to Monsters, Inc, which we thought was delightful, and was, surprisingly, not impossible to watch about 100 gazillion times. I think Toy Story & Shrek 1 were also very good.
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One of the reasons I am a sucker for most kid movies is that even if the plots are super-predictable and the acting average in some of the live-action ones…no matter what, there is ALWAYS a happy ending. No WTF?! moment like I have with so many adult flicks. No feeling of dejection when leaving the theater. none of that. Everyone always leaves smiling. I can always use more of that in my life. It’s for that exact reason that I almost always watch the made-for-TV movies on Disney with my kids. Sure, I love an action-packed or dark adult movie but more often than not I like a happy ending even better.
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I refuse to read any of the Oprah’s Book Club type books because I have no interest in unhappy, dark endings. I won’t read Jodi Picoult, either. I read romance novels.
I have to disagree with bj. I remember seeing Little Mermaid on a date with the guy I’m married to now. I have loved children’s movies for a long time. I remember seeing Babe in Manhattan when I was 29 and 4 years away from having kids. It transformed me. I also love teen movies so long as they’re good. There’s a lot of crap out there, of course. But some of the movies *are* really good. I think Beauty and the Beast, Up, Toy Story 2 (prefer it to 1 and 3), and Enchanted are great, great movies. How to Train Your Dragon was also excellent. Great live-action kid movies? How about Homeward Bound.
I also have an unseemly love for Hotel for Dogs, mainly because of Don Cheadle. Some day I will meet Don Cheadle, and instead of saying “OMG! Basher!” Or “OMG, that guy from Hotel Rwanda!” I’ll be “OMG! You were the social worker from Hotel for Dogs!”
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I’m irked that nobody can do a decent parody movie anymore. The last passable one was Not Another Teen Movie and most of the recent ones are unwatchable.
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Parenthood (embraced) opens your eyes to some things (including, for example, the value of joy and innocence, but also, for some, the value of the visual, as open to the written).
I think you have the cause and effect reversed. I think I had kids (in part) specifically so I wouldn’t look like such a dork going to kids movies without any actual kids.
Then I went a jumped the gun, taking my 2-year-old to Lilo and Stitch in the theatre, where I was subject to a different sort of criticism.
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Toy Story 3: meh. Straight ripoff of “Brave Little Toaster”, circa 1987 Phil Hartman movie. Have to admit I think less of Pixar as a result — I had never seen them fully rip off an entire plot line before.
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“I think I had kids (in part) specifically so I wouldn’t look like such a dork going to kids movies without any actual kids.”
Oh, of course it works in all sorts of directions. I had two friends say to me that they love Disneyland the other day. They love the excitement and chaos and noise (both big extroverts). One has grown children, the other none, and regrets greatly that they have no one to take to Disney. Unfortunately they only mean that in theory, and aren’t actually willing to take my children there.
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Well, did you offer to pay your kids’ way, bj? Disney ain’t cheap! To do otherwise is just mooching.
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Hmh, offer to pay. I could do that. But, I think they’ll still pick the trips to Santorini & London over Disneyland.
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I’ve been to Santorini and if you go with kids, wait for winter if you don’t want to explain topless beaches or binge drinking. Plus, they’ll rent a motorcycle to anybody with a pulse and a twenty.
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