Q: [Toddlers/Preschool] “Screen-Free Week looms and our family pledged to participate with our older kids. Now I am wondering how to address it with my younger ones (18 months and 3 1/2)? I’m afraid I do take advantage of PBS-distraction while I scramble to get their older sibs out the door to school. Do I […]
Summer Movie Preview 2017
It may seem odd to feature films during the month of Screen Free Week, but the act of going to the movies and passing around a hot bucket of popcorn as a family can be a bonding experience that extends past the closing credits. Use the parenting points below to spark bigger conversations with your […]
Summer Movie Preview 2014
A parental guide to film watching as a family. By Noë Gold A A theme common to this season’s crop of fair-weather movies is grown-ups getting in touch with kids, and in turn, coming to terms with their inner child. Take the main character from “Million Dollar Arm,” for example, J.B. Bernstein, who is played […]
Holiday Movies: ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’
Cast: Charlie Rowe, Angourie Rice MPAA Rating: PG Opens: 12/20/13 Plot: During the Late Cretaceous period 70 million years ago, the Alexornis bird Alex narrates about three Pachyrhinosaurus named Patchi, Scowler, and Juniper who grow from infants into adulthood. Alex has a symbiotic relationship with Pachyrhinosaurus. Patchi leads the herd in migrating, and they also […]
Holiday Movies: ‘The Nut Job’
Cast: Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson MPAA Rating: PG Opens: 1/17/13 Plot: Filmmakers have set this action-packed comedy in fictional Oakton. A smarmy squirrel (voiced by Will Arnett) has a plan to break into a nut store so he and his pals will be set for the winter. “We get a crew. […]
Holiday Movies: Disney’s ‘Frozen’
Cast: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana, Alan Tudyk, Ciarán Hinds MPAA Rating: PG Opens: 11/27/13 Plot: In this comedy adventure, fearless optimist Anna (voice of Kristen Bell) sets off on an epic journey — teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff (Groff) and his loyal reindeer Sven — to find […]
Holiday Movies: ‘Free Birds’
Cast: Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Amy Poehler, Dan Fogler, Lesley Nicol, Colm Meaney, Keith David and George Takei MPAA Rating: PG Opens: 11/1/13 Plot: Director Jimmy Hayward’s (“Horton Hears a Who!”) animated buddy film (previously titled ‘Turkey”) film centers on two birds who travel back in time “to the first Thanksgiving. We’re taking turkey off […]
Holiday Movies: ‘Flight of the Butterflies 3D’
Cast: Dana (Danaus Plexippus), Patricia Phillips, Stephanie Sigman, Gordon Pinsent (Fred A. Urquardt, PhD), Megan Elizabeth Follows (narrator). MPAA Rating: G Opens: 9/27/13 (at the California Science Center IMAX Theater and will be there for six months). Plot: “I gazed in amazement at the sight, butterflies — millions upon millions of monarch butterflies,” says Fred […]
Holiday Movie Guide 2013: Dinosaurs & Nutty Squirrels
A Parental Guide to Film Watching as a Family By Noë Gold The holiday season’s tone was already set last month, with the arrival of “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2.” In that animated eco-fantasy, the notion of genetically modified hordes of Tacodiles, Watermelophants, Sasquashes and assorted other “foodimals” overran the once-tranquil island of […]
Holiday Movies: ‘Thor: The Dark World’
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, with Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins as Odin. MPAA Rating: PG-13 Opens: 11/8/13 Plot: The saga continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates […]