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Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts

Friday 4 November 2016

Happy Friday, peeps!

We've been battling to make teddy bears - and not teddy mice. It's been a challenge, but we're getting there.

This was the outlook across the dining room table yesterday afternoon as the sunlight filtered in through the half-open shutters.  Emi was writing an essay about three birds in a nest, and battling to get the punctuation right, whilst I persevered with my teddies, battling to get the eyes sufficiently far apart. A nice bottle of red beckoned with the necessary promise to get me through until dinner.



Saturday 7 June 2014

Maleficent

It was a tough job getting Emi talked into going to see Maleficent this afternoon.

It's a re-imagining of the Sleeping Beauty story, Mr B had explained patiently, but that really didn't cut the mustard with an eight year-old who'd spent all weekend imagining what D-Day had been like for his two great-great uncles who had landed on a Normandy beach seventy years ago. Emi's head was filled with tanks and guns and soldiers. Sleeping princesses and their wicked fairy godmothers really didn't feature.

But Mr B, who had his own Jolie-focussed agenda, persisted. Admittedly he had to resort to bribery in the end: popcorn and something called a frozen Tango changed hands before the deal was sealed.

Having finally got everyone to the cinema I enjoyed Maleficent much more than I ever remember enjoying Disney's original Sleeping Beauty. I was never much of a one for pretty princesses who spent their lives passively waiting around to be rescued by passing princes. I think they were rubbish role-models for young girls, to whom we ought to have been telling stories about the sisters who were doing it for themselves in life.

And that sentiment neatly leads me on to Angelina Jolie, who is a truly magnificent Maleficent: she totally carries the movie. And it's great that Disney has moved past its black and white view of the world as somewhere filled with only very good people (who were invariably blonde, thin and beautiful) and very bad people (who were usually dark, fat and ugly).

This Maleficent comes with back story, which helps explain why she places the terrible sleeping curse on Aurora, the blameless new-born baby. Like most of us, she's dragging along her fair share of emotional baggage. And when it's all explained, we end up rooting for her, especially as we can see her working through her issues during the course of the movie.

The special effects are pretty amazing, but, as is so often the case with these things, the script could have been tightened up a bit here and there, and personally I found the Sleeping Beauty's unblemished, blonde, smiley goodness a bit too prissy.

As for Emi he gave the movie an enthusiastic thumbs up having greatly enjoyed the monster battle scenes and the beautiful queen with the horns (Maleficent), for whom he'd been rooting throughout. I think he's taking after his dad ... .

All the best,


Bonny x