Archive for the 'Film' Category

July 17, 2007 @ 7:38 am | Filed under: Film, Nature Study

I’ve studded my Netflix queue with your suggestions, and the Beavers* movie a couple of you raved about sounded so intriguing we bumped it to the top of the list.

Whoa.

Stunning movie. The cinematography will knock your socks off. I kept thinking, this can’t be real, it’s like really good CGI…But it’s real. Up close, delightfully personal, and captivating. Rose and Beanie watched the movie three times, I think. (It isn’t very long, alas.) And I snuck in an encore viewing myself—I couldn’t resist showing it to Scott, you see.

There were beavers on the undeveloped land surrounding our old neighborhood; they had a big lodge downstream of the place the kids called the Rock Store, named after a splashy afternoon spent collecting and displaying stony wares on a big flat boulder where the creek ran wide.  To get to the Rock Store, you had to hike through a field that had once been young woods. The beavers had turned it to meadow, and we marveled at the stubby, pointy tree trunks left behind, so exactly like pictures we’d seen in books.

As the creek wended its way toward the marshy basin where a bald eagle was rumored to fish, it gurgled past trees whose lower trunks had been wrapped with chicken wire: the attempt of a concerned neighbor to save our woods from the enterprising beaver clan. Undaunted, the beavers turned their attention to a location half a mile away, where slender trees shaded the small pond that welcomes people into the neighborhood. One by one, those trees began to topple.

The film’s narrator remarked that after humans, beavers wreak more change upon the landscape than any other animal.

They dance, too; did you know that?

Excellent tip, ladies. I hadn’t realized you could get IMAX films on DVD—you can bet we’ll be checking out a good many more. The whales movie, for starters…

*Link added per Brigid’s request…always happy to oblige our Brigid!

July 5, 2007 @ 7:10 am | Filed under: Film

Look at this list! I’m going to put in bold the films we’ve already seen ("we" meaning my kids, really, since I’ve seen many more titles on the list than they have).

Heidi (Sarah wants to know which version?)
Charlotte’s Web
Homeward Bound
Beatrix Potter Collection
Peter Pan, Cathy Rigby version (look on eBay)
Little House on the Prairie, Disney version
Frontier House
One Night with the King
Bridge to Terebithia
Secret of Roan Inish
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea (1975 BBC version)
IMAX movies like the one on beavers (This one is going at the top of my queue!)
Night at the Museum
Bringing Up Baby

Cars
Finding Nemo
A Bug’s Life
Darby O’Gill and the Little People
You Can’t Take it With You
Building Big with David Macaulay (a few scary scenes for more sensitive types)

The Pacifier
Cheaper by the Dozen (1950s version)

Akeelah and the Bee (slight language issues)

I Remember Mama
Pride of the Yankees
Spirit of Saint Louis
Emma, both the Kate Beckinsale & Gwyneth Paltrow versions were recommended (I’m partial to the Kate one, myself)
Pride & Prejudice, BBC version (but of course!!)
Sense & Sensibility
Nanny McPhee
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
National Velvet (old one with E. Taylor)
Fairy Tale:  A True Story
Born Free
Iron Will
The Black Stallion
The Iron Giant

Boy’s Town
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Captains Courageous
Miss Potter
A Little Princess (not Shirley Temple version)
BBC Planet Earth series
Yours, Mine, & Ours (Lucille Ball/Henry Fonda version)
Pollyanna
Lassie (2005 version)

Natl Geographic Inside the Vatican
Life with Father
Martha Stewart dvds

Mr Blanding…
Railway Children
Connections w/ James Burke (This is available online, too, did you know? I saw a link at Sandra Dodd’s site.)
Hayley Mills movies (we’ve seen Pollyanna, Summer Magic, The Parent Trap)
The Sound of Music
Matilda
Mary Poppins
1776

and this list by Colleen, with this caveat: "…some
have language and/or mild sexual content that others might be
uncomfortable with. Some would definitely be more appropriate for
older, mature children. We tend to worry much more about violence at
our house…"

The Snow Walker
Mad Hot Ballroom
The Ron Clark Story (unique chance for my homeschooled kids to get a look at inner city New York schooling)
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
Rabbit Proof Fence
Follow Me, Boys!
The Apple Dumpling Gang
Eight Below
Song Catcher
Children of Heaven
Series wise, we’ve enjoyed The Waltons, All Creatures Great and Small,
and the early years of Monarch of the Glen. My kids also liked As Time
Goes By, although mainly this was a treat for their parents!!

Thanks, and keep ‘em coming!

July 3, 2007 @ 8:55 am | Filed under: Film

In the comments of yesterday’s post, Faith mentioned Netflix and Ana mentioned the movie version of The Railway Children. That reminded me that I’d been meaning to mention that video myself—we were given a copy as a gift a few years ago, and we watched it again last weekend, and ohhhh I do love that movie. It’s one of those rare cases where I like the movie version just as well as I like the book—and I like the book a lot. It’s my favorite Nesbit novel.

Anyway, Faith and Ana reminded me that I keep meaning to stack our Netflix queue with some good movies for the girls and me to watch this summer. What are your family’s favorites? Hit me!