Lisa Reviews

The Adventures Of Elmo in Grouchland is one of cutest kids movies I have seen a while. Elmo won’t share his blanket with Zoe (his friend) and ends up losing it in Oscar’s can. He journeys to Grouchland to get back his blanket and along the way he learns a lot about taking others feelings into consideration. Huxley (the villain) has his blanket, along with a lot of other things that don’t belong to him and Elmo tries to get his blanket back. It definitely teaches the kids about sharing without them even realizing it. It is a little over an hour, so it perfect for little ones attention spans. There are even a few jokes thrown in there for the adults! However, this is truly a kids movie. You don’t have to worry about diet pills or adult language here. It is a Sesame Street classic with all the gang.

I swear it gets harder and harder to find quality programs and cds for our kids that won’t drive us (parents) up the wall. That Baby CD and That Baby DVD is the answer. It is extremely hard to keep both kids entertained while watching something. However, That Baby DVD did its job. Will just stared at the tv in wonderment, and Madison danced while the songs played (Will did a little dancing of his own too). The first thing that Bill and I noticed was that we recognized a lot of the songs on here. These are covers of songs by Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Natalie Merchant, The Beatles, The Pretenders, just to name a few. The second thing we noticed was that songs were sung for the kids and toned down. However, they weren’t completely kidified, so that you feel like pulling your hair out and covering your ears. I can’t tell you how many of those kinds of CDs (I know we all have them) that we listened to once and never again. That Baby CD is what Will listens to at night. We use to have a classical CD playing in his room all night. It is the same CD we used for Madison, so we happily replaced it with That Baby CD. He sleeps with it just fine, and I sometimes catch myself singing with it when I change his diaper (shhhh, don’t tell anyone). Both the DVD and CD have gotten a lot of play in my house. This ranks high on my list of things all mothers should have.

Now, if this is something that you want to get your family, I have a coupon code that you can use to save 20% on your entire order when you order from the The Baby DVD website. It is “MotherTalk”. Also, any orders from now till May 18th that use the coupon code will be entered in a drawing to win a new iPod nano. Now, who couldn’t use one of those? Something for you, something for the kids . . .you can’t go wrong.

Bill and I caught 28 Weeks Later last night. This is definitely not a movie to watch when your kids are up. I have to admit that this was one of the better horror flicks I have ever seen. Being a horror flick, you do have to give up some of the logic of the real world. This is the sequel to the movie 28 Days. The plot is pretty limited, but the gore is definitely intense. The basic plotline is that zombies (which are humans infected with a virus that makes them go insane and violent and want to eat other humans’ flesh) are basically going around infecting everyone. You know how you sometimes see people go a little crazy when they are in drug rehabilitation and their bodies are going through withdrawal? This is ten times worse. The story is about the children of a couple who are trying to get out of the infected zone before the military kills them (the military is trying to stop the spread of the disease by methods of extermination). It is a gory movie. All in all, even though the plot is very thin (but aren’t most horror films?), it is a great movie. The ending sucked though. If you have seen this, let me know, because Bill and I disagree on the significance of the ending. Without stating too much and giving it away, I think they ended it the way they did, so they can have another sequel. However, I personally like my story to have an happily ever after ending whenever possible, and you really don’t know if that’s what happened here.

I’ll be honest. I did not want to watch the Bee Movie. I cannot stand Jerry Seinfeld, and since his voice is the lead character here, I was a bit leary. However, this turned out to be a really cute movie. It isn’t about how honey works better than some of the best anti wrinkle cream. Instead, it is about the life of a bee. Barry (Jerry Seinfeld) becomes disillusioned about having to pick a job for the rest of his short life. He goes out of the hive with the pollen collectors to see what is out there and finds out that us humans have been stealing bee honey. To fix this injustice, he sues the human race. I don’t want to give away too much information, but it is a seriously cute movie. There were a lot of jokes that I thought were funny that went right over Madison’s head. However, she too enjoyed the movie. The moral of this movie is that one bee (or human) can make a difference, and that is a great lesson.

Idiocracy is one of those movies that you don’t intend on watching but you get sucked into it (trust me, I’ve seen it 3 times now and none where on purpose). The basic premise of this movie is that Luke Wilson becomes part of a government experiment and wakes up to find himself 500 years in the future. What he finds is truly sad. He instantly goes from average Joe to the smartest man in the world! The people in the future no longer think for themselves and buy into pretty much anything you tell them. You could easily tell them land for sale Branson, and they would be wanting to buy that, Hollywood, and the Golden Gate Bridge from you! It was a sad state. The movie is actually quite humorous, and it is scary that, at times, you can actually see some of this happening in our society now. People buy into commercialism and don’t bother doing research on a product. They just take the company’s word for it (Watch the scene in the movie about actually using water to get crops to grow). Heck, last election cycle worked like that too, didn’t it? Overall, this isn’t a movie that would make it to my top ten movies. However, it is a great Sunday afternoon flick to watch that doesn’t require a lot of thinking, and you definitely get some good laughs.

I still have not decided how I feel about Bridge to Terabithia. Since the movie was rated PG, we made the assumption that Madison could watch it. Instead, I couldn’t have been happier that she fell asleep. There is a twist at the end that I was even tearing up over. (I don’t want to give too much away.) The story and plot are good. The story is about two misfits who become friends and create a world called Terabithia to play in. The kids are at the age that playing with the opposite sex was just that. It was about make believe and having fun. You didn’t expect anybody handing out diamond rings to one another. Instead, they took common items and turned them into gems for their fortress. For example, they used keys as a bell. However, I personally expected to see much more of Terabithia. Maybe we are too use to seeing the wonderful worlds like those in The Lord Of The Rings, but they really did not go enough into that part of the story. I do know that this is a book, and I think I would have liked the book much better. This is one of the those movies you watch once and never again. Also, due to the twist in the story, I would not recommend it for young children (my daughter is 4).

Mickey Saves Santa is one of Madison’s favorite movies. If your kids are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fans, they will definitely love this movie. This is also a great holiday movie. Santa’s sleigh breaks down at the the top of the mountain and Mickey and friends have to go and find him. He’s not wearing horse riding apparel or reindeer riding apparel. He’s wearing his Santa apparel when they look for him. They even have Mrs. Claus help! The other great thing about this movie is that there are 2 bones features on here. The first one is the “Hot Dog” Dance along (anybody who watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse will know what this is) and there are games on here too.

This is a great gift for kids especially if they are Mickey Mouse fans.