DATE REVIEWED: 3/30/22
TITLE: A Little Princess
BOX OFFICE RATED: G
PRODUCTION YEAR: 1995 Warner Bros. Pictures
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 2
REASON: This movie is about a young girl named Sarah who lives in India with her British solider father in the year 1914. In the beginning of the movie, Sarah’s father told her that he needed to return to England to fight in an ongoing war. Sarah was sent to a boarding school for girls in New York because her dad thought she would be safe in the USA. The school was the same one Sarah’s now deceased mother had once attended when she was Sarah’s age. Sarah and her dad took a ship to New York, and he gave her a doll named Emily before he left for England. A little while after Sarah arrived at the school, during a birthday party, the strict headmistress, Miss Minchin, received the news that Sarah’s dad had been killed in service while trying to save another soldier. The British government seized Sarah’s father’s assets and properties. Miss Minchin then delivered this heartbreaking news to Sarah before she decided to make Sarah earn her keep by forcing the young girl to be a servant. Miss Minchin moved Sarah to the attic to live with the other servant girl, Becky. The headmistress also confiscated the heart locket Sarah’s father gave her that carried a picture of Sarah’s now deceased parents. Sarah, like Becky, was no longer allowed to communicate with the other girls because of their servant status. Before this, an elderly man named Mr. Randolph who lived next door to the boarding school had his own son go away to fight in the war. Later on, Mr. Randolph learned that his son was the only soldier after the battle unaccounted for, until they came across one soldier who was found in severe shock on the battlefield. This soldier had no identification, so the army automatically assumed the man was Mr. Randolph’s son who had been MIA. Mr. Randolph announced that the man wasn’t his son when he saw him, but a friend of Mr. Randolph’s convinced him to take the man to his house and care for him in hopes that his eyes would heal and he would recover from his amnesia. Back at the school, the girls snuck into Miss Minchin’s office after she left the school and found where she hid Sarah’s locket. The girls gave the locket back to Sarah, but Miss Minchin stormed up to the attic and locked Sarah and Becky in their rooms when she discovered the locket missing from her desk drawer. The next morning, when Sarah and Becky woke up, they found Sarah’s side of the attic room filled with food and fine furniture and clothes that had appeared from out of nowhere, with a real pet monkey sitting next to her bed. When Miss Minchin came back up to the attic, she accused Sarah of stealing the items and went to call the police. Sarah put a wooden plank across the gap between the attic window and the window of Mr. Randolph’s house just as Miss Minchin and the police came upstairs. Sarah slipped on the plank and nearly fell to her death, but she managed to grab onto a ledge and pull herself through Mr. Randolph’s window. While Miss Minchin and the police were hurrying next door to get Sarah, the girl found the injured soldier Mr. Randolph was caring for inside the house. The man’s eyes had healed and he was able to see again, so he removed the bandages. When Sarah recognized the man as her father, she was overjoyed to see him. However, Sarah’s father didn’t remember her until he witnessed his daughter being carried away by the police. His memory returned to him, and in the end, Sarah’s father took her and Becky back home to England away from the school because the British government returned all of his belongings to him. Mr. Randolph took over the New York school for girls.
DATE REVIEWED: 3/29/22
TITLE: Two Tails
BOX OFFICE RATED: NR
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2018 Cinema Fund Russia
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 1
REASON: In the beginning of the movie, in outer space, three aliens (a female alien, Zaca, and two male aliens, Zic and Zac) received a message from another alien. This male-voiced alien explained to the three young aliens that they needed to find the “energy source,” that their ancestors hid on an unknown planet. The aliens had to complete this mission in order for their planet to survive. The alien declared, “Let’s make our planet great again.” On Earth, a cat named Max was kicked out of a traveling singing band and dumped somewhere near the forest. Max came across a house, where a beaver named Bob lived. Bob refused to let Max stay the night in his house. Max then went outside and kept Bob awake by annoying him with his singing until Bob gave up and let Max sleep in the house. Max then read in a book about bottles people found carrying paper maps inside that led to treasure. The next day, Max went to the lake to fish for one of these bottles. Bob was planning to build a sawmill near his house, and he was mad that Max didn’t help him. He sabotaged Max’s fishing attempts by drawing a treasure map on paper that would lead to the tree he wanted uprooted so he could build the sawmill. Bob put the paper in a bottle, and then he swam underwater and attached it to Max’s fishing line. When Max reeled in the bottle, he followed the map to the tree. It was here that he discovered a disk (this was the energy source the aliens were after). The disk sent a signal into outer space, which helped Zaca and the other aliens locate their energy source on Earth. Zaca crash-landed the spaceship on Earth near Bob’s house. Bob and Max went to investigate the sight of the crash, and they discovered the aliens. Both Bob and Max explained about their planet, telling the aliens that their civilization built the pyramids in Egypt, built the most incredible monument in the world…the Great Wall of China, and built the most accurate clock in the world…Big Ben in England. Bob then repaired the now damaged spaceship, and he and some other friends constructed a hot air balloon to help Zaca and her alien friends leave Earth in their spaceship. Meanwhile, an evil alien named Scratcher and his minions followed the young aliens to Earth, where they took animals captive and planned to lock them away in a zoo back on the alien planet. Max was captured as well, but he managed to escape. However, while Max was trying to find his way back to Bob and the others, the aliens abducted them. Max then taught himself how to fly the young aliens’ spaceship, and he went after Scratcher. In the end, Max was able to defeat Scratcher and rescue his animal friends. Zaca, Zic, and Zac returned to their planet with the energy source, perhaps stolen from Earth. The cover art for this kids’ movie has two of the cute-looking animals holding their hands up like gunning for something.
DATE REVIEWED: 3/28/22
TITLE: Seven Days In Utopia
BOX OFFICE RATED: G
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2010 Utopia Pictures & Television
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 4
REASON: This movie is about a golfer named Luke who lives in Texas with his parents and was trained for years on how to golf by his father. In the beginning of the movie, Luke attempted to make the pro tour at a big golf competition but it ended in disaster when he let his out of control violent temper show on live TV. Luke then fled the hissy fit scene in his car. He followed a road sign that led him to a small Texas town called Utopia with a population of less than four hundred people. As Luke drove by a ranch, he had to swerve off from the road in order to avoid a bull that was standing in the middle of the road. Luke’s car was wrecked when he crashed through the fence, destroying a portion of the fence too with his vehicle. Luke then used a golf club to do more damage to his car by smashing the windows. Luke’s head was bleeding from the accident so the owner of the ranch, Johnny, approached Luke on horseback and offered his help to fix the broken man who appeared far from God. Johnny later drove Luke to a diner in town in his truck, where a woman named Lily worked. Lily helped doctor Luke’s injury while some of the young men townsfolk worked together on towing and repairing Luke’s car. Lily’s daughter, Sarah, who also worked beside her mom at the diner, drove Luke in Johnny’s truck to the local inn, where Luke rented a room. Later, Johnny suggested that Luke stay in Utopia for seven days so he could find his game again. Luke agreed. Soon after Luke learned that Johnny had once been a celebrity golfer himself and had to overcome many losses caused by an alcohol addiction that destroyed his marriage and controlled his life for a great number of years while he was playing the game. With God, Johnny began teaching different methods to Luke in order to help restore his confidence and improve his already professional level golf game. One of Johnny’s big lessons for Luke was to silence the distractions and voices of others who disrupt his concentration, steal his confidence and impede his success. Meanwhile, the townsfolk had an unusual way of resolving disputes verses fist-fighting. When Luke and some local yocal college age young men had a disagreement, they challenged Luke to a questionable game of cowboy poker where they sat around a table inside a rodeo ring and when an already infuriated and irate bull was let loose with the grownups, the males held onto their chairs while running away from the mad bull. The winner of the ordeal was the one lasting the longest holding onto the chair, regardless if killed or paralyzed in the process. Luke’s victory in cowboy poker led the men to another game where the men gambled with money and not their lives, but this toher form of activity (minus the gambling) actually helped Luke in the long run with his chosen golf career. Later on, just as Luke was about to leave, Johnny informed him that as a personal favor, a friend was giving Luke a free exemption to compete in the Texas Open golf tournament that weekend. Johnny thought that perhaps they gave the pass to Luke because they were hoping he would have another meltdown on TV to improve ratings but that it was Johnny’s true hope that Luke would win the open and prove them all wrong with the lifelong skills his father taught along with what he learned during the week stay in Utopia. Luke went back home to where he lived with his parents and made amends with his father. Throughout the movie, Sarah and Luke were together often in a friendly manner. Sarah was wise for age and didn’t accept a kiss from Luke because she didn’t know his real character in such a short time with him and knew that he was leaving soon to pursue his passion in life and there was no sense in starting a romantic relationship that would interfere with their separate long-term goals, his constantly traveling on the road being a professional golfer and hers in the very small town she loves being a horse whisperer among family. They were both in very different places in their lives and mature enough to walk away without involving sex. Sarah wanted to be a near her mom and help with the diner after the loss of her father, while Luke was happy being a professional golfer his father as caddy. The best advice in the movie and healing to all came from Johnny when he said: “ ‘Cause GOD is all around us, inside of each of us, if you listen…there’s a still small voice of truth leading us…talking to us, and telling you that you…can see GOD’s face…feel HIS presence…trust HIS Love…S.F.T.” In the end, and support from HIS peaceful hearted and Jesus loving family, Luke was able to play one of his best golf games at the Texas Open with his dad beside him, his new elder friend Johnny cheering him on from the sidelines, and GOD calling all the shots.
DATE REVIEWED: 3/27/22
TITLE: The Shack (A city library sticker was attached on the cover sold at a local resale shop.) BOX OFFICE RATED: PG-13 (Filmed in Vancouver, Canada in 2015-2017)
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2017 Summit Entertainment/Lionsgate Films
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 1
REASON: This movie is about a man named Mackenzie Phillips (he goes by Mack in the film) and his family (his wife, Nan, and their kids, Kate, Josh, and Missy) who live in Oregon. In the beginning of the movie, Mack went on a camping trip with his three kids because Nan had a seminar to attend and she believed Mack capable of camping alone with the children without incident. Along the way, the campers stopped at a waterfall where dad told the story to his youngest daughter about the Indian Princess who sacrificed her life for the good of the tribe and as a result the Great Spirit created the magnificent waterfall to honor and remind the family and others what the innocent child gave them in exchange for her life. At the campground, Mack didn’t know anybody there, but he left his kids alone with other kids while he interacted with the adult parents. Another day, the oldest sister was out with her brother on the lake in a canoe and to show off for others and get her dad’s attention on shore, she stood up in the canoe attempting a balancing trick, and it flipped over. Mack then had to leave Missy unattended at the campsite in order to save his other children from drowning because Josh was stuck under the canoe underwater with his life vest snagged. Weirdly, nobody else offered help with the drowning kids and instead just stood by and watched from the shoreline. That’s when the serial killer stole lil seven-year-old Missy away because he or she obviously kept watch on the campground and people, blending in with the crowd and perhaps even befriending and deceiving others in order to get to his or her victims and fool adults. The Oregon county sheriff called in the FBI because a ladybug pin was where Mack’s daughter was left alone coloring and that was perhaps the identifying clue from the psychopath criminal(s). The federal law workers knew of five previous murders, this being the sixth abduction, that the criminal had committed against innocent children, but were still in the process of trying to track down the serial killer and solve the case. The authorities finally got a lead after Missy’s disappearance with the ground team finding a truck in the mountains so the police helicopter took Mack to an abandoned shack in the middle of the woods that they also discovered near the abandoned truck. Outside the shack on the wall was a red arch symbol in blood. Inside the secluded cabin was Missy’s bloodstained dress on the floor that her dad identified. The killer(s) still on the loose more than likely molested or raped the very young girls he abducted because Missy was naked without her dress before she was murdered. After the tragedy of losing her youngest daughter, the mom was the one holding the family together while the dad wasn’t able to function because of his own guilt. The oldest sister was carrying the same guilt knowing she was responsible for her youngest sister’s death because she had been so careless. Later on, while Nan, Kate, and Josh went to see family, Mack stayed behind at the house alone and still unstable. A typewritten note then mysteriously appeared inside his USA mailbox, and he took it to his next-door neighbor, Willie, who knew Mack’s personal history and information enough that he thought Willie wrote the note. After Willie denied knowing anything, Mack then took the note to the local USPS post office that had an Obama portrait hanging on the wall for everyone to see. The federal employed clerk behind the counter basically dismissed the incident when he clearly knew that somebody other than a USPS worker committed a federal offense by tampering with a USA citizen’s privacy and mail distribution, making judgement that it was fine and legal and it was nothing to be concerned about or worth investigating or reporting. Mack returned home and decided to return to the shack where his small daughter was murdered to figure out what the mysterious note was all about. Mack asked his neighbor if he could borrow his four-wheel drive Ford Bronco SUV but his neighbor wanted to accompany Mack on his trip. But, when Mack sent Willie into Willie’s garage to get fishing gear for the trip, Mack took off without Willie and stole his truck. The mailbox note had invited Mack back to the shack (it was addressed to Mackenzie and was signed by, “Papa,” which was Mack and Nan’s name for God). Mack found the shack empty, and a strange man appeared from out of nowhere. Mack pointed the gun that he was going to use on himself earlier inside the cabin that day at the man, who later turned out to be an acting Jesus figure. This man brought Mack to a retreat like the Promised Land with a peaceful Garden of Eden and suddenly all of the snow and cold disappeared. It was here that Mack met a woman claiming to have many names such as “Elouisa” but preferred “Papa” professing to be GOD, (She quoted the Bible and said, “I AM.”). Another woman was portrayed as the Holy Spirit, Sarayu, helping Mack clear a spot in the garden that was deemed his messy mind and would later be used as the burial ground to bury and keep his daughter in the past so he can move on with his life and be happy free from guilt. The man who brought Mack to the remodeled shack retreat was in Jesus character, scars on wrist, stating he wasn’t exactly what you’d call a Christian, and he and Mack made a boyish racing game out of the real biblical Jesus walking on water miracle. The movie later transformed female Papa (GOD) into a man Papa (GOD). The film portrayed Mack and the three strangers more like friends helping each other get through a tough time away from family and teaching him to forget about his past. The movie’s message was not to judge people for their sins and to leave it to God instead. In a way the producers were also trying to say to forgive and forget people’s mistakes when they kill your child, and not to judge them because that’s what Papa (God) does and only to forgive them. The now transformed male Papa (GOD) brought Mack to Missy’s body hidden in a cave and near the outside opening was another bloody arch symbol. They didn’t get the police involved and the so-called GOD-friendly beings helped Mack to bury the girl’s body. Later on, Mack woke up in a hospital bed where Willie told him that he didn’t even go to the shack because he was hit by a semitruck while driving his stolen vehicle. In the end, Mack was healed and able to cope with life and be a father figure for his children and a better husband to his wife because of his retreat time away from home and family. Mack no longer blamed GOD for taking his youngest daughter away, and he accepted that there was evil in the world but he needed to get on with his life and live with who was left. There was even a female Wisdom character in the film who helped Mack realize what love was about after she tested Mack’s loyalty by requiring him to choose between one of his two living children, Josh and Kate, and judge which one would go to hell and which one would go to heaven. Mack refused to condemn either child to hell and instead said he himself would go to hell in place of his living children. Shortly after, Mack was given the choice by the again female Papa (GOD) to either stay with his deceased daughter in heaven forever and with the three of them, or return to the living and move on with the family without the burden of guilt. Mack chose to go home to his living family and help them through with the knowledge he gained from his unearthly Great Spirit / GOD experience. Horrifically, the devil diseased-minded criminal(s) were still at large and no doubt relocated to another unsuspected area to continue his or her killing spree and violent attacks on HIS true innocent male and female children. Forgiveness is one thing but justice is quite another and without law and order and GOD’s real people doing the right thing by identifying the criminals and prosecuting to the fullest extent of their crimes we are nothing short of a failed and broken society hiding behind masks covering up truths to protect the devil’s sin.
DATE REVIEWED: 3/24/22
TITLE: Prancer Returns
BOX OFFICE RATED: NR Universal Studios / Gypsy Films International
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2001 Raffaella Productions/USA Network/ Via Genesis Productions
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 2
REASON: This movie is about an eight-year-old boy named Charlie who lives with his mom, Denise, and his older brother, Ryan in the small town house that Denise grew up in and now owned after the death of her parent. Denise’s ex-husband remained in Chicago with his new family. In the beginning of the movie, Charlie noticed that the Prancer reindeer was missing from Santa’s reindeer in the town square. A girl from school told Charlie to ask Tom the handyman about Prancer since he put up all the decorations. Charlie went to Tom, and Tom explained that Prancer wasn’t out with the other reindeer and wouldn’t be put out until Christmas Eve because of a town tradition that began ten years earlier when a young girl found the real Prancer in the woods and but later returned Prancer the reindeer to Santa. Charlie went back home after Tom’s story, where his eldest brother, Ryan, was arguing with and disrespecting his mom, Denise. Denise was upset because Ryan refused to do what he was told yet again. Ryan stormed off upstairs, and Denise and Charlie ate dinner without him. The next day, while walking home through the woods from school, Charlie came across a young reindeer. The reindeer led him to the frozen body of an adult reindeer, and Charlie identified the reindeer as Prancer because of the marking on his forehead. Charlie ran back to his neighborhood to get help, and the young reindeer suddenly appeared across the street. Charlie hid the little reindeer in his room before he found Ryan and brought him to the dead reindeer in the woods. They saw the dead reindeer and Ryan left, but right before Charlie left he witnessed the old Prancer’s body magically disappears in a flurry of snow. Back home, convinced that the little reindeer was Prancer’s son, Charlie named the reindeer Prancer, after his dad. Later on, Ryan discovered Prancer in the house. Ryan helped Charlie keep Prancer hidden from their mom for a short time. Charlie then took Prancer to the farm of Old Man Richards, an elderly man who agreed to keep Prancer in his barn. However, Prancer soon escaped and found a way into Charlie’s elementary school. The administrative assistant went into the office of the vice principal, James Klock, and interrupted him when he was on the phone with his superintendent. She informed James about the animal situation, and James tried to seize Prancer but Prancer then bit the VP on the arm when he heard Charlie upset nearby. The security guards caught Prancer and locked him in a classroom, but Charlie freed Prancer and ran off into the woods with the reindeer. The police search party and animal control showed up, and James told animal control to put Prancer down once they found him. Charlie decided to take Prancer to Antler Ridge, just like the girl had with the original Prancer in the town legend. Tom, who had helped Charlie keep Prancer a secret from his mom, went out with Denise to find Charlie. The adults discovered that Charlie had fallen from the ridge and landed on a ledge, and he was taken to hospital for his sprained arm to be treated. Meanwhile, Prancer had been taken to the shelter by animal control and put on the schedule to be euthanized the following morning. When Tom couldn’t get Prancer back, he got the news people involved to televise the story so the city council decided to have a town meeting to address the issue. James appeared at the meeting and went up on stage with his arm in a fake sling. He deceived the townsfolk into believing he was hurt worse than he was. However, James’ lies didn’t work this time, and the town decided to put off euthanizing Prancer until after the holidays. With the help of Old Man Richards, some kids from school, and Ryan who decided to come home early from his dad’s house in Chicago after seeing his younger brother on the news, Charlie freed Prancer from the shelter and headed towards Antler Ridge. Then Denise and Tom picked them up and drove them the rest of the way to the ridge. It was here that Charlie said goodbye to Prancer before the reindeer flew up into the sky and took his father’s place on Santa’s reindeer team. Throughout the movie, Tom was trying to be a respectable father figure that the boys clearly needed. But the self centered questionable vice principal James took a scheming route in his attempt to date Denise and filled her head with fake lies about Tom’s true character constantly. James told Denise that Tom never had kids because he didn’t want to but the real fact was Tom’s long-term ex girlfriend /wife was very selfish and hadn’t wanted children ever. Charlie had too much freedom in the movie, as Denise didn’t know what her eight-year-old son was doing a great deal of the time or where he even was let alone the people he encountered wandering around alone place to place.
DATE REVIEWED: 3/23/22
TITLE: White Fang 2 – Myth Of The White Wolf
BOX OFFICE RATED: PG
PRODUCTION YEAR: 1994 Disney
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 3
REASON: This movie is about a young man named Henry who is watching an Alaskan land claim belonging to his friend in San Francisco. In the beginning of the movie, after returning to the cabin from an unsuccessful hunt, Henry and his half wolf dog, White Fang, came across a man named Heath, who tried to steal the claim. Henry and White Fang chased Heath off, but Heath returned later and set a trap for White Fang. However, Heath’s plan backfired when White Fang caused the money hungry crazed criminal man to fall onto the trap himself. Henry came outside and found Heath with his rearend caught in the trap, and reluctantly, he freed Heath. Henry then decided he would take the gold he had in his possession into town so it would be safe from claim jumpers. Meanwhile, in a nearby Native American tribe, the chief, Moses Joseph, had a dream involving his adolescent niece, Lily. In the dream, Lily chased a wolf through the woods, and the wolf led her up a mountain to find the herd of caribou that had disappeared and left the tribe without the means to survive. After interpreting his dream, Moses told Lily that she needed to journey into the wilderness by herself to find the White Wolf, which would lead her to the caribou. Lily left in the morning. That same day, Henry brought White Fang with him on the raft into town. On the river, Henry and the dog encountered turbulent waters that caused the raft to hit a rock and Henry to fall into the fast moving water. Both White Fang and Henry were then swept over a waterfall. Lily nearby in the woods came to Henry’s rescue and brought him aboard her own raft. She decided to bring him to her tribe. Lily had been told that the White Wolf could take on different forms and she was convinced that White Fang (she hadn’t seen him wash ashore) was the wolf and when he disappeared underwater, Henry came back up to the surface and now had the spirit of the White Wolf. Along the ride down the river, Henry awoke and asked Lily if she had seen White Fang get out of the water. She told him no, leading him to believe that White Fang had drowned. Henry was also upset about losing all his gold to which Lily commented that his life was worth more than the money. In the village, Moses and the others went along with Lily’s reasoning that Henry was the White Wolf. Henry refused to take part in the Native Americans’ spiritual belief. Moses let Henry stay the night in the village before Henry was off to the nearest town in the morning. After seeing a group of Native Americans in poor health living outside Reverend Leland’s church in town, Henry decided to return to the village. The tribe held a ceremony to celebrate Henry’s return, and Henry was then reunited with White Fang, who had been living in the forest with a female white wolf. Henry began training to hunt in preparation for a trip up the mountain Moses saw in his dream to find the caribou. Henry was supposed to go alone, but he convinced Moses to let his son, Peter, come along as well. Little did they know, Reverend Leland’s hunch men were hunting Henry and Peter though. Reverend Leland was a corrupt reverend with a diseased mind and would stop at nothing to obtain the gold that he was secretly mining from a mine that the Native Americans didn’t know about. Peter went to distract one of the gunmen, but he was shot and killed. Henry nearly suffered the same fate, but Lily rescued him. Henry and Lily followed White Fang, who brought them to a valley the caribou were trapped in because of a wall of rocks put there by Reverend Leland to keep the Native Americans away from the gold mine. Henry and Lily found themselves in the mine by accident, and it was here that they confronted Reverend Leland, who had enslaved several Native Americans and was forcing them to work in the mine. The false reverend pulled a gun on Henry, but Henry shot him non-fatally in the arm so he and Lily could escape. While Henry used a stick of dynamite to blow up the rock wall, Lily was captured and taken away in a wagon driven by Reverend Leland. Henry and White Fang overtook the wagon. Henry untied Lily in the back while White Fang knocked the reverend out of his seat and he and the dog fell down a steep incline. Henry and Lily jumped out of the wagon before it crashed. Henry and Lily found White Fang injured at the bottom of the hill (Reverend Leland survived the hill but was then trampled by the caribou). Henry and Lily brought White Fang back to the village, where the dog’s wounds were healed. Lily then revealed to Henry that she had found his gold, and she gave it him so he could go back to San Francisco. Henry had fallen in love with Lily and didn’t want to leave, but she insisted that a relationship between them was impossible. Lily then realized how much she loved Henry, and she chased after him just as he was leaving the village and she professed her love to him. Three months later, White Fang and the female white wolf he met in the woods had a litter of puppies and Lily and Henry were happy to welcome the lil ones into their growing family.
DATE REVIEWED: 3/22/22
TITLE: The Aristocats
BOX OFFICE RATED: G
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2008 (Special Edition) Walt Disney
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 2
REASON: This movie is about an elderly millionairess named Madame Adelaide who lives in her lavish Parisian estate with her four cats (Duchess and Duchess’s three little kittens) in France, 1910. In the beginning of the movie, Madame Adelaide summoned her lawyer so she could make out her will. Madame’s seemingly friendly but in fact greedily cunning butler, Edgar, learned by eavesdropping on Madame’s conversation with her lawyer that she was planning to leave her entire estate and finances to her cats, and Edgar wouldn’t get a share of the fortune until after all of the cats had passed on. Edgar hatched a plan to slyly get rid of Madame’s cats so he could have her fortune for himself. He put sleeping tablets into a food mixture and he then fed it to the four cats. He put the felines in a basket and drove away from the estate on his motorcycle. Two dogs attacked Edgar while he was driving, and he ended up losing the cat basket when it fell off from his motorcycle and landed under a bridge. In the morning, Duchess and the kittens woke up and encountered an alley cat named O’Malley, who had been walking by. O’Malley promised to help the cats get back to Madame Adelaide. Somewhere along the journey, after being brought to Paris by two talkative female British geese, O’Malley introduced Duchess and the kittens to his friends, a band of singing jazz cats (included in the band were an Italian, Russian, English, and Chinese cat). They spent the night in the cat band’s abode. The next day, O’Malley escorted Duchess and her kittens to Madame’s estate and they said their goodbyes. The cats went right up to the door and were let in by Edgar, who then captured the kittens and Duchess once again. He locked the cats in a trunk that he planned to send to Timbuktu. Luckily, a mouse friend of the cats witnessed the scene and went to get O’Malley, who told the mouse to find the jazz cats. O’Malley and the other cats came to the rescue of Duchess and her kittens, and the devious butler was caught in his own trap when he got locked inside the Timbuktu trunk himself. In the end, Madame Adelaide was delighted to see her precious cats again, and she made O’Malley the cat a purrmenant member of her family.
DATE REVIEWED: 3/21/22
TITLE: Racetime BOX OFFICE RATED: PG Les Films Séville Entertainment One (Canada) PRODUCTION YEAR: 2019 CarpeDiem Film & TV/Singing Frog Studio
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 2
REASON: This movie is about a group of kids who have a clubhouse inside a barn in their local town that they hang out in. Their leader, Frankie, builds snow sleds for them to race each other. Early in the movie, Frankie and the others challenged a new kid in town, Zac, and his older female cousin, Charlie, to a sled race. Throughout the entire movie, Charlie used her female wiles on a clueless male member of the opposite team, Chuck, to spy for information, which she later reported to Zac. Charlie stole Frankie’s ideas and her team used the plans to build Zac’s own sled so Zac wouldn’t lose the race. Right before the first race, Charlie distracted Chuck so Zac could sabotage Frankie’s sled by replacing a screw with a candy cane. During the race, the sled broke down before reaching the finish line. Rather than asking if the sled driver, Sophie, was okay after the crash, Frankie went straight to his sled to see if it was broken. This sparked a hateful argument between Frankie and Sophie that led to them not talking to each other at all until almost the end of the movie. Frankie later discovered a piece of the candy cane where the screw should have been, and he accused Zac of cheating. Frankie then snuck into Zac’s house through Zac’s bedroom window. Frankie came across a secret room where Zac did all of his evil genius plotting and planning. Frankie found the screw in the room before Zac came out of the shower and caught him. Frankie demanded a rematch, certain that he would win this time with his new and improved sled on the racetrack he and the others later built. Frankie bet his team’s clubhouse on the race, and thus, his team members were upset with Frankie when they discovered the selfish thing he had done. Frankie clearly had a mental illness that made him do anything in order to win at everything. Charlie later confronted Zac about his cheating, but she continued to help him after he promised her that he would convert the barn/clubhouse into a recording studio to kickstart the singing career that Charlie wanted. Charlie later came to her senses and decided to side with Frankie’s team and help them win instead of helping Zac cheat. In the end, Frankie won the race against Zac. Throughout the movie, the kids seemed to be constantly arguing and screaming meanly at each other because they were so obsessed with winning races against one another. There was definitely a lack of respect for each other and no real God-hearted friendship. There were no parents present whatsoever in the movie. What was the ultimate goal of the film producers? It seems they succeeded if they were trying to include a bunch of bad words and gang type behavior in a children’s animated movie. News flash…how about making God’s world a better place by eliminating all the hurtful “shut up, stupid, dummy, loser” words and destructive behavior because not just kids copy but adults do too. And WHO is Parent Previews? Parent Previews commented that this movie is, “As sweet as hot chocolate on a snow day,” and that is not at all honest. Stop the lying by marketing things in order to get rich with misleading information that dupe consumers because that causes more harm than good overall, unless of course that is what the entertainment industry hoped for in the first place…to destroy from within HIS family home.
DATE REVIEWED: 3/20/21
TITLE: How To Train Your Dragon
BOX OFFICE RATED: PG
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2010 Dreamworks Animation/Paramount Pictures
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 2
REASON: This movie is about a Viking boy named Hiccup who lives in the Viking village of Berk with his father, Stoick the Vast, also the chief of Berk. In the beginning of the movie, the village was attacked and raided again for food by the sworn dragon enemies of the Vikings that they spent their lives killing and destroying. Hiccup, determined to kill his very first dragon so he could get a girlfriend or at least a date, went after the Night Fury, the most elusive dragon. Hiccup managed to strike down the dragon, and it landed in a valley somewhere near the village. Hiccup tried to convince his dad to go look for the Night Fury, but Stoick refused, doubting that Hiccup could possibly hit a dragon because he wasn’t proud of his son for being, “different,” from all the other dragon-killing Vikings. The next day, Hiccup set out alone to find the Night Fury and discovered it tangled in the contraption he had used to bring the dragon down. Hiccup decided to cut the Night Fury free instead of killing it, and the dragon flew away. Later on, another Viking talked Stoick into letting Hiccup attend dragon training to learn how to kill dragons. Hiccup later found the Night Fury trapped in a ravine because it had lost part of its tail and was unable to fly. Hiccup named the dragon Toothless, and he built a gadget to help Toothless fly. Eventually, Astrid, a girl in dragon training, became suspicious of Hiccup and wondered where he went each day. Astrid eventually discovered Hiccup’s dragon secret, but she didn’t tell anyone. Later, Hiccup and Astrid flew around on Toothless, and Toothless brought them to the hidden dragon nest, a secret location unknown to but often sought out by the Vikings. It was here that Hiccup and Astrid learned that the only reason the dragons stole food from the Vikings and attacked humans was because they were forced to by their, “queen,” dragon in a system similar to that of a beehive. If the worker dragons didn’t do the queen’s bidding, they risked being killed themselves. A competition was then held to test out the dragon-killing skills the kid Vikings in training had learned. Stoick was in the audience, and he was angered when he witnessed Hiccup drop his weapons in the presence of the dragon victim. Stoick’s rage disrupted the peaceful interaction Hiccup had already achieved with the dragon, which caused the dragon to turn on Hiccup. Toothless heard Hiccup in trouble and came to his rescue. Toothless’ sudden appearance frightened the Vikings, and Toothless was taken captive. Hiccup accidentally told Stoick about the dragon nest while trying to explain. Stoick and the Vikings set out in a boat with Toothless to find the dragon nest. Meanwhile, Hiccup recruited the other kids and they all went to the dragon’s nest just as the Vikings antagonized the queen dragon into coming out of the nest. Hiccup freed Toothless from where he was chained to one of the boats. In the end, Hiccup and Toothless defeated the evil queen dragon and the Vikings no longer killed the dragons but lived alongside them in peace.
DATE REVIEWED: 3/19/22
TITLE: Race To Witch Mountain
BOX OFFICE RATED: PG
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2009 Walt Disney Pictures Studio / Gunn Films
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 2
REASON: In the beginning of the movie, a spaceship from another planet crash-landed in Nevada. Federal agents immediately went to investigate the site of the crash and took the empty spaceship to their government facility on Witch Mountain. Meanwhile, Las Vegas cabdriver Jack Bruno was shocked to discover two mysterious sibling teenagers named Seth and Sara suddenly appear in the back of his taxi. The kids didn’t explain much to Jack, but they gave him thousands of dollars in cash, which they had stolen from an ATM, for Jack to drive them to an abandoned cabin in the middle of nowhere. He and the kids went into a cave through a hidden opening inside the refrigerator where an inhuman assassin sent from Seth and Sara’s planet and created by their alien military to hunt down the kids then attacked them. Jack helped Seth and Sara escape from the hidden cave cabin and Jack drove them all away in the taxi. After several close calls with an alien spacecraft, Jack left his taxi with a mechanic while he took Seth and Sara to a diner. During all of this, the feds used a set of footprints they found near the crash site to identify the missing aliens as Seth and Sara, and they analyzed unlimited video cameras and satellite feed at their disposal until they pinpointed on footage the exact location where the kids got into the back of Jack’s taxi. Jack, Seth, and Sara repeatedly encountered the federal agents in their black SUVs, but they escaped each time. The feds were able to track the kids to the diner, and they entered the diner and pulled out guns while their supervisor refused to include the local sheriff in the investigation or give him any information and instead tried to take control and handle the, “illegal alien,” situation without involving local law enforcement at all, which no doubt endangered the lives of real citizens who trusted and depended upon the protection from the officers in their area. A waitress helped Jack, Seth, and Sara sneak out of the building using a trap door. Jack drove the kids away from the diner just as the feds realized their targets were escaping and they left the poor sheriff alone to chase after the suspects that the sheriff wasn’t privy to the information the rogue feds withheld in the first place. Jack brought Seth and Sara to an alien expo in Vegas, where they met up with Dr. Alex, a female astrophysicist who Jack had taxied around earlier. Seth and Sara explained that their own planet was dying, but they had a solution: move their entire illegal alien population to Earth because Seth and Sara’s fellow extraterrestrials could survive there. Jack, Alex, and the kids drove in a camper belonging to another UFO/alien expert to Witch Mountain to get Seth and Sara’s spaceship back. However, before they could break into the facility, Seth and Sara were taken away by the feds to have tests performed on them while two agents escorted Jack and Alex back down the mountain in a car. Jack and Alex knocked the two men in the SUV unconscious before they climbed through a secret tunnel into the undercover facility. The adults rescued Seth and Sara, and they all four managed to escape in the kids’ spaceship. In the end, Jack and Alex said their goodbyes to Seth and Sara, who returned to their own alien planet.