HUGO

2011, Paramount Pictures

Live action

Rating: PG

Approx. 125 mins.

THE STORY:

Having already lost his mother, young Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is orphaned when his father (Jude Law) dies in a freak accident. He is forced to join his largely absent Uncle Claude (Ray Winstone) as the clock technician at Paris' central train station. All he has salvaged of his previous life is a broken automaton that he and his father had been fixing. Believing it has the power to communicate some message from his father, Hugo continues to work on it.

Hugo uses parts he steals on forays to the station toy store when he tries to evade the station inspector, Gustav (Sacha Baron Cohen) who would send him to the orphanage. Instead he is caught by the store owner, Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley), who punishes him by confiscating his notebook containing his father's plans for the automaton. His need to get it back leads him into the lives of Georges, his wife and his adopted daughter, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz). He discovers a coincidental connection between his automaton and Georges, and sets out to help the latter regain the passion and respect he once held.  

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• brief discussion about a man having relations with his wife

VIOLENCE:

• Hugo's father is killed in a fiery explosion-- not shown in detail but overtly referenced visually and verbally
• there are 2 scenes in which Hugo is at risk of being hit by a train

TEACHING POINTS:

• nothing really overt, just lots of emphasis on people being more than they may first appear

THE UPSHOT:

The grown ups in the room loved this one. It's whimsical, imaginative, plausible. It's fabulously acted and beautifully shot/ animated. It tells a number of stories simultaneously without confusion or compromises. But my favourite thing was the way it truly introduces us to so many diverse, fully-dimensional characters, sometimes with barely any words or within a very short space of time. 

The 5 year-old in the room liked it, but some of the dialogue, themes and details were over her head. Older kids will definitely get more out of it, but visually there is a lot to appeal to the younger set.

I recommend this not as a kids' movie, but as a human movie. For people who like character studies, for people interested in film as a medium, for people who like a film to capture a time and place completely, for people who just like good movies.

4.5/5

MEET the ROBINSONS

2007, Walt Disney Pictures

Animation

Rating: G

Approx. 93 mins.

THE STORY:

Lewis (Daniel Hansen, Jordan Fry) is a young boy with big dreams. Abandoned by his mother, he lives in an orphanage and passes the time between hopeless adoption interviews inventing amazing things, some of which actually work. Occasionally.

When he tries to present his latest invention-- a machine that projects memories from the brain onto a screen-- at the science fair, he is approached by a Wilbur (Wesley Singerman), a boy from the future who needs Lewis to fix his time machine. He then enlists Lewis' help to catch the man in the bowler hat (Stephen J. Anderson), who has also travelled from the future with an ax to grind against Lewis. Together they travel back to the future, hang out with Wilbur's eccentric family, and manage to stop the man in the bowler hat before he destroys the time/ space continuum and life as everyone knows it.

Through his adventures in the future, Lewis gets a glimpse of the life he can have if he makes the right choices. He learns to think to the future rather than dwelling on the past, and that he can achieve all the things he wants-- success, family-- is he just keeps moving forward.  

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• none

VIOLENCE:

• nothing significant

TEACHING POINTS:

• keep moving forward
• dwelling on negative situations blinds us to the positive opportunities before us
• we have to claim responsibility for our own choices-- the right ones will have the right consequences 

THE UPSHOT:

It's like watching a movie by people with ADHD for people with ADHD. There are so many characters doing so many simultaneously manic things for the most part that it's hard to keep who is doing what straight. Then you have to deal with multiple versions of several of those characters sometimes even co-existing within the same time period. 

Younger viewers might get confused with the chronology due to all the time travel, but it's nothing a little selective explanation can't overcome. There is nothing genuinely scary or violent, no inappropriate innuendo or portrayals of female sexuality. There is some very positive messaging about failure being a positive and necessary step toward success, and about taking responsibility for accepting the opportunities life presents you with. Nonetheless, it was just too chaotic for the grown-ups and the 5 year-old in the room to truly enjoy.

BTW: Give the game included in the Special Features a miss unless you really paid attention to who did what. The questions are very specific, you have to choose from about 14 characters, and the promised hints are no more edifying than the questions themselves. You only get 3 chances before striking out, and younger viewers may get frustrated. We decided that it was  a practical exercise in experiencing failure for the sake of future success.

2.5/5

THE REEF (SHARK BAIT)

2006, DigiArt

Animation

Rating: G

Approx. 90 mins.

THE STORY:

Pi (Freddy Prinze Jr.) lives with his parents in the polluted waters near a major city. When they are caught in a fisherman's net his last promise to them is to swim to the protected waters of the reef and find his aunt Pearl (Fran Drescher). He makes his way there, finds his aunt, a new cousin/ friend, and Cordelia (Evan Rachel Wood), the fish of his dreams.

Pi discovers that Cordelia is being pestered by Troy (Donal Logue), a bullying shark. In an effort to save Pi from being hurt by Troy, Cordelia agrees to marry the latter. Pi then sets out to defeat Troy, and save and claim the fish he loves. 

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• idiot
• keister
• stupid

VIOLENCE:

• Very early on, the parents of the main character are caught in a net and never return (presumed dead)-- not violent, but could be upsetting for younger kids 
• the bad-guy shark also disappears in a net never to be seen again

TEACHING POINTS:

• stand up for what you believe in
• anti-bullying message-- but there is no hope for redemption; the bully gets ejected from the group and presumably killed

THE UPSHOT:

The 5 year-old and the grown ups in the room began by debating whether we had actually already seen this film or not (we hadn't). Everything about it just seemed familiar (i.e. unoriginal). Then we watched it (and immediately forgot everything about it).

They have tried to tread that fine line of appealing to kids and grown ups by mixing crude and slapstick humour with adult references and puns. Neither work well and the latter were a bit too risque at times for my liking-- as we all know, kids can shock you with what they pick up on.

I wouldn't bother.     

2.5/5