At a July 4th picnic in Prospect Park, our good friends John and Mai told us they’d recently brought their kid, Leo, to see Cars 2: Electric Boogaloo at a real, honest-to-gosh movie theater. He liked it, of course; he was already a fan of Cars 1: The Merchandising Begins. But for a moment I had one of those twinges of parental jealousy that strike even the most indifferent New York dads. Their kid has seen a movie, I thought, and mine hasn’t!
But it’s about time to remedy that. Sasha is now 2 and a half years old, which is about the age I was when my dad first took me to the movies. I don’t remember which came first, The Rescuers or Winnie the Pooh, but I didn’t make it all the way through either one without asking Dad to take me into the hallway. I was scared.
In fact, it was only on movie no. 3 that I managed to sit in my seat the whole two hours without getting frightened. That movie was, of course, Star Wars. I still remember how small I felt as that Star Destroyer cruised over my head and across the screen—this was the movie for me. I probably don’t have to tell you much more than that for you to know it changed my life.
So, what will be the movie I bring Sasha to that changes her life? Is there anything on the horizon this summer that’s worth risking the dirty looks of fellow matinee-goers? Something that’s not just totally horrible and cynical and functioning as a mega-commercial? Or should we wait another year or three?
I do have to add one thing: While Mai, John, and Leo were enjoying Cars 2, Sasha and I were sitting at home, in my air-conditioned bedroom, watching a somewhat similar movie on TV: The Road Warrior, starring a terrifyingly young Mel Gibson as Mad Max. At one point, a bad guy manages to set off the booby trap on Max’s car, and the thing explodes in a glorious fireball. And that’s when Sasha turned to me and we said, at exactly the same time, “爆炸! (Bàozhà!)” Which in Chinese means, “Explode!” And that made it the best cinematic explosion I’d seen in a very long time. I hope Sasha remembers it that way, too.
hee-yow, my WIFE wouldn’t sit through Mad Max. We were flipping through the channels the other night and found it on TV somewhere, and it turned out to be right before the settler gang rape/murder and finger-chopping-boomerang scene.
As for the kid, just make sure it’s not the Smurfs, and you’ll be fine.
#Greg: my son asked to go to the Smurfs when it comes out. What are you implying?–theodore.
My kid is 3 and a half, and I’m ready. But I’m not sure he is. He can’t sit through a full-length movie at home, so he won’t last 10 minutes in the theater. And everything is dumb 3D now too. I’ll wait a little longer… And he doesn’t know he’s missing anything anyway, so that’s fine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjG45ZTFFjM, but you’ll have to come to Paris on july 20th !
If it’s still playing in September, I’ll come check it out! (But without Sasha.)
Why not the new winnie the pooh? Of course, you’ll have to remove the uncertainty and say that first movie you saw was winnie the pooh.