20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
1000 films, June 8, 1999
This review is from: Leonard Maltin's Family Movie Guide (Mass Market Paperback)
Leonard Maltin and his partners again provide a good resource for movie selection for kids. This time, they get it about 85% right. I found myself reminded of several movies I had forgotten about but which my kids (daughter 7, son 4) might like: "Singin' in the Rain", "James & the Giant Peach", and "Li'l Abner." And, I learned about good movies I had not known about, such as "Korczak", for older children, and "Billy Rose's Jumbo" (with Doris Day).
Maltin overlooks a recent straight-to-video Miramax movie my kids love. "The Thief & the Cobbler" features the voices of Vincent Price as the rhyming villain, Jonathan Winters as the persistent thief, Matthew Broderick as the charming cobbler and Jennifer Beals as the spunky Princess. The animation is startling, the story is great and the running ruminations of Jonathan Winters hilarious. I also notice that Maltin does not include Mary Martin's "Peter Pan" or the remake of "Mighty Joe Young."
Each film has a note as to how it will play with young children and another note for older children. "Babe," for instance, is "VG" for young children and "VG" for older children. Maltin seems to measure these scores on a variety of points, including themes of sexuality, or violence, or boredom. He is especially alert to how frightening movies can be, and will comment about difficult parts. He also understands that children and adults view the same movie differently. "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure " is boring or insipid but for kids it is "VG/VG." "Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang" is understood to be a weak "Poppins" imitation, but some kids like it anyway ("VG/NG"). Most of the newer "Batman" films get a direct "no" for young children. "A Patch of Blue" gets a "no" for young children and "VG" for older children. I would want Maltin to distinguish or alert us to other, more subtle problems with certain movies and the lessons and scenes our children will take away from them. Young children, especially, live in a world in which bad behavior is punished and good behavior is rewarded, but many movies do not care about that. In "Pocahontas" ("VG/VG") there is no clear good guy/bad guy division, which was quite disturbing to my kids. For "Dumbo" ("VG/VG"), which Maltin correctly describes as sweet and sad, he notes the scene in which Mother is locked up as a Mad Elephant, but does not recognize the depth of the lesson in this to very young children, that a mother's protections are punished and that Mother can be taken away and the baby left alone. Elsewhere, Maltin has listed "Dumbo" on his "best 10 for children" list. For "Oliver!" ("VG/VG") Maltin makes a point of noting the darker side of the movie, in the physical brutality of Bill against Nancy. I would argue that the beatings overshadow the benefit of the rest of the film for children under 9. In "Grease" ("OK/VG"), the good guys can be mean to their girls, and casually smoke cigarettes. My daughter could not resolve those paradoxes and found it too difficult to work through them and enjoy the story. Maltin does not mention these but does note the problem message, of the heroine getting her man by "trashing'' herself. "Annie" points out the potential terror and confusion for young viewers but still rates it "VG" for young children (and "OK" for older kids).
Today children will watch a video a dozen times (or fifty), and we parents need help to pick through the lessons they are learning. Maltin provides some help and is alert to many of the pitfalls. In the end our own presence is needed to answer questions -- and ask the questions for them, where they are unable to pick apart their confusion. As Maltin reminds in his introduction, "every film is made better when you talk about it with your kids."
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