Movie Magic

For those of you that don't know, Joe and I have known each other since high school. He was one of my brother's best friends. But it was not until we worked together at a video store after high school that we grew smitten with each other. So it would seem only natural that our mutual love of movies would carry over to our children. In an effort to make certain that Jake recieved one-on-one attention from his Mommy after Jadyn was born, I started taking him on movie dates. Our first date was to go see the movie "Cars". Of course, the movie was great. However he was barely 2 and it is kind of a long movie for kids so he made it about 3/4 of the way through before wanting to leave. I remember thinking, "But wait, I want to see how it ends!" Then it came out on DVD right around the same time he got a nasty flu bug and he watched it over and over and over again. He was hooked. We then went to see several more movies that were not very sucessful - Happy Feet (with the penguins) and the live action version of Charlotte's Webb. Last Fall I took him to see the Bee Movie and for the first time he made it through the entire movie.
He really enjoyed it. The popcorn and Skittles didn't hurt. We just recently added that one to our DVD collection and both kids actually really enjoy it.

Yesterday, I took Jake to see the CG animated version of Dr. Suess's Horton Hears a Who.
I have never heard so many kids laughing in a movie theater. It was really well done. A lot of humor for adults too. Jake liked it, although at times I think he laughed more so because other kids were laughing but he did make it through the entire movie. The real kicker though was that we saw a preview for the live action movie of the animated classic cartoon Speed Racer.

Preview for Speed Racer

I almost fell out of my seat laughing when I saw the beginning of the trailer. THAT IS GOING TO BE JAKE. When the preview was over, Jake looked over at me, eyes opened wide and said, "Whoa Mom! That was cool!" I think he was a little disappointed that we were not seeing that movie but in the end he did like Horton Hears a Who. And so the love affair with the big screen begins.