Last week we were in movie-mode.

On Monday we went to see the new Disney film, “The Princess and the Frog”.  Two mums and 3, 4, 6 & 8 year-olds with us.  I quite enjoyed the film, the heroine, Tiana, was nicely feisty and I liked the fact that she had a dream about opening a restaurant and was determined to fulfil that dream.  She meets a frog who is really a Prince who has had a voodoo spell cast on him.  Oprah Winfrey does a turn as “Eudora”.  The voodoo scenes were a little scary, but no more so than any Disney film, so all were happy out.

Then a friend of ours gave us “My Neighbour Totoro”, a film by Hayao Miyazaki, from Studio Ghibli.  We have seen other films by Miyazaki, e.g. Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Whisper of my Heart.  I have to say that My Neighbour Totoro is going to become a family favourite, we have already watched it twice.  And the animation blows away the Disney film by a wide margin.  MNT is the story of two girls, Satsuke and Mei who move house with their father, a professor of Anthropology.  It transpires that their mother is ill in hospital, and as the story unfolds, and they settle into their new home, Mei discovers and befriends a large furry creature living within a huge tree nearby, “Totoro”.

There was a mildly scary bit near the start of the film when they are moving into their new house and discover soot sprites in the attic, but that’s as scary as it gets.  The rest of the film is endearing, beautifully made and a real treat.

We then went to the cinema again to see the new Miyazaki film “Ponyo”.  I would really recommend this film.  It is so different from any other kids films you see at the cinema.  The animation is absolutely AMAZING especially the underwater scenes and the scene of the storm in the middle of the film.  “Ponyo” is about a little boy, Sousuke, who finds a goldfish at the beach.  This turns out to be a magical sea mermaid/princess type figure who he nicknames Ponyo.  She is desperate to become a human girl to see what it is like.  Her father is a bit odd looking (long hair kind of womanly!), he’s a kind of angry underwater magician/potion maker, trying to keep the sea in balance against human’s pollution and bad treatment of the ocean.  Lots of famous actors have voiced the characters, such as Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett

If you have never seen anything outside of Disney, pixar and the like, expect the unexpected and off-the-wall stories and characters.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!