Cars 2 Sneak Peek Reviews!

It's almost here, the official opening of Cars 2!  This long awaited sequel (really long awaited if you're a preschooler... pretty much your entire LIFE) debuts in theaters this Friday June 23.  You can check it out locally at either the Manayunk or Plymouth Meeting Mall theaters this weekend.  But we here at GAP are so very special, we snagged some preview tickets last weekend.  Our guest reviewers had the following raves:

From "Mama B":
Full of action, comedy, and fun, this movie's theme of friendship,  believing in ones self, and being proud of who you are, while  subtle, is heartwarming. The dazzlingly colorful film features  every car model you can think of and takes you on a trip around the  "Cars" world to see the sights of Paris, Tokyo, and London.  Good friends, fancy spies, travel, a mysterious bad guy with a posse of  "lemons" (cars), and an introduction to alternative fuel ...A  delightful film that is sure to please the whole family (and keep  parents awake, maybe).

the cutest critics ever!

From Abi, age 10:
This movie was cool because the cars got to travel all around the
world. Lightning McQueen is the best race car in the world!
Francesco Bernoulli, the Italian race car, is annoying and always
brags that he's going to win every race. Mater and Lightning McQueen
stay best friends even though Mater gets on his nerves sometimes and
Mater learns to be proud of himself.


From Amaya, age 10:
Cars 2 was the best movie I have ever seen. My favorite characters
are Mater and Holley Shiftwell because they are funny and adventurous
and they like to explore. I liked lightning McQueen too because he
is cool, awesome and super fast.  The movie was entertaining for
kids and grown ups, but most of all it inspires kids to become
people who like to explore.

From MuNetri, age 6:
"That movie was soooo awesome!"

Mars Needs Moms: Movie Review (where's the thumbs down icon?)

We were given passes to see a preview of Mars Needs Moms (taken from the popular children's book) at the Franklin Institute.  I took my second grade daughter and two of her friends.  Here is her review, with mine following:


Mars Needs Moms is a cool movie. I went to see it with two of my friends. One of my friends thought it was scary the other one said it was freaky.  I thought it was funny, freaky, awesome, great, and very action-packed.  My mom thought so too. 


I liked the martians, Ki , Gribble, Milo, and Milo’s mom. Gribble was really funny. The movie was about a boy named Milo. His mom got kidnapped by martians because she was so good at being a mom. Milo goes to Mars to try to save his mom by getting her out from a machine that shocks people and makes their memory go away. It was very exciting, but the end of the movie was a happy ending.    

While I agree that it was action-packed (one crisis after another), I had a big issue with part of the plot.  Most of the Martians had loc'd hair (as in "dreadlocks").  And while they were the "good guys" of the movie, there was also a point where they were referred to as "dumb as a box of rocks" and generally were portrayed that way.  Sitting sandwiched between my daughter (with loc'd hair) and a woman with long locs of her own, I found that line and the portrayal of those characters, totally offensive.  I usually try to avoid reading too much into children's cartoons, but this didn't leave much room for interpretation.  This was definitely one of those times when I wish I'd previewed the movie before my children saw it.  If I had, they would never have seen it at all.