Movie recommendations from Almeida kids

The girls have watched an eclectic mix of movies recently while I've been sick. (I really got knocked off my feet for a while but I'm on the mend.) And because they really liked some of these movies, they thought I should, "tell the other moms about them so their kids can watch them too."

So here are the Almeida kids' movie recommendations.

Legend of the Seeker
This is actually a TV show the girls watch on hulu.com every week and is based on the books by Terry Goodkind (which we have never read but G. is going to start soon and does not seem to be too daunted by the 600+ pages of the first title yet). This fantasy fiction series is a good vs. evil type of story in the spirit of Narnia, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. G. is the BIG fan of this series.

Igor
The girls really enjoyed this one and spent the first half of the movie trying to figure out who the voice of Igor was. I knew it was John Cusack and told them a couple of movies I could remember he was in, none of which they recognized (which was probably not a bad thing). Then G. proclaimed half way through the movie, "I know! He's the same guy who was in Anastasia (the animated version)."

Sometimes I'm better off just letting them figure these things out on their own.

City of Ember
L. has read all the published books in this series by Jeanne Duprau and both she and G. (who has not read the books) really enjoyed this movie.

Longshots
This one is based on the true story of an 11-year-old girl from Texas who became the first female to play in a Pop Warner football tournament. Keke Palmer stars in this movie and since the girls were inspired to learn how to be better spellers after watching her in Akeelah and the Bee, they picked this DVD right up at the library when they saw it. Both girls gave this girl power-type movie two thumbs up (the girl burping with her uncle at the kitchen table may have helped boost this rating for L.). But unlike the spelling bee movie, neither have a desire to ever play football.

August Rush
This was a really great movie for kids who like music and/or play a musical instrument. It's about a musical prodigy who ends up finding a clue to his birth parents through his musical gift. I've enjoyed listening to both of my girls practicing their band instruments more lately because of this movie.

Oh, and G. wanted me to mention that one of the main characters was also in Bend It Like Beckham and she was proud to have figured out that connection (that movie was another favorite at our house a couple of years ago).

CJ7
This gets an enthusiastic two thumbs up from L., who said, "this was the BEST movie ever!"

It's about a poor boy who is given a toy that looks like an old ball but turns out to be an alien who grants wishes. Only the wishes can sometimes be more than the boy bargains for and he ends up in some interesting situations.

This is a subtitled movie because it's in Mandarin so it may lack appeal for kids who have never seen a subtitled movie (we watched it via Netflix Watch Instantly).

L. is particularly fond of the scene when the boy takes the alien's poop to school and problems ensue (it seems kids the world over are potty humor fans).

The director of this film, Stephen Chow, is a favorite at our house. He's got an off-beat sense of humor that we like (L. and Fino especially) and a story line about ethics/morals that I appreciate, but you have to look beyond face value of his movies to see that though.

Chow's Shaolin Soccer was a movie the girls watched over and over for months and while they've also seen this director's movie Kung Fu Hustle, it's not a kid's movie (i.e., there's a bit too much violence so preview it before you let the kids watch it) but the girls enjoy the off-beat humor of that one as well.

I also need to put this recommendation in context of other movie recommendations made by L. on Kid Tracks. (Although CJ7 really is a movie geared for kids and a good recommendation, the movie below is not.)

A few years ago she was enthralled with a Cantonese-subtitled, Mr. Vampire (which is more comedy than horror in my crew's opinion) that she watched with Fino (and not a kid's movie but she and Fino are big Asian movie fans, which you would know if you talked to L. about the sadness she felt about Mothra's demise).

L.'s interest in Mr. Vampire extended to her hopping around NYC for two days (not exaggerating) in imitation of the characters in that movie (the vampires were like zombies, moving with their arms extended in front of their bodies but instead of walking, they hopped to get around). She even convinced her cousin (a kindred spirit in the spunky nature department) to hop everywhere with her.

And the highlight of that NYC trip was not the American Girl Doll store as expected, but the discovery of a poster in Chinatown for a Mr. Vampire sequel (unfortunately that movie turned out to be a major disappointment for L.).

I tracked down the video I took on that NYC trip to demonstrate her enthusiasm for that movie (other kids dress up like their favorite movie characters but L. sometimes likes to be a bit more creative).



So like I warned, this recommendations list from the kids is eclectic. But having watched all these movies, I can attest to them all having a certain appeal for tweens and teens (and appropriate content-wise for the age-group, with the exceptions I noted).

Have you seen any B-movies lately (American or foreign)? The girls are looking for some new ones...