The ex and I took our sons to their very first movie theater movie. That’s right, our 8 and 5.5-year-old sons have never been to a movie theater. And their dad shows them some cartoons and they have seen a few short animated films as well as “The Muppet Movie,” but not in a theater. I know: we are horrible parents. We have deprived them for years. They have missed out on so many irretrievably incredible experiences in movie theaters. Whatever. We finally took them to the movies. Yay. (And just think of all the money we saved not taking them to the movies all of these years! Yay!)
Firstborn loved it. Little Man was trepidatious but did great which is astounding considering that the Harlem Globetrotters game near broke his and my spirit with its loudness and overstimulation on so many levels.
Here’s why “The Lego Movie” was awesome for me as well as my boys.
1. Lego animation. I thought the movie was going to be animated like a cartoon, but seeing actual Lego animated stop-motion style was really fascinating. I have such respect for the artists who put this film together. It’s wonderful.
2. Clean as a whistle. No fart jokes. No cursing. I am kind of conservative when it comes to that stuff and I don’t like bravado in cartoons even because it tends to make kids act cocky I think. Some cartoons which are made for older kids makes my boys act like older boys and I don’t like that. This movie had none of that.
3. Not scary. At all. There’s a tiny bit of a sense of the bad guy being “bad” with some menacing music and some menacing camera angles up close to his grumpy face, but it’s super clean. If Little Man could handle it, your kid can. I promise.
4. Awesome message. As you know, I have great respect for construction workers. Remember my post about the skilled and lovely men who have been working on my house? Well, this movie drove home the point in spades that every worker is somebody, everyone has skills, and the best skill of all is to be creative and resourceful. And also to be yourself. And to find what’s distinctive about you and to believe that you are special and have the power to make change happen. (Can you tell I cried when I saw this movie? Yeah. About six times.)
5. Fun. Despite me being generally curmudgeonly, I actually do like fun things. The Lego movie did not disappoint. There was a song about everything being awesome (called “Everything is Awesome”) which I am still walking around and singing. Lego Batman in the movie is arrogant and hysterical. There are shout-outs to “Star Wars” and to the Lego Space sets of my youth that had me laughing out loud. This movie was super fun. Lots of laughs. Good times.
See? I know how to have fun!
Thank you, Lego movie. Everything is awesome.
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