A Different Beauty: Sharing Film with Children

3 responses to “A Different Beauty: Sharing Film with Children”

1. Guy Noyes

   December 26, 2011

   Thanks, Steve. I still haven’t seen The Secret of Kells, having forgotten to put in a request for it (which is now done.) The Man Who Planted Trees brings appreciative tears to my eyes every time. Anyone who doesn’t realize that the very best of children’s literature and film are just as appropriate for adults might check to see if they are limiting their joy and understanding when they think, “I’m too old for that stuff!”

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2. anne

   December 26, 2011

   I loved the Red Balloon! My mother was librarian at a small rural library when I was a kid and they always put on a film series one night a week during the summer. When I got tall enough to reach everything, she let me run the projector. I can still smell the distinctive atmosphere of salt (tracked in by kids who had been at the beach,) faint dust, old paper, and whatever medium they used to print those reels of film.

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3. Raven

   December 27, 2011

   Oh, I loved “The Red Balloon” when I was a child, especially having spent a year in Monaco when I was young. I’ve shared both that and “The Secret of Kells,” but I’ve only read “The Man Who Planted Trees.” I didn’t know it was a movie!

   I enjoy looking for good films of all types to watch with my daughter, and other homeschooling children I have the pleasure of knowing. Miyazaki is one of the greats of modern child-at-heart films. I think it’s important to mention some of the good ones that have been overlooked from the past that are now difficult to find except from companies catering to collectors, video stores like Scarecrow that provide more than just mainstream film, and those rare sellers on eBay or Amazon who place a single item out that gets snatched up in seconds. Films and shows such as “Cities of Gold,” the two somewhat saccharine, but no less lovable, Unico films (“The Fantastic Adventures of Unico” and “Unico in the Island of Magic Toys”) by Osama Tezuka (the godfather of anime), “Phantom Tollbooth,” and “The Peanut Butter Solution.”

   I asked my daughter to list some of her favorite children’s/family films (non-Disney, non-Miyazaki), and she came up with a few (although I edited the list to not include some of the more adult/teen-focused ones). Many of these are in mainstream knowledge, but for many, the books from which some were derived, weren’t well known before the movies:

   The Secret of NIMH
   The Last Unicorn
   The Road to El Dorado
   The Lady in Water
   Faerie Tale Theatre series
   any film with Danny Kaye (including “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “The Inspector General,” and “The Court Jester”)
   Coraline
   Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (with Gene Wilder)
   The Dark Crystal
   Titan A.E.

   I know there are many, many more, and they’re failing to come to me except as brief images from my own childhood or from my daughter’s earlier years. Frustrating!

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