KIDS FIRST! News

Your opinion (and your kids’) matter, so we invite you to join the KIDS FIRST! Home Screening Club. Get the DVD and host an exclusive screening for your family and your friends’ families. Then share your feedback with us – from the kids and the adults. It’s as easy as popping popcorn, and there’s no charge to be a member or participate.

We’re kicking off the KIDS FIRST! Home Screening Club with a new film entitled “Bands on the Run: The Rubber Band Movie,” which E One Entertainment released on DVD May 31. The first 100 people to sign up will get a free DVD of the film for their home screening.

When you send us your review of the DVD, you will be entered into a drawing for one of the two HD TVs that we are giving away.

Then, we’ll continue every month with a drawing to give away a prize to someone who sends in their feedback – written reviews, videotaped reviews, comments from your audience and/or photos of your event. The prize will vary from a HD camera to an HD TV.

The screenings are very limited, so your chances to win are very good!

A little about Bands on the Run: The Rubber Band Movie:
If your kids are into rubber band bracelets, it’s no stretch to imagine they’ll be into Bands on the Run: The Rubber Band Movie. Five specialty shaped rubber bands are carelessly left behind on a deserted stretch of desert highway after the box they are in is jostled off the delivery truck. Attempting to “follow that truck” and get back on track to the toy store that’s expecting them, they get run over by a speeding car which turns out to be a good thing, as they happily roll along, stuck to the spinning tire as it unknowingly carries them where they wanted to go. Runtime 50 minutes. Ages 4-8.

KIDS FIRST! Home Screening Club

Elf is a feel-good Christmas movie that brilliantly balances Will Ferrell’s typical silliness with James Caan’s perfectly delivered tough-guy cynicism. Whichever humor is better suited to your personal funny bone, there’s plenty of it to raise a smile or guffaw through to the film’s epilogue.

With a touch of “The Ugly Duckling,” Ferrell’s title character grows up with the elves in Santa’s workshop at the North Pole after having crawled, unseen, from his crib in an orphanage into Santa’s bag of toys one Christmas Eve. The pathos of an orphanage existence is furthered by the scene in a sterile nursery being shot in darkness and shadows, in sharp contrast to the festive ambience of Santa’s North Pole. But rather than open on that dreary note, director Jon Favreau (Iron Man and Iron Man 2) introduces us to the story through a visit with the adoptive elf-father (a pointy-eared Bob Newhart, in his trademark deadpan delivery that imbues the far-fetched tale with an earnest honesty).

“Buddy” (named from the label on the diapers he was wearing on his arrival) grows up with all the positive self-esteem the elves can encourage in him, although it’s obvious to everyone but him that he just doesn’t fit in — literally as well as figuratively, as he spills out of his school desk, squeezes through doorways and nearly smothers Papa Elf when he sits in his lap. But his idyllic existence is shattered when he overhears two elves refer to him as “human.”

So Buddy sets off to find his real father (James Caan as Walter Hobbs), and the snow-globe essence of the scenes changes to real-life when he hits New York City. Misadventures and clumsy emotional overtures follow. Zooey Deschanel provides Ferrell with a sweet love-interest, and Daniel Tay becomes his compatriot as Caan’s other, emotionally starved, son.

There is some mild profanity and discreet sexual innuendo in this 2003, PG-rated, award-winning family film from New Line Cinema, but possibly more disturbing is the reference to unbelievers who think “parents leave the presents under the tree” and eat the cookies put out for Santa — although the film’s resolution affirms that Santa is as real as Christmas spirit.

A REMINDER ABOUT KIDS FIRST! FILM  CRITICS’ SEARCH:
Tomorrow, Oct. 20, is the last day to get those reviews entered in our first annual KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Search.

The videotaped reviews will be posted on KIDS FIRST!’s partner site, WonderWorldTV.com. Check it out — entries are posted there now. And be sure to vote for your choice to win. There are two more weeks, but remember that voting closes Oct. 31. Your vote is important — the popular vote will determine the 20 finalists.

Keep your Kleenex handy as you watch My Dog Skip. With a screenplay based on the same-named autobiography of writer and editor William Weaks “Willie” Morris, the award-winning Warner Bros. film from 2000 is a poignant revisit of a period of his childhood growing up in Yazoo City, Miss. Accompanied by his Jack Russell terrier Skip, Will (Frankie Muniz) experiences life lessons of idols fallen and retrieved, bullies, first love and, above all, loyalty and friendship.

The boy-dog partnership almost doesn’t happen, when the puppy Will’s mom gives him for his eighth birthday is taken away by his father. This seeming hard-heartedness is revealed to be anything but, as the stoic dad (in a consummate performance by Kevin Bacon) describes to his wife all the heartache he is trying to protect Will from. Pointing out that Will will face these things eventually, she perseveres, and the story unfolds in multiple layers. As much for adults as children, the film offers gems of insight such as, “Give a man a label and you never need to get to know him.”

It’s fall of 1942, and shy bookworm Will is losing the support he has heretofore relied on when the town athletic hero, Will’s next-door-neighbor and seemingly only friend, is shipped off to fight the Nazis in Europe. Although Dink has been a willing mentor, he’s been more crutch than ladder, and it is Skip who helps Will grow in confidence this pivotal year.

Peopled with believable characters in the adult roles, the film centers much on relationships between Will and other kids in his small town, and their performances are uniformly excellent. And aside from a few inconsistencies (such references to both moonshiners and a six-pack), the period in World War II, pre-integration South is nicely constructed.

A REMINDER ABOUT KIDS FIRST! FILM  CRITICS’ SEARCH:
Tomorrow, Oct. 20, is the last day to get those reviews entered in our first annual KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Search.

The videotaped reviews will be posted on KIDS FIRST!’s partner site, WonderWorldTV.com. Check it out — entries are posted there now. And be sure to vote for your choice to win. There are two more weeks, but remember that voting closes Oct. 31. Your vote is important — the popular vote will determine the 20 finalists.

Walt Disney’s beloved fairy Tinker Bell flits off to a new adventure in Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue. Streeting on DVD next month, September 21, the movie will have a special advance screening on the big screen this weekend, August 21 and 22. KIDS FIRST! and Walt Disney Home Entertainment are bringing Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue to theaters in select cities across the United States. Visit kidsfirst.org/filmfestival/TinkerBellScreening for a list of locations and to print the KIDS FIRST! passes. Screenings are free, but please plan to be early as seating is strictly first come, first served.

Cooperation is key as Tinker Bell must team up with a rival fairy to keep humans from finding out they exist. Mae Whitman as the voice of Tinker Bell reprises her role from last year’s Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure and the previous year’s Tinker Bell, along with Kristin Chenoweth and Lucy Liu as Rosetta and Silvermist, respectively. Michael Sheen (who voiced the White Rabbit in Disney’s recent theatrical release Alice in Wonderland) adds a new voice to the animated cast as Dr. Griffith.

And the wait is over for Furry Vengeance — the DVD streets today. Especially appropriate for kids aged five to 12, Furry Vengeance is one of the seven titles in the KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Search competition. The fur flies in this film as the forest creatures prove more than a match for a real estate developer (Brendan Fraser) looking to turn their habitat into a housing development.

We’ll soon be adding the discussion guide for Furry Vengeance to our website, to enhance your after-viewing discussions and to help your child prepare his or her entry for the KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Search. Five fortunate film-loving kids (age six to 15) will ultimately be chosen a KIDS FIRST! film critic for one year, to attend previews and red carpet events and write reviews for KIDS FIRST! and our media partners. The first step is to submit a written review (of Furry Vengeance or one of the other six titles) by October 10. Entrants will then be invited to submit a videotaped review by October 20 – and we’ll send you instructions on how to create the video.

Winners will be announced the weekend of Nov. 12 – 14, as the KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Search culminates with a unique event: We will attempt to set a world’s record of one million kids “viewing and reviewing” the same movie (The Velveteen Rabbit) at the same time. Mark your calendar now to take part in this special occasion. And watch the WonderWorld website, where you and your friends can view the KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Search video entries and cast your vote for the winner.

DVDs of KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Search selections are standing pretty at Toys”R”Us. The retail giant for children’s clothing, furniture and more, a sponsor of the KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Search Campaign this inaugural year, is helping spread the word to eligible kids by giving the display prominent position on their new release endcap display. Four of the contest titles are readily available now to add to your family collection: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Furry Vengeance and The Velveteen Rabbit. And watch for the Toys”R”Us emailed circular this weekend —  promoting a 25 percent savings on these DVDs when purchased in the store. Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes will be available on August 24th.

Amazon is adding its punch to the program with promotion of the KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Search Campaign as part of its Kids & Family page and in its blog and Facebook page.

This is all helping to bring us closer to the knock-out conclusion we’re planning for the final weekend of the KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Search, Nov. 12 – 14. That’s the weekend we will announce the names of the five kids chosen to be KIDS FIRST! Film Critics for one year, attending special events (including red carpet premieres for movies), interviewing the stars and writing reviews of the films for KIDS FIRST! and our media partners. It is during that weekend we will attempt to set a world’s record of one million kids “viewing and reviewing” the same film on the same weekend by encouraging kids and a caring adult to enjoy The Velveteen Rabbit together.

The competition is ongoing right now. Kids ages six to 15 have until October 10 to submit a written review, and until October 20 to submit their videotaped review. The video reviews will be posted on KIDS FIRST!’s partner site, WonderWorldTV.com, where the public will vote on the reviews and narrow the field to 20 finalists. The five winners will then be chosen by a panel of celebrity judges.

And parents — this is not only a fun activity to share with your child, but it’s educationally sound. With visual media such a pervasive element of contemporary life, we’ve developed our KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Campaign to encourage an active rather than passive response — a vital visual literacy whereby kids learn to critique as well as write reviews about media they enjoy. Use our discussion guides (we’ve prepared one specifically for each of the competition’s selected films) to enhance your child’s appreciation of the film as well as to help her or him work up an insightful review. Just click on the DVD title on the right side of the KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ Search page, and it will take you to the film’s information page and discussion guide.

You can support KIDS FIRST! directly by purchasing the Director’s Cut of The Velveteen Rabbit directly from SteppingStones.com. A portion of your purchase will be donated to KIDS FIRST!, supporting the Film Critics’ Campaign.