KIDS FIRST! News

There’s something about surfing movies that is always inspirational. The majesty of the ocean, the skill of surfers riding the waves. Add another powerful element – a father-son type of bonding – and the result is a movie that seems to resonate across gender and age. Chasing Mavericks is based on a true story, and comes across as authentic. Says KIDS FIRST! youth film critic Cheyenne Nguyen, age 7, “There are so many awesome footages of the waves and the surfing culture that the audience can really enjoy watching while learning.” Mogan Bertsch, age 7, calls the cinematography “hypnotizing,” and says, “You don’t have to surf to enjoy the movie, but it could open your eyes to a glimpse of what some of these amazing athletes will do for the sport.”

Chasing Mavericks
Reviewed by Cheyenne Nguyen
(See her full review on video.)

Today I am reviewing Chasing Mavericks. This movie is based on a true story that will inspire the audience.

Jay Moriarty (Jonny Weston) is raised by a single mom (Elisabeth Shue) who is never around. He almost died from drowning when he was younger and Frosty Hesson (the local surfing legend) saved him. Since that day, Jay follows Frosty Hesson (Gerard Butler). He notices that Frosty would go out very early in the morning sometimes. One day, Jay follows Frosty to see what he’s doing out so early in the morning. On this trip, Jay discovers the secret place where some local surfer legends surf. Frosty tells him that the biggest wave will come to this spot one day. He asks Frosty to help him train to ride the biggest waves.

During the training process, many life events happen and it ends up that Jay is helping Frosty as much as Frosty is helping him. They build a father-and-son bonding.

This movie has so many different emotions. There are relationship between Jay and his mom, Jay and his first crush, Jay and his best friend and Jay and his father-figure neighbor.

There are so many awesome footages of the waves and the surfing culture that the audience can really enjoy watching while learning.

The music is so perfect with all the scenes, especially with the skateboarders and surfers. The sceneries of the ’80s and a small-town lifestyle are awesome to see.

The special effects in this movie are above average. The big wipe-out captured in this movie is like no other pictures taken.

The message in this movie is never give up. Sometimes it is so much work to achieve your goals, but if you are practicing every day you will be better than yesterday.

My favorite characters are Jay and Frosty. Jay is so friendly and never holds grudges. He always forgives. Frosty is a great surfer with a big heart.

I rank this movie five out of five stars  

I give this an age range of 7 and up.

Chasing Mavericks
Reviewed by Morgan Bertsch

I got to go to the prescreening of Chasing Mavericks.

So the surf is up and we are heading to the ocean for this amazing movie. The movie is based on the real-life experience of Jay Moriarty, played by newcomer Jonny Weston. Jay moves to Santa Cruz, Calif., when he is 9 and learns to surf from a boy he befriends. He is drawn to the waves and the ocean. He counts the seconds between the breakers for fun.

Once he learns to surf and has made a name for himself as a good local surfer, he meets a legendary big-wave surfer named Frosty Hesson, played by Gerard Butler. Small world — he happens to be a neighbor across the street. One night, Jay hears noise and a commotion at Frosty’s house. He looks out his window and his attention is caught when Frosty brings out his bullet. A bullet is an oversized long-board that you need to ride a maverick. A maverick is a huge wave situation created by a storm system. When the conditions are right, you can find places in the world were the surf gets to be 30 or 40 feet high. It is like a four- or five-story building of water looking to squish anything that gets in its way. Yes, hello, that includes surfers, boat, kayakers and nearly any other water craft vehicle known — but for people like Jay, Frosty and the other maverick surfers, it’s what makes up their dreams.

The cinematography is hypnotizing. Some of the shots of the ocean and surfing are more than incredible. Your eyes are glued to the screen from the beginning to the end, and you can make a really strong connection to surfers and surfing as a lifestyle. Some people call it sour surfing, and Jay Moriarty was the youngest and the best.

In the movie, they show the relationship between Jay and Frosty as being only a few weeks of training seasons, but in real life Frosty trained Jay for years before his first attempt at riding a maverick. These waves can be 50 feet high and are very dangerous. There are so many things that can go wrong. Having us believe that all the training happened in one small stretch of weeks would be impossible but that’s just Hollywood telling the story.

Go watch this touching story and bring a friend but leave the boards outside. You don’t have to surf to enjoy the movie, but it could open your eyes to a glimpse of what some of these amazing athletes will do for the sport. Once you see it, you will know why, once you start, the ocean is always calling you to back to play again. I think I would love to learn to surf but I will stick with the small waves.

The age range is 9 and up, but really the photography in the movie will keep anybody entertained.

I give it four-and-a-half out of five twinkling stars.

KIDS FIRST! youth film critic Julia Chestnut, age 12, not only got to attend a pre-release screening of Here Comes the Boom (which she reviews below) but attended the film’s red carpet event. Check out the video of her red carpet interviews with Bas Rutten (who plays Niko) sharing his long friendship with Kevin James, and with Kevin James, star of this film, who opens up about playing a fighter in this movie and working with friends who are fighters. “Here Comes the Boom is jam-packed in every scene with a funny part,” Julia says in her review, and gets Rutten and James to talk about that comedy in her interviews.

Here Comes the Boom
Reviewed by Julia Chestnut
(See her full review on video.)

I love this movie; it is so hilarious! It is the funniest movie I have ever seen. The lead in this movie is Kevin James, who plays Scott Voss, and of course he is what makes the film the comedy it is.

This film is about how an apathetic high school biology teacher, Scott Voss, decides to find a way to raise money for his school to keep the music program going. He quickly figures out that mixed-martial arts (MMA) fighters get large sums of money, even if they lose the fight. Even though everyone thinks he is crazy, Voss goes on the risky adventure of being an MMA fighter.

Scott is a bored biology teacher who turns the failing high school around as he becomes the tough and daring MMA fighter. Boy, does he take a beating! Yet he never gives up as he becomes inspired by the music teacher and his students.

Salma Hayek plays Bella Flores in this movie. Bella is the school nurse and is sweet and helpful, and always gives Scott a hard time. When Scott gets hurt in a fight, she is there for him, but in a not-so-nice way.

Henry Winkler plays Marty Streb in this film. He is also hilarious. Marty is the school music teacher who believes “without music … life would be a mistake.” Marty is there for every fight and nervously cheers Scott on.

Here Comes the Boom is jam-packed in every scene with a funny part. The one I like the most is at the end when Scott is fighting someone who does this move that is slow and can hurt his opponent really badly. Suddenly, the opponent is picked up by Scott, and his face is so funny. His face goes from fierce and competitive to terrified of Scott.

This movie is hilarious! I would give it five out of five stars because it inspires everyone to follow your dreams and never give up! I would recommend it for ages 9 all the way to adults because it can get violent on the fighting scenes.

Here Comes the Boom comes out in theaters Oct. 12 and is rated PG. You don’t want to miss this movie!

Laughs is what sets this “misfit saves the day” singing movie apart from other teen and/or singing movies. Laughs and a satiric wit ably presented by an engaging cast. KIDS FIRST! youth film critic Victoria Burns, age 14, calls it “surprisingly really funny” and says she intends to watch it over again – which is also surprisingly as she shares that this type of movie is not usually one that’s for her.

Pitch Perfect
Reviewed by Victoria Burns

I went to see Pitch Perfect and it is surprisingly really funny. I do not usually like musical types of movies, but this one was one of the best.

At first I thought that this movie would be one of the ones with random outbreaks of  song, but this movie has a nice storyline and it is funny. The singing is amazing. Plus, since the movie is about an a capella group, it is interesting and kind of impressive to see the actors make the track to the music with their voices.

This movie is about Beca (Anna Kendrick), a girl who wants more than anything to be a music producer but her dad makes her go to college first. Finally, her dad says that if she goes to college for a year, joins a club and really tries her best, he will let her drop out and go to California. This gives her some incentive to do well in school and join the Barden Bellas, the school’s all-girl a capella group.

The Bellas’ arch rival is the all-boys group, the Trebles. Beca starts to fall for a member of the Trebles, Jesse (Skylar Astin), which is forbidden by the Bellas’ uptight leader, Aubrey (played by Anna Camp). The Bellas are old-fashioned and Beca is tired of it so she quits, then she rejoins and makes the Bellas better than ever, new, and ready to win. Whether they win against the Trebles is a mystery that you’ll have to watch to find out.

I love this movie, and the characters are very eclectic to say the least. My favorite character is Fat Amy because she’s hilarious and says whatever is on her mind, and it shows because she calls herself “Fat” Amy. I absolutely love this movie and will definitely be watching it repeatedly.

I give it five out of five stars because I like that the actors can sing well, and the way that they make the music track with their voices is amazing. I recommend this movie for anyone who likes music and comedy, because together it is a great combination. I like that the movie is not just about the singing and that it has a good storyline as well. I recommend this movie for ages mature 12 and up because the movie has some foul language but overall is a good movie.

A Halloween movie that is “heartwarming and hilarious” (KIDS FIRST! youth film critic Talia Rashba, age 11) AND “will have your hair stand up while watching the movie” (KIDS FIRST! youth film critic Cheyenne Nguyen, 8 years old) – Disney’s Frankenweenie impressed all our KIDS FIRST! youth film critics as a great family entertainment. It does, after all, have director Tim Burton’s singular touch of superb storytelling and a laudable moral with an uncanny use of the macabre.

The craft and dedication that went into making the film also impressed our KIDS FIRST! youth film critics. Describing the stop-motion animation, Morgan Bertsch, age 7, shares, “All the puppets took 24 movements to just capture 1 second of film. That’s crazy!” And, says Anthony Aranda, age 10, “The 3-D is awesome because it makes everything pop out.”

Frankenweenie
Reviewed by Talia Rashba
(See her full review on video.)

I absolutely LOVE this movie! It is a heartwarming and hilarious movie that I thoroughly enjoyed viewing.

Frankenweenie is a touching story about a boy named Victor and his dog Sparky. When Victor sadly loses his dog in an accident, he is heartbroken, but then he becomes determined to bring his dog back to life with the power of science. He has to hide his creation from everyone because people would freak out if they knew he had brought his dead dog back to life. But when Sparky gets out, Victor’s fellow students, teachers and the entire town have to stop the monstrous destruction of the town.

Victor (Charlie Tahan) is a smart and clever 10-year-old boy who loves science, making films and inventing things in his attic. He lives with his parents and his dog Sparky in the town of New Holland.

Sparky is a fun-loving and playful dog who loves his owner Victor very much. He loves chasing after balls and being the star of Victor’s homemade movies.

Mr. Frankenstein (Martin Short) is Victor’s dad, a friendly talent agent who is very outgoing and who likes to give advice to his son. He is proud of Victor’s accomplishments, but he is concerned he doesn’t have any friends besides Sparky. He would prefer his son to be more social and he encourages him to join the baseball team.

Victor’s mom, Mrs. Frankenstein (Catherine O’Hara), is a loving and supportive mother who encourages her son to do what he loves most, which is science. She loves her family, reading books and watching movies with her husband.

All of the actors’ performances are fantastic, including Atticus Shaffer, who plays Brick on the sitcom “The Middle,” film star Winona Ryder and Oscar-winner Martin Landau.

The thing I love the most about this movie is that it is a stop-motion picture. Stop-motion means that each character is a puppet and the animator must stop and position the puppet and take a picture each time, and once that is all put together, it creates filmed action. I think the stop-motion animation in this movie came out great. What’s really interesting is that all of the characters from Frankenweenie are based on Tim Burton’s very own drawings.

This movie is very funny, heartfelt and packed with action. To make it even better, this movie is in 3-D. Even though it is rated PG, there are some parts that are a little scary and, honestly, a little creepy! I really think Frankenweenie will appeal to adults because of the relatable humor. I recommend this movie for anyone from the age of 6 to 70 years old. I am giving this movie five out of five stars!

You can see Frankenweenie in theaters October 5th. Trust me, you don’t want to miss seeing this movie.

Frankenweenie
Reviewed by Cheyenne Nguyen
(See her full review on video.)

This scary stop-motion animated movie will have your hair stand up while watching this movie.

Victor Frankenstein (voiced by Charlie Tahan) is a bookworm who loves science. He lives in a small town name New Holland. His only real friend is his dog Sparky. Victor’s Mom (Catherine O’Hara) and dad (Martin Short) are both very supportive of his hobbies, which is making movies. However, his dad wants him to be outside more and play a sport. He is able to convince Victor to play baseball. This is where Victor loses his best friend, Sparky.

My favorite part of this movie is to see how Victor is surrounded by his classmates and teachers. They are Elsa (Winona Ryder); Toshiaki (James Hiroyuki Liao); Edgar (Atticus Shaffer); and Weird Girl (Dee Bradley Baker), who believes that her cat poops can predict the future. However, Victor’s favorite person is his new science teacher, Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau).

Mr. Rzyskruski’s science lecture gives Victor the idea of using lightning to bring back life, and Victor is able to bring back Sparky. However, his classmates copy his formula and create “Mad Science.”

The message in this movie is science is neither good nor bad. It’s what you make of it. It can be bad if you have bad intention. It can be very good if you heart is in the right place. Science comes from the head to the heart.

The quality of the stop-motion animation is unbelievable. Each character is made out of clay and the filmmakers are able to make them come to life.

There’s awesome cinematography – the light and shadows create a very spooky, scary, horror, black-and-white movie.

The only part I did not like is when Sparky is hurt. It is too hard to watch your best friend hit by a car.

My favorite character is Weird Girl. She is so funny with her cat poops.
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I rank this movie four out of five stars (due to some scary parts). 

I give this an age range of 8 and up.

Frankenweenie  
Reviewed by Morgan Bertsch 
(See her full review on video.)

This is a great movie if you want a little Halloween fright and scare.

This was Director Tim Burton’s debut for Disney, and I must say I really enjoyed this movie but it is kind of creepy. This is a stop-motion animation, black-and-white, 3-D movie. This was originally a short that Tim Burton did in 1984. It took him 27 years to bring this to the big screen in a full-length motion picture format.

The dog Sparky is my favorite character. The way the puppeteers brought him to life and acting like a real dog is amazing. Especially when you think that the original Sparky is only four inches tall and all of the rest of the set was built around him. All the puppets took 24 movements to just capture 1 second of film. That’s crazy!

Martin Landau plays the science teacher and he does a great job. The way he describes lightning is hysterical. He is Victor’s mentor.

Catherine O’Hare, Martin Short and Winona Ryder bring the voices of the characters to life. The voices are all very believable.

This movie is about a boy, Victor, and his dog Sparky. Sparky acts like a real dog and his favorite thing to do is to chase balls. However, he does have a crush on the dog next door.

Victor Frankenstein, who is heartbroken for having caused Sparky’s mishap, decides he must see Sparky again. Once you get to know Sparky, you will see that the name totally fits him.

My least favorite character is Mr. Whiskers as vampire-cat. He is way too creepy and tries to kill Sparky.

Don’t you just hate it when people copy-cat you? Wait till you see what Victory’s classmates do. Edgar “E” Gore and Weird Girl are my favorite kids.

I enjoy how other monsters get mixed into the story. I love the whole disaster of characters, from Mummies and Godzilla to vampires, sea monkeys, rats, gremlins and all the monsters. The monster rampage through the festival is tons of fun. You’ll recognize many of your favorite monsters, too.

I give it four-and-a-half twinkling stars.

The age range is 7 and up. Anybody younger could find this a little too scary and it might make them cry.

Frankenweenie
Reviewed by Anthony Aranda
(See his full review on video.)

I think this movie is awesome because it has lots of action and it was really funny, too. It was even cooler because it was done in 3-D and it was also pretty neat that the whole movie was in black-and-white.

This movie is all about a kid named Victor who has a dog named Sparky, and Sparky is Victor’s best friend. Sadly, Victor’s dog Sparky gets hit by a car and Victor is really sad. One day in science class, his teacher gives him an idea on how he can bring his dog back to life. So he goes home to try it and it works!

The 3-D is awesome because it makes everything pop out. My favorite part in 3-D is when Victor brings Sparky back to life, because the thunder comes straight at me. But I wish there was more 3-D because I always feel like they don’t put enough 3-D in the movie.

The main characters in the movie are Victor, Sparky, Mrs. and Mr. Frankenstein, Bob, Weird Girl, Edgar and Mr. Burgemeister. My favorite character in the movie is Victor because he cares so much about his dog and he goes through a huge adventure to save him. He is also a really smart and funny character.

My favorite part is when the bullies and some other people use Victor’s idea and make dead things of their own come alive. Of course, the things they try to bring back from the dead don’t turn out right because they didn’t make them out of love like Victor did. The next thing you know, there’s a 70-foot turtle, a bat cat, a weird thing I can’t explain, and sea monkeys that can come on land. It is really crazy.

I would recommend this movie for ages 4 and up because my sister saw it and she thought it was a good movie. There are some scary parts that kids under 4 might not like. Overall, it is a great film and I would highly recommend this movie for you. Go out and see this in theaters on October 5th.

A two-hour-long movie would be expected to have its high points and low points, but KIDS FIRST! youth film critic Anthony Aranda says his favorite “part” is, actually, the entire two hours. The 10-year-old sees this as a film that, he says, “can teach people a lot.”

And this Twentieth Century Fox release has sparked some discussion by parents who, also, want to make sure their kids’ schools are the best they can be. In today’s economic climate of budget cuts, it’s a strong reminder of how important education is.

Won’t Back Down
Reviewed by Anthony Aranda
(See his full review on video.)

This movie is awesome. I love it because it has lots of emotion and it’s all because a kid has a terrible school and needs a new one so her mom and a teacher help, and I think that is great.

This movie is all about a kid who has a terrible school. So her mom and a teacher who works at the school think it’s a bad school, so they go against the school to try to make a better one. They have to go through a lot to help the mom’s daughter as well as the other kids at the school.

Some of the main characters in the movie are Jamie (the mom, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal), Malia (the daughter, played by Emily Alyn Lind), Nona and Michael. My favorite character is Jamie because she cares so much about her daughter that she works very hard to make a new school for her daughter and to shut down the other school named Adams. How she does this is by writing down tons of paperwork, and instead of sleeping she has to go to every house to see if they could team up with her. Luckily, she has a partner named Nona.

I could not pick a favorite part because the movie is so good that the whole movie is my favorite part. If I have to pick a favorite, I would probably say when Jamie has a big party to try to convince people to go against the school. There are cookies, a news team, shirts, FREE rulers and, to top it all off, Jamie gives a speech on why they should shut down Adams and build a new school.

I would recommend this movie for ages 7 and up because it’s really made for an older audience. I still like it a lot and I think that my brother might like it, too, and he’s 7, so 7 and up is good. The moral of the movie is really good and can teach people a lot. Go out and see this movie; it comes out in theaters on Sept. 28.