KIDS FIRST! News

With great gross-out that kids thoroughly enjoy, “Smash Your Food” won First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Apps for Healthy Kids” contest. The iPad application from Octave Media International, LLC, can be downloaded from iTunes. KIDS FIRST! youth film critic Brianna Beaton (age 12) shares why making a mess with food is so educational – and what other advantages it offers to parents.

Smash Your Food
App reviewed by Brianna Beaton

“Smash Your Food” is an educational app that teaches you about healthy food habits. I really don’t know how much sugar, salt and oil there is in the everyday foods we eat, but “Smash Your Food” teaches you.

This app displays a particular food and then you guess how much sugar, salt and oil there is in it. After you guess how much it has, then you can SMASH it. It then tells you the actual amount. It is so real with the videos and sound effects (squishing, popping).

It is definitely an eye-opener as you will learn what not to eat, and it helps with your nutrition. “Smash Your Food” is a fun way for kids to learn about foods, such as sweets that add to your calorie consumption. It has about 40 foods that you can SMASH, from doughnuts, junk food and soda to entire full meals. It is high-definition Video – and real food is used.

I’m not sure if it tells you your daily allotted dose, but I would like to see that.

This app is good for ages about four to teens. Adults will also enjoy it because they may not know how much [of the nutritional elements] is in a food. It has different levels and sends parents e-mails on how well their child is doing with the app.

I really enjoy this app and get to learn at the same time. I give this app 5 out of 5 stars

Photo: “Smash Your Food” (top), Brianna Beaton (bottom)

Done in stop-motion animation by the same studio that brought us Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, Aardman Animations, The Pirates! Band of Misfits features some well-known voices in Hugh Grant (as The Pirate Captain), Salma Hayek (as Cutlass Liz) and Jeremy Piven (as Black Bellamy). Seasoned KIDS FIRST! youth film critic Anthony Aranda (age 9) reviews the film for us here, and will be presenting his review in person on next Tuesday’s edition of KIDS FIRST! Coming Attractions, streaming live on VoiceAmerica Kids.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Reviewed by Anthony Aranda
(See his full review on video.)

This movie was great. I loved it because it has a ton of action and funny parts. This movie is all about the pirate captain and his crew who are trying to win the pirate captain award, so he goes and tries to steal money from other ships but that doesn’t work out well.

The main characters in the movie are the pirate captain, his crew, Queen Elizabeth, Charles Darwin and Polly. My favorite character is the pirate captain because he is really funny and always, ALWAYS does the opposite thing of what his crew says.

My favorite part in the movie is when the monkey and Charles Darwin are falling down a hole, and when the monkey is falling the cards he is holding make this word, aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

I would recommend this movie for ages five and up because there are some violent parts that younger kids might not like. Go out and see this in a theater near you on April 27.

Photo: The Pirates! Band of Misfits poster (top), Anthony Aranda (bottom)

PBS KIDS is hitting the right note for both kids and their moms, according to the latest Nielsen NPower national program ratings. In February, PBS KIDS‘ weekday block of preschool programming took four of the top spots for kids ages two to five, with “Curious George” at number one, “The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That!” and “Super Why!” tied for second place and “Dinosaur Train” placing fourth. Online viewing was also at a record high; in fact, February marked the first time PBSKIDS.org was the number one kids site for both unique viewers and videos viewed.

Building on February’s momentum, PBS KIDS presented a special “Cat in the Hat-A-Thon” in March in celebration of Dr. Seuss’s 108th birthday, which also scored high ratings: More than 2.2 million kids from age 2 on up to pre-teen 11-year-olds tuned in to PBS stations across the country for a two-hour marathon of the hit program “The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That!”  Interest seemed to be running high, as unique visits to “The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That!” website rose 80 percent during the 10-day period leading up to the marathon. Video streams also spiked: From February 21 to March 2, there were more than 12 million video streams for the program online and on the PBS KIDS Video App, available free on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

“In addition to our success with the preschool audience, PBS KIDS was also number one among moms in February, with six shows in the top 10.  “Curious George,” “Sesame Street,” “Super Why!,” “Thomas & Friends” and “Dinosaur Train” took the top five slots and “The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That!” placed seventh,” says Lesli Rotenberg, senior vice president of Children’s Media at PBS.

The high ratings, online and mobile content usage attest to PBS KIDS’ focus on serving children wherever they live, learn, and play – whether on TV, online, through mobile devices, in the classroom, and with a new line of educational toys. And PBS KIDS also offers a lot of coloring activities parents can download for their child, built around their favorite PBS KIDS series.

Photo: PBS KIDS

It’s unanimous. Both of our KIDS FIRST! youth film critics who reviewed Disneynature’s documentary Chimpanzee (see below) loved the film – and the chimps it depicts. Talia Rashba (age 11) says, “If you aren’t a fan of chimpanzees now, then this film will make you love them!” Brianna Beaton (age 12) calls the film “amazing” and “heartwarming” as she shares, “I absolutely love how it captures the bond between a loving mother (Isha) and her adorable young son (Oscar).” And it’s spiced with humor, thanks to narrator Tim Allen. The film starts its theatrical run on April 20.

Chimpanzee
Reviewed by Brianna Beaton
(See her full review on video.)

This is a very heartwarming and lovable film.

I absolutely love how it captures the bond between a loving mother (Isha) and her adorable young son (Oscar). Tim Allen narrates this amazing, heartwarming film, and boy is he doing it well! I like how he uses humor and is really describing the chimpanzees’ actions. My favorite scene is when Oscar is trying to open a nut with several tree limbs that fail, but then, after much determination, he realizes that the rock is the right tool to use to crack it open. I really enjoy the music; it captures the feeling of what is going on. When it is suspense, the music is suspenseful. When the rival groups are fighting for territory, the music is really dramatic. The cinematography is extremely well-done, with tons of close-ups of nature and Oscar. It gives you a feel of what the forest is like.

Chimpanzee is a documentary set in the deep forests of Africa. It tells the story of Oscar, a young and playful chimpanzee that has a good life with his friends and family. Oscar is curious and wants to learn everything he can. But when separated from his mother Isha, during a fight for territory between their group and a rival group, the learning stops and he has to look out for himself. When everyone else he knows is rejecting him, the one person that you would never expect to take him in does — and changes his life forever.

Alastair Fothergill (African Cats and Earth) and Mark Linfield (Earth) share in directing this nature film. It’s giving you an up-close and personal experience of what the chimpanzee life is all about. During this film, you will see that chimpanzees have needs and feelings just like humans do.

Chimpanzee is great for ages 7 and up. During the battle seen, it may be a little too much for younger ages.

I give this film 5 out of 5 stars because of all the touching scenes between Oscar and his fellow chimpanzees. It left me wanting to know more and more about Oscar. 

Chimpanzee is genuinely a great film and I’m sure you will enjoy it as well. It swings into theaters on April 20th, just in time for Earth Day, so please go and check it out.

Chimpanzee
Reviewed by Talia Rashba

This is the best nature movie ever! I had a wild adventure in the beautiful African rainforest, watching a group of chimpanzees live their lives. This movie has no human characters – the real stars of the movie are actual chimps that live in the rainforst off the coast of West Africa.

This film is a documentary, so the story is very real. We meet a little chimp named Oscar, and his mom Isha, who live in the forest with a group of several other chimps. We see their everyday life and how they interact with each other. When they get attacked by a group of rival chimps, Oscar is left all alone until someone comes to help him.

Oscar is a fun, playful and adorable little chimp who always stays by his mother’s side. When you first look at little Oscar, you will instantly fall in love with him. He sometimes gets confused, especially when he is searching for food. This makes for some very laughable moments.

Isha, Oscar’s mother, is a very loving and protective parent who will do anything to keep her son safe. Freddie is the leader of the troop and is very dependable and strong. He protects and guards the group and he knows how to do everything that they need.

Chimpanzee is narrated by actor Tim Allen. You might recognize him as the voice of Buzz Lightyear from all three Toy Story movies. He definitely adds a lot of humor to the film and he helps explain a lot of what is happening with the animals.

There are SO MANY amazing parts to this movie. The rainforest is absolutely gorgeous, and the way they get close-ups of tiny creatures and plants is outstanding. Just the way they capture raindrops falling onto a leaf or a mushroom blew my mind. The directors of this movie are the same ones who made the award-winning film Earth, and I think they did an excellent job with this movie as well.
Chimpanzee is rated G, and I think that it is a great film for children and adults from ages four to 100. There are, however, some scenes that may be too intense for very young children.

If you aren’t a fan of chimpanzees now, then this film will make you love them! You will see just how smart they are and how much they are really like us. I thought this movie was so terrific that I am giving it a 5 out of 5 stars! This film will teach you so much about the life of a chimpanzee.

You can see this incredible film in theaters April 20th! An extra bonus is that if you see this movie during opening week, Disneynature will make a donation to the Jane Goodall Institute, an organization that helps save chimpanzees all over the world. You DO NOT want to miss seeing this movie!

Photos: Chimpanzee poster (top), Brianna Beaton (middle), Talia Rashba (bottom) 

A two-and-a-half-year labor of love, Return of the Horse gets its first screening May 17 at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, ahead of an upcoming schedule of screenings at film festivals and museums. The painstakingly researched documentary chronicles the history of America’s wild horses, North America’s native horse, interrelated with the “lifes and times” of the people – heroes, villains and victims – whose lives shaped their destiny.

“Painstakingly” is an unusually apt description in this case. Co-filmmaker Leo Hubbard notes that there is a lot of pain in the history of the American peoples’ relationship with the horse. The mustangs, prized for their endurance (and preferred by cattlemen for those long cattle drives popularized by Western, until the proliferation of railroad spurs shortened the drives to where the European horses could be utilized), were also cruelly treated pawns in the United States’ attempts to subdue the Native Americans.

The movie, aimed for an adult audience – with the ability to be presented to advanced high school students – was a challenge to husband-wife filmmakers Hubbard and Sharon Eliashar, both of whom produced, wrote, directed, filmed, edited and animated the film. Says Eliashar, “The challenge was to take complex scientific things and make it easy to explain them – to take historical concepts and show how connected they are to our relationship with the horse.” And also, she adds, to not make the movie a marathon eight-hour piece – an especially difficult task given the number of “Aha” moments they experienced during their research.

In addition to their background as educators, Eliashar and Hubbard bring a unique combination of artistic talents to the project. While they stress that Return of the Horse is not an entertainment film but is as accurate an account as science and history will allow from our 21st-century vantage point – the script was verified by leading historians at such respected institutions as The Smithsonian – its artistic elements are undeniable.

Eliashar, a musician as well as photographer (she was the film’s cinematographer), focused on creating an experience of authentic music throughout the film. Explains Hubbard, “When trying to get the flavor of the relationship, [she asked], ‘What were the sounds they were listening to? What music was Thomas Jefferson playing?'” She worked with the Library of Congress, for instance, to learn the first cowboy songs, and traced family records to track down living relatives in order to get the rights to include the music in the film – with more “Aha” moments along the way, for instance finding out that Jess Morris got the lyrics to “Goodbye Old Paint” from one of the era’s tremendous population of black cattle drivers.

Hubbard, an architect, artist and printmaker, put his talents into the graphics. Including maps, which are necessary to explaining history but commonly look like power point presentations. Not so in Return of the Horse. The goal, he explains, was to create powerful and beautiful images. “Every graphic should look like art you’d put on your wall,” he says.

While creating a film for “people who really want to learn,” as Hubbard expresses it, he and Eliashar have also crafted a sensory experience.

Photo: film still from Return of the Horse