KIDS FIRST! News

An Australian high schooler dreams of making his life in music. In fact, Tommy daydreams in music, mentally creating orchestral performances out of the sounds that surround him – such unlikely noises as post-hole diggers in the rugged Outback and construction site clamor. As Broken Hill enacts these imaginings, we experience the artistic beauty that inspires Tommy.

Reviews by KIDS FIRST! film critics Gabriella Chu (age 14) and Raven Sky Devanney (age 13) share how well Broken Hill connects with its audience. “I love this movie because it is very creative. I never heard someone play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” so authentically until I heard Tommy and the inmates improvise with the song and make it sound so awesome by using all kinds of instruments – from buckets to violins. The final piece Tommy’s band plays is also excellent,” says Gabriella. Below are the full reviews from both teens. 

‘Broken Hill’
by Gabriella Chu

Broken Hill is a wonderful movie. The first few minutes of the movie instantly capture my attention! It tells the story of a teenage boy named Tommy (played by Luke Arnold) who dreams of starting a band to get into music school but is distracted from his goal because he likes a girl in his class named Kat (played by Alexa Vega), and he is also discouraged by his father. Tommy and Kat end up doing community service at a jail after they pull a juvenile prank and get caught by the police. The two do not get along initially, but they gradually become friends and form an original band with the prison inmates. Is Tommy’s band good enough to get him into the Sydney Conservatory music school? You have to watch this movie for yourself!

I love this movie because it is very creative. I never heard someone play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” so authentically until I heard Tommy and the inmates improvise with the song and make it sound so awesome by using all kinds of instruments — from buckets to violins. The final piece Tommy’s band plays is also excellent. I think the original music by Christopher Brady and the orchestrator David Long are fantastic! I also like how director Dagen Merrill shows how Tommy hears music everywhere. Just by listening to things in nature such as grasshoppers, the wind, and rivers, in the middle of the Australian desert, Tommy can replace these normal noises with the sounds of instruments to compose a beautiful symphony in his mind. I am impressed at the way the director made this comparison.
 
It is difficult for me to hear everything the actors are saying because most of them have an Australian accent. Other than that, I think this is a great movie. I would recommend it to children ages 11 and up because the movie contains some deep messages that may be hard for younger kids to understand, such as music can be found everywhere and music can lift anyone’s spirits. This movie will suit most viewers, especially those who are interested in music. 

For Tommy, the prison band seems his last chance to put together the audition performance he needs to get into the prestigious music conservatory, though he keeps his goal a secret from everyone but his private music maestro. The prisoners are not so enthusiastic at first about the band, but are persuaded to participate by another inmate, Kalai, who seemingly feels he owes Tommy for an earlier act of kindness. There are many strands of relationships that develop around Tommy, as KIDS FIRST! film critic Raven Sky Devanney shares:

‘Broken Hill’
By Raven Sky Devanney

Broken Hill is an amazing movie about a boy from Australia who wants to become a composer but his father disapproves, so he makes a band with local prisoners.

I really really like this film. It is funny and touching and super great! The cinematography was nice and it is pretty funny in the beginning when Tommy is imagining the orchestra.

I really enjoyed watching the relationship grow between Kat and Tommy throughout the film. My favorite character is the drumming prisoner because he was clueless and hilarious.

I was really shocked, in the end, after Kalai escaped and there was no closure between him and Tommy. It left me wanting more.

This film is for ages 12 and up because it is a little mature for younger kids. Broken Hill is a great movie for teens. I give this film a thumbs up!

Released for home viewing by E One Entertainment, Broken Hill is available on DVD May 17.

Photos, from top to bottom: Broken Hill, Gabriella Chu, Raven Sky Devanney

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, a DVD release from E One Entertainment scheduled for May 31 (with 10 limited-edition bands as a bonus feature!). Five specialty shaped rubber bands are carelessly left behind on a deserted stretch of desert highway after the box they’re 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.

Shapes and dialog coordinate perfectly in this 50-minute animation, rendered in very elementary form that the youngest of ages can easily follow, although some of the dialog hits a little above that level in wordplay and message. Each of the novelty bands has a unique talent they are proud to show off (“I sparkle,” flower-shaped Daisy repeatedly reminds the others), but it’s an ordinary rubber band they meet after a second mishap sends them to a recycling center in a garbage truck who really snaps them into focus. “We all have different talents, but we’re all made from the same stuff,” Stretch tells the novelty bands. “We’re a team.”

As a team, now, all six continue on their journey to the toy store – and, they hope, the wrist of a novelty-rubber-band-loving child.

The Superman comic book character created in 1936 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster was an almost immediate hit, yet in spite of that fact and its popularity as a 1950s TV series, it wasn’t until 1978 that Superman got his chance on the big screen. A skinny Christopher Reeve won the role on a “super” screen test, then buffed up 40 lbs of muscle in preparing for the filming. As KIDS FIRST! film critic Raven Sky Devanney (age 13) points out, standards have changed in the ensuing years, but this is still a film to appreciate.

‘Superman’
Reviewed by Raven Sky Devanney
(and see her review on video)

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No … It’s Superman!!! And not just any Superman movie, it’s the original! This American classic provides entertainment for the whole family.

This film is entertaining and it is interesting for me to see how movies back then were made, but it is a little cheesy. For instance, the extremely over-exaggerated facial expressions from Superman are just too much. It is more of a comedy than an action movie for me. I understand acting methods were a bit different when this film was made, but it seems like Superman is just too perfect and it doesn’t give him a very interesting or deep personality and it makes him really predictable. However, this film is enjoyable and is a must-see at least once in everyone’s life.

This movie is good for all ages but should be watched as a family because it is fairly long [2 hours 23 minutes] and a little confusing in the beginning. Over all, I give this classic a thumbs up!

Directed by Richard Donner, the film took a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and earned John Williams a Grammy Award the next year for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special. Of its several Oscar nominations in 1979, its win was a Special Achievement Award for visual effects.

Superman is one of many film classics being brought to your home by HDNet Movies, a KIDS FIRST! sponsor. HDNet Movies offers subscribers a premium movie viewing experience in true HD, including the best classics of the 1950s-1970s, favorites from the 1980s and 1990s, to recently released theatrical films. Additionally, HDNet Movies offers kidScene, a morning and Friday night programming block specifically for kids and families. HDNet Movies kidScene can be followed at hdnetmovies.com and via Facebook at facebook.com/HDNetMovies.

Launched in 2001 by Mark Cuban and General Manager Philip Garvin, the HDNet networks are available in the U.S. via AT&T U-verse, Charter, DIRECTV, DISH Network, Insight and Verizon FiOS.

Photos: Christopher Reeve as Superman (top); Raven Sky Devanney (bottom)

Yes, it’s back! The popular KIDS FIRST! Film Critics Boot Camp builds valuable learning around one of kids’ favorite activities: watching movies. Kids know what they like in movies; the program of this one-week summer day camp aims to help them understand why and how movies create the impressions they do.

With visual media as pervasive as it is in today’s world, such knowledge gives kids valuable tools that go far beyond the movie theater. Boot Camp director Janet Davidson brings her experience as a filmmaker to the program that teaches kids aged 12 to 15 how to look critically at individual elements, from directing and acting to cinematography, writing and art direction. Boot Campers will take in new films and discuss them, and will also view older films and compare published reviews with their own reactions to the films.

The fun part is when kids learn to perform on camera! They will develop confidence and self esteem – skills that will carry them into the future, even if their goal is nowhere close to being a film critic. We are looking to discover the next Lisa Guerrero or Ryan Seacrest but it may be that we find the next Zac Efron or Dakota Fanning. “The value of learning to perform in front of a camera is incomparable,” says Davidson, noting that kids often have strong opinions but become self-conscious about expressing them. “It will carry you in every walk of life.”

Other on-camera experiences will be in sit-down, two-camera interviews such as are seen on TV. The play-acting (one kid is the star, the other is the interviewer) also goes with staging red-carpet interviews. “If they want to dress up, that will be fun — and acceptable,” says Davidson.

Whether kids dream of a film-related career or not, understanding the dynamics of how a film is appreciated will be a valuable skill. And Davidson notes, “Because film encompasses so many attributes of life, appreciating film can help them also appreciate more of life.”

Santa Fe, N.M., hosts the first KIDS FIRST!’s Film Critics Boot Camp this summer, June 13-17. The next week, June 20-24, it is scheduled for Albuquerque, N.M. Los Angeles offers it July 11-15. And the camp will be available in Annapolis, Md., July 18-22. For more information and to sign up, visit http://www.kidsfirst.org/become-a-juror/BootCamp.html.

Photo: KIDS FIRST! film critic Anthony Aranda (eight years old) interviewing Danny Gokey (“American Idol,” Change of Plans)

Ninety-one shorts and feature films met KIDS FIRST!’s standards for combining excellence in filmmaking with pro-social benefits to be selected 2010 winners of the annual KIDS FIRST! Best Awards. High-profile theatrical releases and specialty DVD series from major studios – like How to Train Your Dragon and Shrek Forever After, both from Paramount Pictures, and Anchor Bay Entertainment’s Wow! Wow! Wubzy! – make up about one-third of winners, with indies and student productions making up the other two-thirds. Categories are, of course, arranged by age recommendations, but additionally, student and independent films are judged in their own categories to provide them the best opportunity to be judged among their peers.

Picnic Productions gave us the animated indie short “Pups of Liberty” for ages 5-8, recasting the historic Tea Party of the American Revolution with easy to differentiate players: dogs as the Americans and cats as the British. For the 5- to 12-year-olds, Sustainlane Media gives a rocking rock ‘n’ roll animation, “Gorilla in the Greenhouse: Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” that makes a strong case for environmental awareness using lingo that connects with its target audience even if it may leave some of the parents struggling to keep up. High-school student Alex Fjellberg Swerdlowe scored high marks for his live-action drama The Complex (trailer shown here), tackling adult themes with a mature hand.

Visit http://www.kidsfirst.org/filmfestival/2010/Best2010Winners.html to see the complete list of this year’s winners, with links to some of the shorts. More about the awards, including previous years’ winners, are also on the KIDS FIRST! website’s Best Awards page. KIDS FIRST! will be launching a virtual film festival this year where all short films accepted for festival play will be available to view online. Watch for the announcement.

KIDS FIRST! Best Awards are given annually to films and screenplays that have screened at the KIDS FIRST! Film Festivals and special screenings nationally and world-wide. The nominees are drawn from more than 800 titles that are submitted to the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival. Then, from the 300 that are accepted, five nominees in each of 30-plus categories are selected. The first-, second- and third-place winners are determined by our senior jury, comprised of child development specialists, media professionals and film programmers.