Movies with Mia: Wreck-It Ralph

This was probably the most anxiety I've endured about taking Mia to the theater. It was the first time that we wanted to see a film that probably wouldn't interest her. Despite our various gaming consoles, she's not shown much enthusiasm for video games, which is fine by us. So the film's material had me wondering just how much she would even care. But whenever one of us says "We're going to a movie," those eyes light up, so I take that as a good sign...though I know it's just for the popcorn.

We had planned for the first 2D screening of the day, but since I can't read the online movie schedule, we showed up a half hour late, and I'm too cheap to shell out for the 3D tickets. Plus we all hate those stupid glasses anyway. So we opted to wait till after nap time and catch a late matinee, which we were still late for, because I had a harder time getting up from my nap than she did. So we walked in halfway through the Paperman short everyone's going crazy over. I hope to catch in full someday.

Since we were so late to a matinee on opening weekend, we didn't even bother trying to search for good seats and took three on the front side aisle close to the door: great access for us to jump up for potty breaks and more concessions, but bad for us since everyone else who needed the same crossed right in front of us.

She was a in mood where she just had to sit in my lap and not her own seat, which I didn't mind, but she got kicked in the back by her little sister for a majority of the film. Sibling rivalry already. And as the movie began, the popcorn, soda and candy flowed, Brad and I laughed while she sort of just sat there. At first.

I noticed she really was into the film when I laughed really loudly and she turned around and ssshhh-ed me. Or she was just embarrassed. Not sure which. But the (quiet) questions about who was who and what was what started, and I could tell she was genuinely paying close attention.

Of course the absolute measuring stick was that she didn't once ask to go to the bathroom, and during an almost 2-hour film with lots of soda, that's simply a damn miracle. Of course it freaked me out, causing constant checks of my lap to verify she had not forgotten her bladder altogether. But we managed to escape accident free.

The highlight during the film was when the "bugs" from Hero's Duty came out and started to attack. To keep her steady in my lap she was sharing with the belly, I had my arms around her stomach, but when those bad critters were on screen, she would grab my hands and pull them up close around her chest for protection. Simply awesome.

And over a week later, she's saying she wants to be a race car driver instead of a princess, reminding everyone that Ralph was both the mean guy and the good guy and declaring "I'm gonna wreck it!" at every turn. In hindsight, all that anxiety was unnecessary, because I'd call this our biggest success yet.

[For my actual thoughts on Wreck-It Ralph, go back and check out my review here.]

Movies with Mia: Finding Nemo

We meant to knock this one out a couple weeks back, since we were looking forward to it all summer. Alas, it was a bit of a bust.

First, since we waited two weeks after Nemo's re-release, we no longer had the 2D option available. My thoughts on the scam that is 3D are well documented, but it gets even worse when you have an almost 4-year-old who still makes a game out of take-the-glasses-off-put-the-glasses-on for half an hour, but that came later.

Mia did extremely well during the first hour, when the popcorn and soda were flowing freely that is. She talked a bit here and there, mainly asking questions as kids do (though we've watched the DVD numerous times). We would ssshhh her, but then I simply didn't care. Why would I let my child talk out during a film screening? Because the asshole parents in front of us kept pulling out their phone, lighting up the screen the size of Texas, whether it was to just check the time, email or at one point even pass it down to the 8-year-old for some reason the remains unknown. So if I had to have that obnoxious light in my line of vision, they could have my daughter's nagging questions buzzing in their ears. I feel no remorse.

However, about an hour in we simply had to put an end to the endless snacks. The popcorn she inhales, but it's salty and makes her thirsty, so she drinks soda. Lather, rinse, repeat. When the bathroom breaks started coming in 15-minute intervals, we had to cut the little junkie off. That's when the boredom started. She started playing with the glasses, and when that no longer sufficed, her seat was no longer good enough and she had to sit in my lap. That use to not be a problem, but the bigger my belly gets, the less comfortable this situation is for all involved, but she's determined nonetheless. She was quiet, but bored, and I spent the last half hour under the sea in pain.

All in all, it probably wasn't worth the $30 I had to spend on 3D tickets, but we haven't ventured to the theater since Brave back in June. We really should have known better, because she's never been terribly fussed over Finding Nemo when we watch it at home. We'll see how the re-release of Monster's Inc. goes later this year.

Movies with Mia: Brave

WARNING: I mention a few elements of the film that could be considered spoilers if you have yet to see it.

We had our first BIG theater trip this weekend. Instead of waiting for an early show on Sunday morning with few other patrons, we decided to be...well, brave, and took our chances with a late Saturday matinee spilling over with kids of all ages. After waiting a bit for the film to start and sitting through the trailers, I thought to myself "At least my kid won't be the worst behaved." And she wasn't.

In fact this trip was probably the best behaved she's been. She was very quiet for a majority of the film, though we did have to endure her Spanish once the witch showed up ("la bruja!"). Aside from that there were no major outbursts that I recall, and only one bathroom break this time, which my mother, who accompanied us, was gracious enough to handle.

Unfortunately, we still have the issue of her looking bored for most of the film. Maybe it's not really boredom, but perhaps she has no idea what's going on. Either way, she just doesn't look like she's having fun. However, I am grateful that she never became restless and disruptive during the film. And she didn't play musical laps once, staying in her seat the entire time.

Then the bears showed up. I know you probably think I'm going to say that she was terrified of them and it turned into a nightmare forcing us to leave, but that's not what happend at all. This was when she actually seemed to really get into the story, particularly with the far more vicious bear. This shocked me quite a bit since this is the same child that freaked out over an episode of Curious George the other day, but I went with it.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience, despite the louder older children and the infant down front. Afterwards, I asked her what her favorite part was, to which she simply shrugged her shoulders. So I asked her if she liked the bears and she said "Yeah, but they really scared me." Shocked, I told her I was sorry she was scared, to which she replied "That's okay, I'm fine." I'll figure her out one of these days.

Movies with Mia: Madagascar 3

Guess what I did Sunday morning? Besides eat left over birthday cake (his not mine) for breakfast, we thought we'd give this whole theatrical trip another test and took Mia to see the third Madagascar film, which seemed to be more of an experiment for me as the parent. Oh, how the tables have turned.

I was a bit scared at first, because when I asked her if she wanted to go to a movie with a giraffe, hippo, zebra and lion, she got really excited and shouted "The Lion King!" Um, no sweetie, that ship sailed last year when you were too little for the theater. After that I was praying this wasn't going to be another Pirate Piggies debacle.

So we get to the theater and I buy her the Madagascar promotional snack pack, because after all, popcorn is the Mia Buffer. As long as she eats it during the movie, she's relatively quiet and still. Brad accompanied us this time too, which is the Rachel Buffer when the Mia Buffer runs out.

We actually walked in right as the movie started, so she didn't have to sit through trailers, which makes her super antsy. Of course I saw the audience and immediately became nervous, as it was the biggest we've encountered so far. It was only a third full, but more than I expected. Thankfully, nobody likes the far side aisle seats, but I have found them most useful for small children, especially when there is three of us and only four seats in the row, guaranteeing no strangers will occupy that last seat.

All was going pretty well and the film at least captured her attention this time. Of course at one point, she decided to start naming all the colors she saw on screen...in Spanish. Though I hate to quash her love of the language, ssshhhing commenced.

Then the unthinkable happened: she stopped eating her popcorn! There was plenty left, but she didn't want it anymore. My heart rate increased as I went into panic mode, since we weren't even halfway through the 85 minute runtime. I sat with my pulse racing, fearing what would come next. But she just sat there watching the movie, drinking her Sprite, not talking or squirming. Eventually there was some "musical lap" playing (first Brad's lap, then my lap, then Brad's lap, and so on), but nothing completely disruptive, unlike the kid a few seats away who decided to get up and dance to all the cheesy pop songs. Oh, and eating of the popcorn did eventually resume.

Overall, things turned okay, much better than The Pirates! experiment. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to care. She might have giggled a time or two, but there wasn't that look of fascination that seeing Beauty and the Beast gave her. She seemed to be enduring the film more than anything, and that makes me a little sad. I know they can't all be winners (and Madagascar 3 wasn't) but she's a kid, and kids love talking animals, right? Don't get me wrong: I'm grateful she was well behaved, but I also want her to enjoy going to the movies as well, and we didn't reach that this time.

This particular experiment held another purpose: testing me, the parent, at a kids' film that I didn't give a crap about. I haven't seen any of the Madagascar films, I had no idea who the characters were or what the plot was, and I didn't care to know. However, I had to refrain from whipping out my phone to play Words with Friends or finish another episode of Breaking Bad. It was an exercise in testing my own patience of sitting through a movie that held zero interest for me, for the sake of my child's (pseudo) entertainment, which in the end is beneficial since there will many more years to come of such situations. Ya know, having family time while setting a good example and all that jazz.

Movies with Mia: The Pirates! Band of Misfits

There were no displays for The Pirates!,
so we posed with Thor instead.

About a month ago, I detailed the experience of taking Mia to her first theatrical movie (Beauty & the Beast) and what a massive success it was. Well, dear readers, the pendulum has swung (three-quarters) the other way.

I had been itching to get her back in the theater, but we missed The Lorax, and after it was gone, there weren't any other options. I seriously considered Chimpanzee, but decided she simply wasn't ready. Then The Pirates! Band of Misfits opened this past weekend and thought it might be entertaining, though the animation style was quite different than what she's used to. I thought since we're still in the experimental stage of her theater adventures, a film that I wasn't anticipating would be a good choice to test the waters further.

There were no scary trips over the river to the second-run ghetto theater this time. No, no. We got to go to my lovely multiplex, with stadium seating, clean bathrooms, and 10:00 a.m. screenings, which was the perfect time to experiment since our theater was next to empty.

But then I got a bad feeling feeling when I went to the machine to buy tickets (I hate people, so I prefer technology) and it said the next screening for The Pirates! wasn't for another hour, despite what my Flixster showtimes app was telling me. So then I went into panic mode as I tried to decide if it was worth it to stay for an hour at the theater with a 3-year-old in the name of movie-going science. I decided I'd investigate further by talking to the man in the glass box, who had a marquee behind his head saying the next screening started in five minutes. As it turns out I clicked the showtimes for the 3D (ick!) version at the ticket machine. Operator error. And the man in the box took one look at Mia and assumed she was under whatever age gets in for free (she's not, she just looks it), so I was out only $6, which is the high point of the entire experience.

We sat off to the side far away from the other 10 patrons to avoid ruining the film for them. And it's a good thing, because Mia was bored. And I mainly blame Dora the Explorer.

You see, Dora is Mia's favorite show, and she's seen every episode at least 10 times. But I allow her to keep watching it to help build her knowledge of the Spanish language, since daycare stops with colors and numbers. Unfortunately, Dora has a couple of adventures with pirates as well, but they're pigs dressed as pirates. So as we were watching The Pirates! Mia kept asking for the "pirate piggies" and didn't understand why there were grown people dressed as pirates. Once I told her (for the millionth time) that there were no oinking pirates, she was pretty much done. So she proceeded to tell me that she wanted more popcorn, wanted more soda, needed to go potty, that she was cold, that she wanted to go up and down the steps, that she wanted to watch Dora, etc.

After I finally ssshhh-ed her into submission (and bribed her with the promise of Sonic tater tots), she actually did settle down for the climatic third act, but clearly didn't really care, because she didn't ask any questions. Of course the zinger was when we got in the car afterwards and she asked me what my favorite part was. I tried to turn the tables on her, but she just changed the subject.

You may be wondering why I didn't just take her home. Well, she really wasn't loud and squirmy enough to disturb anyone other than me. Now if it had been a packed house and we were forced to share armrests with total strangers, then I wouldn't have let it go on, but since we're still in the experimental stages, I wanted to ride it out and see what I might expect in the future. All in the name of movie-going science, I suppose.

Movies with Mia: Beauty and the Beast

[Editor's Note: This will be a sporadic feature detailing the experience of taking my 3-year-old, Mia, to the movies. This inaugural post will be a bit longer, since it was her first time and there is plenty of backstory to be told.]

If you've listened to our latest podcast episode, you'll hear my exciting news: I took Mia to the movie theater for the first time! Needless to say, it's a day I had been anticipating for quite some time. We originally had the big event planned for Brave's release in June, but as I was browsing the local offerings, I noticed our second-run theater on the other side of the river had the re-release of Beauty and the Beast.

Mia's like any other preschooler: she latches on to a movie and watches it repeatedly until her parents are ready to stuff the disc in the garbage disposal. Her first attachment came summer of last year with the animated Shakespearean retelling Gnomeo & Juliet. Then we moved on to the 1985 Sesame Street classic Follow That Bird. Soon her love for Dora the Explorer hit and it was all about streaming episodes of Dora on Netflix and nothing else would do.

Sometime after the New Year (her 3rd birthday), she started asking for Beauty and the Beast regularly and suddenly it was her favorite movie. So seeing that Beauty and the Beast was at the cheap theater, I had idea: why not use this as a practice run? It suddenly made more sense to take her to a movie she already loves. We knew it wouldn't scare her or leave her asking a million questions of who certain character were and what was happening. And if all went horribly wrong and we had to leave early, we only wasted a 20 minute drive and $3 a ticket, instead of $7.25 each at the local multiplex. And that $3 is actually pricey for the second run theater only because the movie was in 3D; normally first screening matinees would be $1 a ticket.

After debating whether or not the 3D would cause issues, Brad and I decided that the noon screening on Sunday was our destination, and we built it up to be a huge deal to her. She didn't know what "going to the movies" was, but she became very excited when we mentioned it and was on her best behavior so she wouldn't miss out.

So after buying our tickets, purchasing our snacks and enduring a lot of excitable exclamations of "my movie! my movie!" we finally took our seats...and encountered our first obstacle.  This older theater did not provide the luxury of stadium seating. Not only that, but our poor 25-pound child was being eaten by her seat, slipping further into the crack. So it was into Dad's lap she went, which we hesitated on since she usually has a low threshold for laps. But as long as she had her hand in the popcorn bucket, she was satisfied.

Eventually the lights went down and the screen lit up. While enduring several trailers for other kids' films and a Tangled short, Mia started getting antsy. "Where's Belle?!" This is when the ssshhhing started. Thankfully we were blessed by sharing the theater with only a few other families, all spread relatively far apart. So she wasn't necessarily bothering anyone else, but we wanted her to understand that talking during a movie is just rude. We're trying to insure the kid displays manners, even if she sometimes fails to do so.

But then the feature started and her face lit up at all her familiar characters and songs, and it was relatively smooth sailing. After two large buckets of popcorn, one large soda, and several rounds of take-the-3D-glasses-off-put-the-3D-glasses-on, the credits rolled and she immediately asked for "another episode."

She did talk a bit during the first half hour, but eventually got the hint and ended up sssshhhing me at a point of laughter later in the film. The kid's a sponge sometimes. All in all, I'd say we had a major success for our first time to the movies. The next time will be a new challenge with a different theater and an unfamiliar film, but it's a challenge for another day. For now I'll just relish this one small victory.