mumandkids Reviews

The Nutcracker: The Untold Story (2010)

Awful.

[2/10 · 4 December 2011]

Even the kids hated it. At end daughter asked if we could put it in the rubbish. I wanted to stop watching by halfway.

Holocaust themes, dark and violent for younger children, and lots of rat teeth.

To be fair, make-up and costumes were alright plus Elle Fanning is gorgeous and a talented actress but even as the main redeeming feature she was unable to support this holocaust-themed bastardisation of a ballet. Tim Rice may be good at lyrics but the breaks into song were un-natural and whole thing forced, boring and dreary. Composers would be turning in their graves. I truly hope I never watch this again!

Monster Mutt (2011)

Poor movie

[2/10 · 23 September 2011]

Smart cheeky children, left home unattended, poor plot, house is way too tidy. Rhiannon was wonderful in the 'Last Mimzy' but here she is precocious.

Overacted poor corny script, but the WORST part was the dog. As soon as the big and very fake dog appeared the movie was totally downhill. Maybe good for young children who can suspend disbelief better, but the young ones were upset and worried when the dog was injected (and then later shot) and the giant fake teeth scared them. Only suitable for one of those wet Saturday afternoon movies they play on television.

Please don't make me watch this again ever.

Gnomes & Trolls: The Secret Chamber (2009)

Nice but not delicious.....

[20 September 2011]

Was easier to watch the second time. A lot of the action and scenery looked similar so you had to listen hard to the script to get a lot of the jokes and understand what was happening. Even after the second time (though I wasn't watching as closely as the kids) it was hard to know the names.

Visuals exciting if a little messy, but lots of things unexplained or not explained clearly- a little more back info on the characters would have given them more depth. Why are the gnomes and trolls in the forest and why do they fight each other? Bipolar hedgehog, very bizarre character- why is he like this? And as a previous review said, the boy lying and taking something from his father should have been addressed and apologised for by the boy somewhere in the 'moral of the story'.

We hired this movie (hence watching it 2-3 times) but would not intentionally choose to hire it again, may be interesting to see if the 'Forest Trial' movie (2010) is a good follow-on though.