Secretariat

Last night I had a chance, thanks to BlogHer and Disney, to check out the newest Disney movie, Secretariat.

About a month ago, after bed time, Lou came to me and told me all about this movie she had seen a preview for on television.  She couldn't remember the name, but it was about a horse that won a lot of races.  I told her it sounded great and then sent her back to bed.  She is the queen of finding excuses to come talk to me after bed time.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I got an email from Disney Movie Rewards offering two tickets to the screening of Secretariat.  I thought it would be a fun date to take Lou La on, but by the time I responded all of the tickets in my area were taken.  A week later I received a similar email from BlogHer.  I jumped at the chance and was lucky enough to get four tickets to the screening.

Last night a good friend of mine and my two oldest kiddos headed out to the screening.

I am sure you know the story at least as well as I did.  A horse wins the triple crown.  I was excited to see the movie, but wasn't expecting much suspense.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Disney did a really great job of pulling you in and building anticipation, even though you knew what the end result.  During the races my son was sitting on the edge of his seat jiggling with excitement and Lou leaned over more than once to tell me "I know he is going to win, I saw the previews, but I am still nervous."

The actors were amazing.  What isn't to love about Diane Lane, John Malkovich, Margo Martindale, and James Cromwell.   But my favorite part of the movie was the likability of each character.  There was conflict and suspense and competition without a character that you had to label as the villain.  Even Pancho Martin (Nestor Serrano) was too funny to completely dislike.

The characters made it more than a great movie about a great horse and elevated it above the the standard Disney message of following your dreams.  The story was about supporting and loving others people and just plain being a nice person!  When was the last time you watched a movie about someone being a nice person?  It was a nice change.

Walking out, my 9-year-old son said it was the best Disney movie he had ever seen.  I don't think you can get a better review of a family movie than that!

Secrets of the Mountain

We are big movie people in our house.  And we like to make it a family affair whenever possible.  This weekend alone we watched three movies together.  They are such an important family event that I even let the kids eat popcorn while sitting on the couch.  My new couch.  The couch NO ONE eats on!  I tell you, movie time is a big deal.

So when Ben contacted me and told me that Walmart and P&G were working together to bring family friendly movies to NBC I wanted to find out more.

This Friday, April 16th, NBC will be airing Secrets of the Mountain:



(Did you notice the obvious placement of Wal-mart products  I thought that was funny.)

We will be watching and hoping that Secrets of the Mountain is a fun family flick, but we will be listening excitedly too.  The soundtrack to the movie was produced by Randy Jackson (yes, Yo Yo Yo, the Randy Jackson from American Idol.) and it has tracks by Jordan Sparks and Brooke White (another Idol contestant, but one I actually know.  Or knew.  When she was younger) so I am excited to give the soundtrack a listen.

I also get to give away a copy of the movie and soundtrack to one of my readers.  So leave a comment here and tell me one of your favorite family activities to be entered to win a copy of the movie AND the soundtrack.

Want a second entry?  Add yourself as a follower of the review blog!

And a third?  Tell me what your favorite movie snack is (even if you don't allow it to be eaten on the couch.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

You can enter to win until Friday, April 16th at 7pm Central to enter.

I hope you will tune in on Friday at 8/7c and check it out.  I will be sitting on my couch with a bowl full of Orville Redenbacher.

How To Train A Dragon

The movie theater we went to this weekend charged an extra $3.50 a ticket to watch a 3D flick.  OUCH!  We won't be going there agin to watch a 3D movie, but the movie we saw was SO worth it:

I hadn't read much about the movie and didn't really have any desire to see the movie.  I am going to be honest and say that if it is an animated flick and it isn't Disney, I can wait until it comes out on DVD.  But the Hubby had heard some great things about it from his 'friends' (they guys from Totally Rad Show) and The Boy was really excited to see it, so off to the theater we went.

And it was good.  REALLY good.  The animation and 3D were great and the story was even better.  Your typical boy is different, everyone makes fun of boy,and boy ends up saving the day (think Chicken Little) but done in a way that makes you feel like you haven't seen it a hundred times.

There were a couple of Dragon scenes that were a little scary for Toots (who is only 2) but besides that it is a great movie for everyone.

And if you go to see it, see if you can figure out what Disney character one of the illustrators of How To Train a Dragon worked on.  The main Dragon looks EXACTLY like him (at least the face)