13 Comments
User's avatar
J AZ's avatar
33mEdited

"we go incredibly long stretches without a darn thing for kids to watch, and we’re about to hit another such stretch" - Sonny, how can you be unaware of the impending May 8 debut of Sheep Detectives? Hugh Jackman, talking sheep, a mystery to solve, hijinks bound to abound. When the trailer played before our screening of the latest Mario mayhem with our grandchild (age 10) he agreed it looked good. Kids films don't have to be animated - you quoted the Guy who included Lilo & Stitch. Give it a chance, don't sleep on the Sheep

Sharon King's avatar

I’ve always loved animated movies and my husband and I went to see GOAT a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was great fun.

Linda Skinner's avatar

Definitely need more kids films. When I take my 10 year old twin granddaughters to the movies after school, it is a hunt to find more than 1 choice and we live in the Phoenix Metro area. You can certainly have great stories, and fantastic audio and video without scaring the wits out of kids, and without a crash course in human anatomy. So my granddaughters have put most of their video time into streaming where there are legitimate choices. Sad.

Natty Bumppo's avatar

Whoever decided to schedule the release of Mario Galaxy in early April should get a raise. It came at the exact time families were either on spring break or just done with spring break and had absolutely zero idea what to do with their kids (this would include my family - all 5 of us saw it and we took 3 other kids).

Mandalorian on memorial day weekend is also a good call. Kids activities are few and far between then (you're so close to summer break but still so far).

Rhondda's avatar

SERIOUSLY??? Wanted to go to a movie with my fella last week and NOTHING BUT KIDS' FLICKS was playing in Detroit suburbs...

Michael C Barry's avatar

Great article Sonny! Side note…..is that Sam Stein in the photo at top of article?! 🤣🤣🤣

dlnevins's avatar

One thing I love about my local art house theater duo (Film Streams), is that one of the two theaters runs a "Forever Young" series, with inexpensive tickets to a family-friendly movie at 10 AM every Saturday and Sunday. Some of the movies are newer, some are older, but they are generally good - and when you're 6 most movies are new (to you, at least!).

If we want a new generation of cinephiles, we need to set the hook in them when they are young.

severn's avatar

it's way cheaper than taking them skiing

Sonny Bunch's avatar

I would not know, I am a humble film critic and thus cannot afford such fantastic mountain-based adventures. I just like my IMAX screens.

severn's avatar

the (probably) used to let humble film critics and their family ski for free, while they were screening the latest warren miller effort... alas those days appear to have melted away...

Bart's avatar
4hEdited

As a parent with kids who are aging into being able to go to the movies, couldn't agree more. Plus these movies tend to have long legs and the kids who watch the movie in the theater will probably demand it many more times on the smaller screens.

Sonny Bunch's avatar

YES, these movies all perform better on streaming after the fact. If you play the cards right you can turn a minor hit or a small loss on an original theatrical production into a HUGE hit for the sequel after the original gets rewatched 500 times on Disney+ or Peacock or whatever.