Thursday, March 27, 2008

All in a day of homeschooling

It's amazing exactly what trivia get looked into around here.

This story came about because Emma loves the Barbie Princess movies and Logan is a harried older brother who can sometimes stand no more. She owns several and has borrowed the ones she doesn't have. This morning, Logan began listing all the aspects of Barbie movies he absolutely hates, including too many high pitched songs that stick in your head, Barbie's too-good-to-be-true character and predictable plot lines. (For all lovers of Barbie movies, this is only the opinion of Logan and not necessarily that of the blog writer.)

Then he came up with an interesting statement. He said, "The villains have always got moles on their faces, and in my opinion, that's horrible for all the good people with moles who might be watching." Emma couldn't let this statement go unchallenged, so for the next little while, they were digging up all the Barbie movies and freeze-framing close-ups of the villains just to check.

For some time it looked as if Logan's theory would turn out to be true. Lady Rowena, Queen Ariana and King Rothbart each had a mole on their face. Logan and Emma were arguing about whether Gothel, from Rapunzel, had one or not. And then she got the better of him. Preminger, the bad guy from "The Princess and the Pauper," has a smooth complexion. So Emma was pleased.

"He's still pretty ugly though," Logan said.

That started a discussion of whether fairy-tale cartoon villains really need to be ugly. We could only think of one handsome bad guy, and that was Gaston, from Disney's "Beauty & the Beast." We decided that of course he probably did need to be good-looking as well as black hearted, to be a perfect contrast to the beast in every imaginable way. (Of course there is also Snow White's wicked stepmother, who was meant to be 2nd fairest in the land, but the kids don't think she was very attractive anyway.)

Not that long ago, I took Emma to the movies to watch "Enchanted" and have to recommend it as the perfect movie for parents (and even brothers) of little girls who love cartoon princess movies. Although the boys didn't come, I think they'd like the farcical take-offs, so we'll be hiring it when it's available from the video shop. I can't help smiling at times when we go to visit my sister, who only has boys. You can tell a boy, like Logan, who has a sister, because he knows all the names and plots of fairy-tales, even though he says he'd far, far rather not.

7 comments:

  1. I definitely think that movies should include some good looking bad guys. Not all bad guys are evil looking, some are dashingly handsome!
    When my boys saw the previews for Enchanted they told me they wanted to see it. I didn't tell them I thoguht it was a girls movie, I just said we'd rent it when it came on dvd!

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  2. Just the opposite here. Carmen has 2 older brothers, which means she knows about stuff like submarines, war planes, that kind of thing.

    That villain thing is correct, in my opinion. A good-looking villain is harder to pull off, at least in a cartoon.

    How sweet of your son to be concerned that people with moles on their faces would be bothered by the villains having moles. What a nice guy!

    Kate

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  3. My boys all want to see Enchanted and they don't have any sisters at all. I am glad to hear that you liked it. Now we'll have to run up to McDonald's and get it.

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  4. No girls here(other than me!) but we all watched and loved Enchanted!1, 8, 11, and 16 year old boys(and dad)! Very cute movie!

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  5. that's some deep stuff for kiddos!

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  6. Paula - a Peep is a ... well, it's a marshmallow candy shaped like a baby chick, covered with fine, colored sugar, 2 tiny frosting eyes and lined up in rows of 5 to a box. They come in many pastel colors and other shapes including rabbits and (I most recently saw) egg-shaped. They are an Easter tradition in the U.S. (as far as I know) and I don't remember an Easter without them. They only come out at Easter so we tend to buy more than we need. After eating too many, we really don't want to see anymore until next year. Oh, I think they've tried to bring orange ones out at Halloween but it's not the same. I'm tempted to contact the company to market Peep bilbys in Australia - what do you think?

    Your friend,
    Kate

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  7. You've been tagged! It's a fun and easy one! Check out my blog for details.
    Tara B

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