the ant bully Tagged Articles at Cinematical

NPR talked about the onslaught of children's films at the box office lately on Day to Day last Friday and wondered about the quality control going on behind the scenes. They interviewed film historian Charles Solomon, who comments that the scarcity of animated and children's films used to make them an important part of a childhood experience, but things have changed. These days, the sheer amount of films pile on so quickly that before you blink, three different animated movies have been released at the box office. Suddenly you're buying everything from Flushed Away action figures to Over the Hedge video games, but your kids aren't getting the same messages and experience that you had when you saw The Rescuers for the first time.

It's no secret that kid's movies can rake in a ton of dough; the studios are busy falling all over themselves trying to make them. It seems like as more get churned out, fewer of them that have great stories and characters. They'll just market the hell out of them so that every box of cereal, kid's TV show, and billboard is plastered with images of the upcoming film and your children will refuse to eat anything green or brush their teeth until you take them to see it.

Now, I love animated films probably more than an adult should, but the problem is pretty rampant with the films aimed at children that are being released today, as we posted about previously on Cinematical. The trouble is that for every Spirited Away released, there comes a slew of films like Happy Feet, Barnyard, and The Ant Bully. These films took some critical hard hits, but they've made bags of cash (the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut of Happy Feet has almost cleared $200 million already). Studios are more concerned with cranking out a product in a timely manner, even if it's sub-par and relies on fart jokes and recycled plots. As a result, quality children's entertainment is getting harder and harder to find. Parents may appreciate the fact that they can now take their kids to see a movie aimed at children almost any weekend now, rather than having to wait ... but at what cost?

What do you think, parents? Is the onslaught of animation worth the decrease in quality kiddie fare? Or is it enough just to be able to plunk your tot down for 90 minutes with a kiddie-pack combo, even if what they're seeing isn't quite up to the standards you remember from your own childhood hours at the movies?

Okay, I admit it. Now that I've seen the trailer for The Devil Wears Prada, I actually kinda want to see it. Meryl Streep, with short, smartly styled silver hair, delivers her lines in the trailer with an icy-cold softness that says, "I'll rip you to shreds with my manicured nails and eat you raw for lunch if you piss me off." And casting sweet-and-innocent-looking Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries) opposite Streep as the recent college grad from the Midwest who goes to work for the biggest bitch in the fashion biz, could end up being genius. The trailer looks smart, sharp and funny (of course, it's always possible that the rest of the movie doesn't live up to it, but a girl can hope), and now I'm actually interested to see the film. I mean, it's Meryl Streep! That gives it some potential, right?

Streep, who had slowed down a little over the past couple years, is suddenly churning out work like a woman on a mission. She has no fewer than eight projects in the works at the moment, from voicing the Queen Ant in the upcoming animated flick The Ant Bully, to the beleagured Jodie Foster-helmed circus-freak flick, Flora Plum (currently listed on IMDb as costarring Ewan McGregor), to Conquistadora, with dream cast William H. Macy, Patricia Clarkson, and Chris Cooper, to First Man, in which she will play a presidential candidate whose businessman husband (Robert DeNiro) quits his job to run his wife's campaign. That's a whole lotta Streep coming up. I hope this signals the start of a revival for her, because she is one of my fave actresses, and I will see just about anything she's in.

(Editor's note: As reader Seth so politely pointed out, "smartly styled" does not require a hyphen because 'smartly' is an adverb. I corrected my error, so now my own J-school grammar-police professor can stop spinning in his grave.)

When it comes to summer family films, who, we figured, is better to ask than kids? So we gathered our junior film critic crew in Seattle ( AKA my kids): Neve (9), Jaxon (6), Veda (4.5) and Luka (2.5), and asked them to tell us what they think about the summer kiddie-flick lineup, based on the trailers. We watched each trailer two times, and I recorded their reactions and asked a few questions about what they thought, and which movies they're most excited about seeing. Here's what the junior squad has to say about the summer family lineup. (Note: I included Superman Returns and X-3 because a lot of families will take their kids to these flicks, or at least watch the "family" version of X-3 on pay-per-view. Also, the crew flatly refused to watch the trailer for Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, so you're on your own on that one).