It’s nearly school holidays again, which means that it is kids movies time again.  Yay!  I adore kids movies!  Especially modern animated movies with their amazing 3D graphics.

There are two films in play for the July school holidays – Brave and Ice Age 4.  As there is still another week before school holidays start, and we’ve already seen both films thanks to our local cinema offering sneak previews, we’re going to have to come up with something else to do during the school holidays.  Hmmm, maybe “housework” or perhaps “gardening”.  Do you think I could sell that to Boyo?  No?

 

 

First up is Brave.  It is rated PG and has the further rating of “some scary scenes”.

Brave is about Merida, a Scottish princess from the 10th century, a time of castles, clan wars and legends, who is determined not to follow the traditional princess path.  She is horrified by her mother’s plans to turn her into a “proper princess”, one who doesn’t ride horses and shoot arrows, and in an effort to prevent herself being married off to the son of one of the local clan chiefs, she consults a local wisewoman and creates absolute chaos with a magic spell.

Of course, there is a happy ending, but in the meantime, there is much hilarity and drama and a relatively complex story line.  There is also lots of fighting, and the aforementioned scary scenes are, in fact, quite scary.  Even 8 year old Boyo mentioned that some bits were quite scary, so I would advise against taking younger children.

I was impressed by the feisty princess who broke the traditional Disney princess mould.  Yes, Disney princesses often rebel, just like Merida, but usually end up toeing the party line and getting married after all.  Not this princess.  Love this!

The voice cast also adds greatly to the movie’s appeal.  Kelly McDonald as Merida, Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson as the King and Queen.  Julie Walters voices the witch and Robbie Coltrane is one of the clan chiefs.  Don’t forget to keep an ear out for John Ratzenberger – it’s just not a Pixar movie without him!

The adults in our family enjoyed this movie as much as the kid, and I’m looking forward to watching it again when it comes out on DVD.

I would give this four and a half thumbs up out of five.

 

 

Next up, is Ice Age 4 : Contintental Drift.  It is rated G and is definitely the pick for younger children.

Ice Age 4 continues the tale of the original herd of Manny the woolly mammoth, Sid the sloth and Diego the smilodon (or sabre-toothed cat) along with their added mammoth members, Ellie and Peaches and their possum posse, Crash and Eddie.  New characters are introduced to great success in Contintental Drift.  Of course, there’s also Scrat, the nut-obsessed squirrel making his cameo appearances.

The separation of the land masses causes Manny to become separated from his family, and in their struggle to return home, they are kidnapped by a band of pirate animals.  As you do.  There are lots of fighting scenes, some comic scenes and generally all round fun for the whole family.

Once again, the voice cast is excellent.  There’s the usual suspects and I love that junior Leguizamos and Romanos are part of the voice cast.  Jennifer Lopez voices the sultry Shira, a slinky female sabre-toothed tiger, and Captain Gutt, a gigantopithecus evil pirate captain, is voiced to perfection by the dulcet tones of the fabulous Peter Dinklage.  That voice!

 

 

We loved this movie.  It was a lot of fun, and the Ice Age crew are some of our favourite movie characters.  We hang out with them a lot in our house.  I would give this three and a half thumbs up out of five.

However, for my money, Brave is definitely the pick of the movies for this school holidays. However, if you’ve smaller children, you can’t go wrong with Ice Age 4.

The Welshman and Boyo are planning a special trip to see The Three Stooges.  Thank all the gods, because I think it looks truly terrible.  I’m hoping to tee it up with a special Kimba viewing of Snow White and the Huntsman.

Do you plan to see any movies these school holidays?  I’d love to know your reviews!  Do you also think Peter Dinklage has a voice like molten chocolate … or is that just me?

 

I’m linking up with Jess from Diary of a SAHM for her I Blog on Tuesdays blog hop.  Come join in the fun!