Only the true Potter fans will call out any blatant mispellings in my title.
It's Spin Cycle time and Gretchen is taking us all to the movies! Popcorn on her. Just email her your ticket stub and she'll do the rest. (Disclosure: sending your ticket stubs and/or receipts may not result in any refunds of any kind as the author of this note did not check with Gretchen first, but is in fact playing off of Gretchen's known generosity. This disclosure may also be the author's last.)
Since the Oscars are on Sunday, and yes, I am definitely tuning in because I love Billy Crystal because I want to see Leo get snubbed again because it's on the only station I currently receive thanks to an ongoing battle with Dish Network, but our movies in the house tend to be the recently to video kind (the last time we were out to the movies was to see Crazy Stupid Love which we crazy stupid loved) and whatever Sprite wants to watch (I am still looking for a good way to get rid of Thumbelina without being obvious since the kid knows we hate that movie). And thanks to our weekday commutes bringing us home after sunset, we're usually up for a video or two on any given evening.
Lately, her movie of choice has been "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". While this thrilled me to no end since I am a huge Potter fan, I was hoping for her to read through the books first, but the round of children in her classroom who have watched the movie has already risen beyond one, and one is all it takes to get the fire brewing in the other thirty-five.
So, I explained to her all about the make believe and the battle of good and evil she would see, and then sat down with her and a bowl of popcorn (Organic, Jan!) on Halloween night to introduce her to the boy who lived.
Immediately, she became enthralled with Harry and his scar, Hermione and her precocious need to be right, "It's leviosAH, not leviosAR", and Ron and his foolish attempts to turn Scabbers yellow while on the Hogwarts Express.
I was a little concerned about the scenes showing Lily being struck down by the faceless Voldemort and the end scene where Voldemort makes his face known in the most obscure of places (talk about being two-faced, right?), but she watched intently, not flinching, and when it was over, asked to see it again the next day.
I thought I had a tough kid.
John thinks I'm nuts.
Recently, she requested the movie again, her wish to be Hermione for Halloween 2012 already on the roster. John agreed to watch with her and came out of the room two hours later, telling me she is not to watch the movie for a few years. At least.
"Why not?"
"She's afraid of it!"
"She's been watching it enough to start memorizing some of the lines, I don't think she's afraid of it."
"She told me not to fall asleep. Kept telling me to keep the closet light on. Don't you think she's afraid?"
"All right. I'll take the movie out of rotation."
She didn't mention it for a week and then asked for the movie again last night.
"Sorry, kid. Daddy said the movie was making you afraid."
"I'm not afraid of Harry Potter. I'm afraid of the DARK."
"You're not afraid of the movie? Or Voldemort?"
"No, Mommy. That's pretend. I know it's not real. They're just PLAYING."
"So, why are you afraid of the dark?"
"Monsters."
Um, yeah.. Let me know when they do a live version of "Monsters, Inc", okay"?
Bruiser has decided that he has monsters in his room. He's showing up really early in the morning and saying he had bad dreams about monsters. However, he has an imaginary friend who is a monster with a pet dog.
I don't understand kids.
Posted by: VandyJ | February 24, 2012 at 09:58 AM
Whew! The Potter is in the house! I think she's about ready for you to start reading the first book to her. It's so exciting! I'm glad she's got all the real/pretend stuff figured out. I'm afraid Jude did go through a brief "Voldemort's in the closet" phase, but worked through it quickly.
You are LINKED!
Posted by: Gretchen | February 24, 2012 at 10:33 AM
Every time I pull "Sorcerer's Stone" out of our (massive) DVD collection and say "G? Don't you want to watch this? Doesn't it look good?" he turns me down. I guess I need to wait a couple of years before I can begin The Indoctrination. (He was unimpressed with "The Wizard of Oz" as well, to my great disappointment.)
I am SICK of Little Einsteins, for the record.
S. I. C. K.
Posted by: Jan | February 24, 2012 at 10:38 AM
Kids have a way of surprising us; I thought that Noelle would be really upset the 'The Lion King' (my MIL HAAAATES it) but both she and Noah love to watch it and then reenact, well, the entire movie with anything vaguely animal in form. And sometimes not when PEZ dispensers are all that's available. She won't watch 'Beauty and the Beast' (wolves are too scary) or 'Little Mermaid' (Ursula) so I just don't know.
Kids are weird man.
(And I can't wait to get her into 'The Socerer's Stone' Must expand geek love to the next generation.)
Posted by: Dawn | February 24, 2012 at 12:17 PM
*gasp*
Are you saying I only may have to wait until he's five to bring about the Potter? Mwahahaha! Though I want to hit the book before the movie. 'Cause when you're five, who cares about rish text and well-developed universes when you've already seen Hogwarts?!
Posted by: Jenn | February 24, 2012 at 10:05 PM
That is so exciting that she is starting to watch them. It is interesting how the "younger" generation of kids now have the whole series to watch whenever they are ready as opposed to waiting for the next one to be made and released.
Posted by: Michele R. | February 25, 2012 at 09:14 AM
I'm excited for the time when my kids are ready to watch some more mature movies. I'm a bit tired of Cars and the like..
Posted by: Kim | February 25, 2012 at 03:49 PM
Now I'm feeling left out - I haven't seen any of the Potter movies nor read the books. Princess Nagger recently mentioned she'd like to see them - and secretly I do too. Now that she knows Sprite is in love with Potter, she's even more insistent we get them and watch them. STAT. :)
And I love that she matter-of-factly reminded you that the movie is make believe but the monster in the closet is real. ;)
Posted by: Stacy Uncorked | February 25, 2012 at 09:09 PM
I may have to try this one. We are currently going through all the Disney movies (we are not up on our Princess' at all around here) so that he can be ready for the *in the planning stages* trip to meet our big ear friend this fall.
Posted by: MamaBadger | February 29, 2012 at 11:09 AM
My girls LOVE Monsters, Inc. and I know Lily would love Harry Potter. But Emmy would freak out, so Harry Potter will have to wait!
"Losing" Thumblina will be very tricky...but I support you all the way!
Posted by: Ginny Marie | March 02, 2012 at 09:14 AM
I thought I'd come back and let you know that because of your influence, I have ordered the first 5 Harry Potter movies...we're going to do a Family Movie Night every Friday (insert Princess Nagger's enthusiastic "With the lights off and popcorn and everything!") so when they get here, that's what we'll be doing on 5 subsequent Friday nights. ;)
Posted by: Stacy Uncorked | March 02, 2012 at 03:08 PM
We have a lot of monsters around here too. No Harry Potter though. Eventually I'll be allowed to watch things I *like*, right?
Posted by: Keely | March 05, 2012 at 09:55 PM
Makes total sense. We've been reading the books to the boys and then once we're done the book, then they can see the movie. I figure this will buy us plenty of time and delay the last two movies.
Posted by: Captain Dumbass | March 06, 2012 at 09:20 PM
You'll have to keep a bottle of Monster pray nearby to zap them! Who knows, it might work on some of those Harry Potter characters, too!
Posted by: SuziCate | March 07, 2012 at 12:34 PM