The joy of summer holidays for children has remained intact, over generations. While we visited grand parents’ place to spend the summer, children of today are mostly enrolled in summer camps and classes. And there’s much that parents, in fact, come up with to make their kids’ summer fun and constructive. How about watching movies with your little ones which can bring learning and excitement for them?
&pictures – India’s premium mass Hindi movie channel – presents an opportunity of a perfect afternoon for kids and ensure that they watch some blockbusters with a subtle life lesson shared in the most entertaining manner. It’s summer movie festival, ‘Kiddies Express’, takes audiences on a fun-filled ride with entertaining global successes along with a lot of learning. Starting from Monday, 9th May, it will air daily at 12 noon until Friday, 13th May.
Here are the five movies which will transport your children into a land of fun and imagination, on boarding ‘Kiddies Express’:
Kung Fu Panda
In the Valley of Peace, Po the Panda, finds himself chosen as the Dragon Warrior despite the fact that he is obese and a complete novice at martial arts. The movie is directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne and stars the voices of veteran Hollywood talent like Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, and Jackie Chan.
Madagascar
This film showcases the story of four animals who have spent their lives in blissful captivity in Manhattan’s Central Park Zoo. Chris Rock voices Marty, a jaded zebra is ready for a change after ten years of comfortable captivity at the Zoo. He flees for the green fields of Connecticut, prompting a rescue mission by his best friends: the Zoo’s star attraction Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), a bossy hippo named Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith), and the clumsy, hypochondriac giraffe Melman (David Schwimmer). They are unexpectedly shipped back to Africa and end up getting shipwrecked on the island of Madagascar.
Stuart Little 2
With subtle humor, loveable characters, a great script by Bruce Joel Rubin (Academy Award-winner, “Ghost”), Stuart Little 2 is one of the best family films of the summer.
The story begins with Stuart’s brother, George (Jonathan Lipnicki has given his voice) having found a new friend to play with, leaving Stuart (brilliantly voiced by Michael J. Fox) feeling left out. His mother Mrs. Little (Geena Davis’ voice) is overprotective of her minuscule younger son after he narrowly escapes an injury in a soccer game. His father (voice over by Hugh Laurie) sympathizes, but reminds Stuart of an old family adage, “Always look for the silver lining in the cloud.” The silver lining appears when Stuart rescues a homeless bird named Margelo (voiced by Melanie Griffith) from the sinister Falcon. They become friends and all is well until Margelo disappears one night. Stuart is convinced that Falcon is responsible and ventures out with the family cat Snowbell (voiced by Nathan Lane) to rescue her. Stuart Little 2 is a must-watch film for its characters, dialogue, music, and animation and fun moments. Stuart Little is courageous and humble while Snowbell is hilarious.
Jumanji
Based on a gorgeous picture book story of the same name by Chris Van Allsberg, Jumanji takes us through a beautiful magical adventure and makes it into a thrilling ride that defies everything. The excellent combination of adventure and comedy are the big attractions. A timeless adventure film, Jumanji is about two kids who play a magical board game. While playing it, they release an adult trapped in the game. They encounter various dangers which will come to an end only when the game is completed. The film was written by Greg Taylor, Jonathan Hensleigh and Jim Strain. It stars Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde and BebeNeuwirth.
Mr. Go
A crisp narrative and some truly amazing technical expertise combine to make Mr. Go one of the best family films with big laughs, big emotion and even bigger thrills. Its engaging plot offers a thoroughly enjoyable experience for all ages. It is based on the classic 1980s comic ‘7th Baseball Club’, the titular character refers to a 285 kg circus gorilla who is the first to be recruited by a savvy baseball agent to join the professional
Korean Baseball League. Setting the stage for the gorilla Ling Ling’s journey to Korea is the Great Sichuan Earthquake in 2008, which causes the death of 15- year old Wei Wei’s (Jiao Xu) grandfather and leaves her in charge of his circus with a huge debt over their heads. As debtors harass her, Wei Wei is left hassled on how to save the circus and the forty other orphans who stay under its roof. And so, when the wily Sung (Korean actor Sung Dong-il) comes in to assist, she readily accepts his offer to transform Ling Ling into a baseball star. Dreaming of success, Weiwei and Ling Ling go to South Korea and Ling Ling quickly becomes a superstar in the baseball league.
Fun? I agree! But what’s the learning?
There’s a fair chance that parents reading this post have watched at least 4 out of 5 of these movies. And we all know how exciting each one is! But if you are wondering what kind of learning these movies can give your children, you must brush your memory a little.
Remember this dialogue from Kung Fu Panda?
Po: “Maybe I should just quit and go back to making noodles.”
Oogway: “Quit, don’t quit… Noodles, don’t noodles… You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.”
Yeah! Children shall learn two valuable lessons:
Madagascar teaches us to rejoice everything that life throws our way just as like Kurt Vonnegut said, “Enjoy the little things in life cause one day you’ll look back and realise that they were the big things!”
Stuart Little 2 visually impressive film provides wholesome entertainment for kids with Stuart enlightening us with some serious friendship goals like determination, trust, respect, and acceptance.
Jumanji teaches children that crying never helps.
What makes Mr. Go a must-see film is that it makes you smile with its heartwarming, poignant and inspirational story.
So, mark it!
&Pictures – 9th May onwards – 12 pm.
Get ready with your children and let happy family times ring at all our homes!
You may want to visit ANDPictures Facebook and Twitter Pages (@AndPicturesIN) for future updates on such interesting TV festivals.
Jumanji is an awesome movie. I loved it when I watched it for the first time in theater. It could be a bit scary too. The animation movies mentioned here are also good.
Destination Infinity
I can imagine watching jumanji in theatre. Definitely scary!