ooh, we love movies. i bordered on the tv-free parenting side of things, and my partner is media-boy and totally comfortable with using media to learn, and has altered my position considerably. in particular, the whole concept of watching being a passive activity is wrong. people are constantly making meaning, and that is a truly interactive process. i watch my child use a film or video for a period of time until she has learned everything she can about it; we might return to it a few months later when she is in a different space. for example, we adored zoboomafoo through total jaw-slack focus to playing with other things while listening to it and wandering off half-way...and now a year later we are back to it. i try to limit how much we watch, because i want to do other things, rather than that tv is *bad*. i try my best to make it 'let's do this now' rather than 'let's not watch anymore' but i have some pretty ingrained habits around it and have to work to be creative and not punitive! we definitely are in the record it first camp...and mr. media has a digital box, which assists in the commercial-limited life. i mute all commercials, which drives my in-laws mad. ah, well.
we like a lot of films which we do *not* watch in their entirety, because they would be inappropriate. amelie is a great example!! i sometimes refuse to put those with adult or violent content on because i must be too involved, which doesn't work as well with 2 children buzzing around. our favourite films which require less skipping (keep in mind that my child is very easily scared, so we used to skip a *lot*) are:
dreamer
mary poppins
ice princess
madagascar
cinderella
on the town
ice age
cars (not out yet)
winnie the pooh
singing in the rain
herbie (all of them)
monsters inc. (we skip quite a bit!)
finding nemo (we skip the first scene)
toy story two ""
wallace and grommit, particularly the were rabbit and dvd extras
pride and prejudice (bbc)
bride and prejudice
bend it like beckham (some swearing, but rendered incomprehensible by the londoner accent)
anne of green gables + the sequel
a room with a view
the royal tenenbaums (loads of skipping! but we just love it anyway)
the aristocats
babe (skip, skip skip)
bewitched
fiddler on the roof
topsy turvy (more skipping, but it is so great)
of course, the sound of music (tamara, do yours watch the whole thing? we give up when the nazis really get moving and skip to the last scene)
charlie chaplin
princess diaries (i refuse to watch these, but daddy will)
friends...which is actually getting more inappropriate, since she understands more!
wizard of oz, only we're too chicken to watch most of it.
early disney (lots of discussion about representation here!) like old mickey, goofy, donald. we prescreen!
well, that should keep you busy!!
gael, you did the call your younger child by your elder child's name thing! i cannot get mine straight!
erica, please please do that in september, we're so thrilled!
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