Family Media: Two fun films

Normally I like to take my daughter to go see every new release intended for families each year, but this year we just haven’t really had that many great movies out to see. It seems like by this time last year there were so many other animated movies out. Then again, I also think that filmmakers are dubbing superhero action films as “family” films now, which I don’t agree with—and I wonder if that’s impacting the annual quota of family movies or something.

Anyway, we were able to rent two winners this week from Redbox. (Click the link for free Redbox codes!) We really enjoyed both movies and I wanted to recommend them both to you.

First, we watched Escape From Planet Earth. I thought this was going to be a dud full of slapstick comedy and eye-rolling one-liners… And, yeah, it pretty much was. But it was funny, and it featured a strong mother, which I really appreciated. My daughter got a kick out of it, especially.

But what really surprised me was that she enjoyed A Monster in Paris even more. This French animated film (it’s in English, don’t worry) is loosely based on The Phantom of the Opera and is the story of a mutant singing flea. I kid you not. As cuckoo as that sounds, it’s a lovely story with beautiful animation (it reminded me of Despicable Me, or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in terms of animation) and a strong heroine who supports the creature before anyone else does, risks her life to save his and does not become his love interest. Nice!

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia