Narnian Cuteness
So yesterday after work, we took both boys and went to see the new Narnia flick. The movie was pretty good, but this isn't a movie review. More importantly, Toph was SOOO CUTE!! It was at the St John's theater as part of a package deal for kid's movies, so the place was chock full of little kids, letting Toph fit right in without being perfectly quiet, but he sat on my lap and wasn't loud the entire time, which was amazing. I guess he really likes the big screen.
At first, he was enthralled, but quiet - not very reactive, but only because he was focused on the movie. When the beaver showed up, it was something he could articulate well, and he (quietly) told me about how there was a beaver there. Then the beaver started talking, and Toph was completely enchanged. It was great. He was just so much more attentive to the film on the big screen than he is on DVD with all the distractions of home available, and some of his reactions were just utterly precious.
Like almost every time Aslan was on screen, he had to comment about how the lion was talking. He has a big thing for lions, and they did a great job animating this one. I was a little worried about the scene where Aslan died, but happily, they did a pretty good job of doing it so that it was clear even to Toph what had happened, but they didn't actually show the knife blow in detail or anything. That, and he picked up on the foreshadowing very well, and we warned him so it wasn't a surprise, and he got through it without any difficulty (though he was awfully excited when Aslan came back to life!).
The big surprise was how well he picked up on the subtext. Like when Aslan announced to everyone that the Witch Queen had withdrawn her claim on Edmond, and everyone started cheering, Toph wanted to know where the lion was going with this obviously worried tone in his voice. He had actually picked up on the non-verbal cues that Aslan was sad, and responded. I imagine I'll always remember his quivering little voice piping up with "poor lion..." It was adorable.
So yeah, needless to say, he intensely enjoyed the film, and was definitely excited about what I think was his first big-screen experience. I just wish we could get away with taking pictures inside a darkened movie theater. :)
At first, he was enthralled, but quiet - not very reactive, but only because he was focused on the movie. When the beaver showed up, it was something he could articulate well, and he (quietly) told me about how there was a beaver there. Then the beaver started talking, and Toph was completely enchanged. It was great. He was just so much more attentive to the film on the big screen than he is on DVD with all the distractions of home available, and some of his reactions were just utterly precious.
Like almost every time Aslan was on screen, he had to comment about how the lion was talking. He has a big thing for lions, and they did a great job animating this one. I was a little worried about the scene where Aslan died, but happily, they did a pretty good job of doing it so that it was clear even to Toph what had happened, but they didn't actually show the knife blow in detail or anything. That, and he picked up on the foreshadowing very well, and we warned him so it wasn't a surprise, and he got through it without any difficulty (though he was awfully excited when Aslan came back to life!).
The big surprise was how well he picked up on the subtext. Like when Aslan announced to everyone that the Witch Queen had withdrawn her claim on Edmond, and everyone started cheering, Toph wanted to know where the lion was going with this obviously worried tone in his voice. He had actually picked up on the non-verbal cues that Aslan was sad, and responded. I imagine I'll always remember his quivering little voice piping up with "poor lion..." It was adorable.
So yeah, needless to say, he intensely enjoyed the film, and was definitely excited about what I think was his first big-screen experience. I just wish we could get away with taking pictures inside a darkened movie theater. :)