Worst. Mom. Ever

[przed]

Since Ros is handling the dementors and various deaths in Harry Potter perfectly fine, we thought we'd give The Princess Bride a go for the first Family Movie Night of the year.

Yeah, that didn't go well.

Both the Sweetie and I remembered it as being light and funny.

Ros will no doubt remember it entirely because the R.O.U.S.s (Rodents of Unusual Size) scared her witless.


Okay, so it is a bit scary looking, for a little dude in a mangy costume.

She didn't do so well with Wesley being tortured or the final duel between Inigo and Count Rugen either.

Our plans to show her Star Wars are now on hold for a bit. (I'm betting Aunt Beru's death would do Ros in.) Though I'm seriously considering pulling out my old Star Wars novelization to read to her ahead of time, since she seems to be less scared when she knows exactly what's going to happen from the start. (She knows every Harry Potter spoiler there is.)

So, it's back to slapstick, screwball comedies and sports movies for a bit. Oh, and Gilmore Girls, which I have hooked her on. (I'm going to try original Trek next time, The Trouble with Tribbles and A Piece of the Action. I suspect if I showed her the salt vampire one she'd never forgive me. *g*)

Comments

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

I've never seen Princess Bride--that rat is really scary looking!

[przed.livejournal.com]

It's a funny movie! Really! But yeah, my memory of the R.O.U.S.s was more that they were ridiculous than scary. Oops!

[the-cornettist.livejournal.com]

Same for me on both counts - you could have taken the words right out of my mouth here *g*

[norfolkdumpling.livejournal.com]

Whoops! Ah well, you can never tell what's going to unsettle someone until they see it - it was good research anyway!

[przed.livejournal.com]

We know the basic things to watch out for with Ros (orphaned, abandoned kids are a big red flag for a start; she sobbed hysterically through twenty minutes of The Jungle Book until we bailed on it) but since she handled the dementors without batting an eye we thought she could handle slightly scary fantasy things now. Um, no. Oh well, it's not a bad thing to see if those limits have moved.

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Oh, no! My nieces and nephew all loved The Princess Bride...but I think they were older when they first saw it. Well, maybe not my nephew, who tends to go in for scary things. (He was watching Buffy when he really shouldn't have been.) I like the idea of giving her the novelizations to read first. I know I was always better prepared for movies when I knew what was going to happen. (With the except of Bambi.

Definitely not the salt vampire. *g*

[przed.livejournal.com]

I was in university when The Princess Bride, so it's always been just a fun movie for me. Ros is definitely a more sensitive soul than I was.

Given her love of the snark in Gilmore Girls, I suspect Ros will love Buffy when she can handle the scary stuff. But that's a while off.

Bambi was the worst, man.

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I would have banked on her enjoying that film too.

I suspect the problem may be that there's a whole tongue-in-cheek approach to the events, like the poison-off and being mostly dead that might work better for adults.

[przed.livejournal.com]

The humour's very dry. Though since she's quite taken to Gilmore Girls and its snark I was hoping The Princess Bride would work for her. Oh well, lesson learned.

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

Oh no, am so sorry that scared her but it is not something you could ever have predicted.

I remember my Mum telling me once that she and Dad actually went to see Ghostbusters before taking me and my brother to see it and we were fine with that movie but there were unexpected things in other movies that got to one or the other of us. You really can never tell.

[przed.livejournal.com]

The Sweetie and I just had a discussion about when she might be ready for Ghostbusters. I suspect she'd totally love the humour, but the scarier ghosts would probably do her in right now.

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

Awww, but on the other hand, a little bit of childhood movie trauma is good for you! Probably! ...A bit?

Maybe wait a few more years with Labyrinth as well ;)

[przed.livejournal.com]

It's character building, right? Right?! ;-)

Labyrinth I can pretty much guarantee would do her head in. Abandoned/orphaned/kidnapped kids are a big trigger for her.

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

Exactly, does them good!

Oooh yes, of course. Better stick with something else.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness! Poor Ros. I remember the Princess Bride being one of my kids' favs but I don't remember their ages when they watched it endlessly. Same with Star Wars. How about The Sound of Music and The Parent Trap (original). They watched those until I could sing the entire sound tracks in my sleep.

[przed.livejournal.com]

We've got other friends whose kids watched The Princess Bride at Ros' age or younger, but it's all down to the individual kid. I'm still up for trying Star Wars, but with much more prep ahead of time.

I picked up the DVD of The Sound of Music ages ago, but Ros has always refused to watch it. I always liked The Parent Trap, but then there's the whole lost family aspect which is liable to set her off. (The Jungle Book made her weep hysterically. She was all happy at first when the wolves adopted Mowgli, but when they decided to give him back to the man village when he was older, she lost it. An adoptive family giving up their kid was Not On.)

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

We have to pre-watch movies for Jamie. He has a fit at the ones we regard as fine, just because things like death or kidnap are mentioned. We haven't dared let him watch Paddington, he howled at What I did on my Holiday, and he was devastated by Lilo and Stitch. But he takes horror in his stride... Plays Plants v Zombies and Five Nights at Freddie's without batting an eyelid and was perfectly happy with Snow White and the Huntsman, which we were watching and he crept in to join us. And yes, reading the book first can help (we are looking at The Secret Garden and wondering) but at the same time there are sometimes things even in kids' books that set him off. Incidentally, Frozen appears to be completely acceptable.(And I really don't want to have those bland melodies on my brain...)

I remember Princess Bride as 'light' but then I was adult when I first saw it!

[przed.livejournal.com]

Amazingly, Ros made it through Paddington fine. Though she didn't like it nearly as much as we did. Lilo and Stitch devastated all of us. (The Sweetie got a phone call in the middle of that one and went upstairs to take it. When he left, we were still in the funny section and Ros and I were both laughing. When he came back down, we'd hit one of the sad bits and we were both sobbing hysterically. He didn't know what hit him.)

Like you, we generally carefully consider what we're going to show her. Even with a pre-read, I suspect Ros would never make it through The Secret Garden. Orphaned and abandoned kids are a big trigger for her. (A big part of what got her with Lilo and Stitch.)

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

Figuring out what will be scary to a child (or indeed an adult - I still have problems judging for myself now!) is hard. I remember my brother getting very scared during Wallace and Gromit just because of the music, which is 'intense dramatic scary' for comedy purposes but obviously if you're young enough, just scary. And I know I wasn't the only child who just couldn't understand the ending of Mary Poppins or why it was supposed to be happy, and used to just stop the VHS after 'We Love to Laugh' *g*

[przed.livejournal.com]

We know in general what will scare Ros or make her sad (orphans or otherwise abandoned kids, obviously scary villains) but sometimes things still blindside us. Or our memories of a movie are more innocuous than the reality. And we've all got the weird and unpredictable things that do us in. For me, it was the hourglass with red sand in The Wizard of Oz that had me hiding behind the theatre seats.

[the-cornettist.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Princess Bride or Gilmore Girls (although I suddenly seem to have developed a slight interest in seeing some Gilmore Girls, can't think why... *cough* a certain Supernatural actor *cough*). I have however seen quite a few Star Trek episodes, having had a wee crush on Captain Kirk whilst I was at primary school. Tribbles are so cute *g*, hope Ros finds them so too :-D

[przed.livejournal.com]

I can highly recommend Gilmore Girls. And a certain Mr. Padalecki is hilariously young in it. (The Sweetie and I actually watched Gilmore Girls before Supernatural, so when he showed up as Sam it was pretty funny for us.)

ST was my favourite show from when I was four (it's my first memory of watching TV!) though Spock has always been my favourite. And I'm hoping the cuteness of the tribbles, and the silliness of A Piece of the Action, gets Ros interested.

[the-cornettist.livejournal.com]

He was young enough at the start of SPN lol! I've watched all 10 seasons over the course of the summer and it's been really weird watching them age in super speed. I shall definitely give GG a try, just so I can say I have *g*

Good luck introducing Ros to ST. When I introduce my kids to things (usually classic tunes) and then they start listening to them, I give myself a small pat on the back for a job well done ;-)

[przed.livejournal.com]

I reckon there's a slim chance Ros will take to ST or UNCLE (which I also have plans to introduce her to in the coming weeks) but I can't resist trying. Especially as Gilmore Girls seems to have taken, and she fell for the whole Take That thing with me. But there are probably more things that I love that she gives me the side eye for. (Which is it's own sort of amusement. *g*)