Family Rated PG
“…exists in its own lovely little universe, and the best way to appreciate it is to not hold it up to the rules and expectations of ours.
Family Rated G
There’s no rousing musical score, star-studded vocal cast or groundbreaking animation in this Disney fable about an emperor who has been turned into a llama. But aside from the subpar visuals, the movie does not suffer as a result. Without the weight of a blockbuster tag, The Emperor’s New Groove is freed from the Disney
Disney may seem like it’s cashing in on one of its brand names with this sequel to 1953’s Peter Pan, but Return to Never Land is lavished with more care and respect than you’d expect. The result is a fun, thoughtful extension of the fairy tale’s central themes – this time Wendy’s daughter takes center
This Shrek wannabe doesn’t really work for parents or kids, largely because it strains so hard to include Mom and Dad in on the fun. An elaborate reworking of the Little Red Riding Hood fable, the computer-animated venture runs on obvious, self-reflexive humor and aggressive visual gags (the filmmakers fall just short of paying off
Shark Tale takes pains to give its cast of fish specific cultural characteristics, so that Will Smith spouts hip-hop lingo and sports a skewed baseball cap as a colorful cleaner wrasse who gets himself into trouble when he claims to have killed a shark. Only the painfully politically correct might complain, but such a narrow
Family Rated PG-13
Coasting on sheer joy, this genial, feel-good family drama reveals what a perfect pairing of subject and medium roller skating and movies can be – it’s a celebration of movement in an art form defined by movement. Tracing the coming of age of a roller-rink teen (a sweetly gawky Bow Wow) and his buddies in
What does it take to imagine a world of well-dressed, talking rabbits? In its best moments, Miss Potter suggests it might take a touch of madness. In this painfully polite movie biography of British children’s author Beatrix Potter – who wrote and illustrated 1902’s “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” – our heroine (Renee Zellweger) refers
The stray dog in this saccharine family drama has an unusual nose: It sniffs out wisdom-spouting adults. And so the lonely 10-year-old who adopts it starts following it from role model to role model, including pop star Dave Matthews as a pet store clerk who serenades the animals. Sentimental director Wayne Wang (Anywhere But Here)
Based on the life of Jim Morris, a Texas high-school science teacher and father of three who took a second shot at making it into Major League Baseball as a 35-year-old, The Rookie is a sun-dappled celebration of second chances and small-town camaraderie. Things are kept from becoming too sugary by Dennis Quaid’s Mr. Mom
“…features more smart, funny people than any other dumb, unfunny film I’ve ever seen.
