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marthayost
Reviews
Simona (2022)
Extraordinary story, music, film.
A stunning story, luscious visuals, and heart piercing original music that will stop your mind. I wonder why this isn't on the Oscar's short list for an Oscar for documentary film?
The film is deeply moving, a critical message for our time regarding how to be a human and how to care for the planet in one movie.
There benefits and, of course, also repercussions of living in such isolation; not the least of which is misunderstanding communication from others living in a larger context. Alas, still a great film, Simona was a great woman, and kudos to her brilliant niece who made sure Simona's story was told.
Please, Oscar, if you're listenini, put this film on your short list.
Ada Twist, Scientist (2021)
A good start, but so many script flaws to tidy up.
We loved the book about Ada Twist, yet this show is missing so many marks. PROs: Love the producers and the actors, the songs, but the writing is missing major marks. Ada's character is fully developed and precious. The family dynamics in Ada's family are so perfect. Love the family and so glad Ada finally figured out it was her brother's sneakers that smelled so bad -- and solved the problem! I love that they "try, try again" to solve issues in their lives. So important for young kids to see that. Great songs that our kids love to learn and sing.
CONS: Almost every episode Iggy Peck,Architect is busy designing the things that Rosie, the Engineer should be designing. Over and over again. So Rosie's specialty/special skills are rarely, if ever used. That's just plain weird. It happens in almost every episode, Rosie Revere Engineer is also written as a character that is obsessed with magical characters and magical animals rather than the mechanics of how things work which is the classic engineer's thought patterns. Engineers are crazy-smart, so to be continually presented as a character who can't pronounce "big" words even after trying 2 or 3 times. She's pretty smart, so a character flaw like that is better given to a smaller, younger child if it's going to be a repeated pattern. Her solutions to issues also rarely come from an engineering perspective, so I'm continually telling my children that engineers don't think like that. AND that the things Iggy is drawing and creating are more of a job for an engineer than an architect.
Can't speak to the accuracy of the science (it's good enough for me) but I'm going to take the feedback from the scientist who left a review and give the Magic School Bus a try.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
A few good moments, does not a good kids movie make.
I love Mario and Luigi and there were good voices, and a few laughs in this movie, but only a few good moments. I regret taking my kids to see it. Loud and violent, I turned and watched their faces a few times as they watched the movie and they were mostly overwhelmed. They have had limited exposure to violence in movies, so hopefully just one violent sprawl won't ruin their brains. OTHER STUFF: Why are kids being exposed to characters eating magic mushrooms? So many shades of wrong. PLUS - Red mushroom tops with white spots on them are poisonous. They are not magic mushrooms. So now millions of people will have seen their fave characters eat poisonous mushrooms. Whatevs. I was bored, and we were the only people in the theater, so I started answering emails.