Fence and Sensitivity

It must be pretty clear from the contents of this blog that I love movies. But I also love going to the movies. I love the previews, I love the growing anticipation before the movie starts, I love munching on the popcorn and I love the big screen and the loud sounds. So I felt stifled when the theater trips were drastically cut down after Kavya was born. The trips that were guaranteed every weekend turned into rare outings and I was left desperately waiting for the DVD release date.

That’s why children’s movies are great! They have allowed me to atleast go back the theaters. I may not be thrilled by the movie but atleast I get the theater-going experience. So it wasn’t too surprising that I was as excited as Kavya when I went to see Over the Hedge last weekend.

The movie was a lot of fun and Kavya enjoyed herself. The animals are cute and there are a lot of visual gags that appealed to her. Unfortunately, the fun didn’t last till the end. Children’s movies always convey a message and such messages are rarely learned without the main characters going through some difficulties. Here the message is that one shouldn’t use others and should be faithful to their friends. And on the way to conveying the message, the animals get caged.

Kavya is incredibly sensitive. The tiniest disappointment can make her burst into tears and it doesn’t take a lot to make her sad. Seeing the sad faces of the animals as they were taken away led to another sad face, this time on Kavya. But that sadness was atleast shortlived as they escape pretty soon. The bigger problem was that a bear is the bad guy in this film. But ever since Baloo in Jungle Book, Kavya likes bears. So as the bear in Over the Hedge falls down and gets beaten up and flies away after being tied to balloons, the tears flowed rather freely and didn’t stop until the end credits came up. Kavya was probably the only kid who came out of the film crying!

But overall, she did have fun and surprisingly, so did I. The movie works quite well for adults too. The dialogs are smart and there are a number of clever jokes. The movie takes a lot of digs at the American lifestyle and the importance it affords to food and eating. And the staple of any animated film that also aims to appeal to adults - digs at other movies - is also present. I noticed nods to atleast two movies – Citizen Kane and A Streetcar Named Desire.