‘My Father’s Dragon’
“My Father’s Dragon,” an adaptation of the 1948 children’s novel of the same name by Ruth Stiles Gannett, follows a boy named Elmer (Jacob Tremblay, most recently the voice of Flounder in “The Little Mermaid”). who lives a happy life with his mother, Dela (Golshifteh Farahani). When Dela’s business closes, it forces her to move to a city tenement and scramble for work. A black cat (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg) tells Elmer to travel to a place called Wild Island and free a dragon named Boris, who in turn can bring fame and fortune to Dela. Elmer finds Boris (Gaten Matarazzo of “Stranger Things”) and what follows is a tender story of friendship, fear and courage. The beautiful hand-drawn animations and wide-eyed characters are a signature of Cartoon Saloon, the Oscar-nominated Irish animation studio that produced this film with Netflix and Mockingbird Pictures. And thanks to director Nora Twomey (“The Breadwinner”) and screenwriter Meg LeFauve (“Inside Out”), both Oscar nominees, this 2022 movie’s sweet and important lesson — that it’s OK fear sometimes and the relationship between friends gives. our courage — is made digestible for young children.
‘Cinderella’
Releasing fairy tales of their outdated I-just-want-to-feel-pretty heroines is par for the course these days, and this 2021 entry in the pantheon, co-produced by James Corden, stars the pop princess with Camila Cabello as the titular. heroine. Hot on the glass heels of modern-day Cinderellas like Brandy, Drew Barrymore and Anne Hathaway, Cabello’s princess-to-be is a woman on a mission — and that mission doesn’t include marriage and homemaking. Her goal in life is to make it as a fashion designer, but her evil stepmother (Idina Menzel) doesn’t want her at balls where she can show off her designs. However, Cinderella cannot be stopped. You can probably guess the rest of the plot from there (Cinderella and the Prince meet; she fights his love because she’s a MODERN WOMAN; musicals abound). Not everyone loves this version, and its writer-director, Kay Cannon (“Pitch Perfect”), makes some dialogue choices that may feel too juvenile for older kids. and adults (“I have dreams I have to chase!”). However, the tunes and proven, albeit updated, story line should entertain youngsters who love a good not-your-average-princess story. Billy Porter, in all her splendor, plays the Fabulous Godmother.
New Jersey tween Prem (Manny Magnus) follows in the footsteps of his widowed mother, Priya (Punam Patel from “Special”), by training for a Mathlympics competition. Prem’s father, Suresh (Utkarsh Ambudkar, who co-wrote the screenplay), died of cancer when Prem was in elementary school, which Priya still struggles to talk about. That is, until he tells his son that his father is actually a hip-hop legend. This juicy and unexpected family secret inspires Prem to ditch calculus for freestyle rapping. Prem’s real-life existence in middle school is interrupted by a series of fantasy sequences in which he and his father rap on stage, turning this drama into a raucous hip-hop musical that could break if you expect A Tribe Called Quest-level skills . The lyrics are novice, which makes sense since Prem is jumping from math prodigy to rap novice. His best friend, Jerome (Max Malas), provides some laughs, and his Mathlympics rival Claire (Piper Wallace) provides some light middle school villainy. It’s a high-energy romp from director Roshan Sethi (“7 Days”) that should appeal to school-age music-loving kids who want to see the underdog take the stage.
‘Avatar: Waterway’
Stream it on Disney+ and Max.
A few years after the events of the first movie “Avatar”, we meet the man Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who is now a Na’vi (you know, the blue creatures) and husband of Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) . They raise a group of children, three of their own along with a human orphan named Spider and Kiri, the daughter of Sigourney Weaver’s character, Dr. Grace Augustine, from the first movie. The family’s idyllic life in the fictional kingdom of Pandora is disrupted when the “sky people” (you know, the military) return to exact revenge on Jake for betraying his human identity. He’s torn between fighting the enemy and protecting his family, and the universe of the original film opens up as they travel through the distant, beautiful landscape. With a running time of just over three hours, this James Cameron film may not be in the cards for toddlers who can watch about 20 minutes of “Blippi” before exploding. For older children with less viewing stamina, the dynamic flying scenes and eye-catching visuals should hold their attention. Maybe not all the time, but you can hit pause and come back later.
This Halloween-night comedy isn’t quite “Adventures in Babysitting” meets “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but it tries. It is based on the popular book series of the same name by Joe Ballarini about a secret society of babysitters who protect the children they watch from monsters. Here, a shy, math-loving teenager named Kelly (Tamara Smart from “The Worst Witch”) takes care of little Jacob (Ian Ho), who can’t sleep because, like many children, he’s scared in the dark Kelly harbors her own childhood memories of being terrorized by terrifying ghouls and goblins, causing her to live a cautious, unhappy teenage life. When the evil Grand Guignol (Tom Felton) tells his army of colorful CGI monsters to kidnap Jacob, Kelly discovers that her young charge is missing and, in true teen fashion, freaks out. She gets help when cyberpunk-ish teen Liz LeRue (Oona Laurence) arrives and tells her about the mysterious order of babysitters she belongs to that will help Kelly find Jacob. It’s not exactly scary, but for kids who love witches and monsters, it might be a fun way to escape the summer heat.
