5 Children and It

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I got this movie for my kids from the library. It looked like it was going to be pretty dumb. There's a picture of a boy (the actor who plays Charlie in the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie) and then this weird alien or monster thing. It looked like it would be about as good as The Neverending Story or Flight of the Navigator. In other words, cheesy and lame special effects.

Well, it ended up being a lot better than I expected. It reminded me and the kids a lot of the new Narnia movie. Same setting: kids evacuated from London during the war, go to big mysterious house, find a secret door which takes them to a different land...

Anyway, it was pretty good. The kids and I enjoyed watching it. Having pretty low expectations is probably key to me liking it.

Comments

  1. ErinSaturday, January 13, 2007 10:54:00 AM

    My kids have seen this, and they liked it. (But then, they like almost everything that passes across a TV screen, so that's not saying much.) It's based on a book of the same name, by Edith Nesbit, which was originally published in 1902. I just read a little about it and her on wikipedia. Obviously they changed some stuff for the new movie if the children were being evacuated from London because of World War II. This makes me want to watch it and read it. Apparently, it's the first of a trilogy. Five Children and It ends like this: "They did see it [the Sand Fairy] again, of course, but not in this story. And it was not in a sand-pit either, but in a very, very, very different place. It was in a--But I must say no more." I think that's a great final sentence!

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  2. ivySaturday, January 13, 2007 1:55:00 PM

    I was wondering if it was from a book. I didn't really care enough to look it up, but now that you say all that, it does make me want to get the book. If not for me, for the kids. The ending of the movie is sort of the same, but it's the sand fairy saying he sees the kids again in the next movie which is call "It and 5 children" and he goes on and on...being silly. I wasn't thinking he was serious. Oh! And I was totally wrong about World War II. It was World War I. Sorry. Is Narnia WWII?

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  3. Lisa ZWednesday, January 24, 2007 5:58:00 PM

    I loved E. Nesbit as a kid. I love to recommend it to kids when I am working in the kids department. Glad to know there is a movie that I can have Sebastian watch after I have him read the books.

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  4. ErinWednesday, January 24, 2007 6:56:00 PM

    I have never read E. Nesbit. Maybe the kids and I should do Five Children and It as a read-aloud. I think my all-time favorite children's author is Roald Dahl. And the movie Matilda is a great adaptation of the book. My mom thinks it (the book, anyway) is too anti-authoritarian, but I love it.

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