Ever After

When we first started letting Noah watch feature-length films*, Josh and I wanted to watch them with him. We decided to save new movies for when we could all sit down together -- often Sunday evenings. With time, we've come to call these our "Family Movie Nights" (watching a new feature-length movie AND eating dinner in front of the TV - Ooh! Ahhh!). We've since added "Family Game Nights" (Operation, Hungry Hippos, etc) and alternate them.

Our last Family Movie Night was about 3 weeks ago and featured Disney's Cinderella (1950). I didn't remember this movie and thoroughly enjoyed it. Which is a really good thing, because we read the book version at least twice a day for the next two weeks (plus watching 30min clips of the movie some evenings).

When you spend this much time with a story, you get beyond just the reading and start to think more about the characters, the voices (which improved each reading, if I do say so myself), the art, and the evolution of the tale. Especially with Cinderella, as we own 3 Disney versions. Noah's came in a Golden Book collection and had so few pictures we put it away after the first day. Mine (1974, pictured below) had lots of pictures which matched the movie and not too much text, so it became our favorite. My mother's (1950, pictured above) was beautiful and almost exotic because the pictures clearly predated the movie and it included more detail. Even Noah had fun comparing the books.

But what really brought it all to life were his questions and comments along the way...

Me: Who is your favorite character in Cinderella?
Noah: The king, because he has a sword.
(The mice must be the runners-up because he LOVED Gus & Jacques and told me today that he was going to be a pirate named Gus with a sword).

Me reading: "The stepsisters NEVER had to work. They just pranced around the house in their fancy dresses. And they always made fun of Cinderella because HER dress was so plain."
Noah: Why does Cinderella stand near them?
Me thinking: Smart boy.

Me reading: "Cinderella looked up. There was a little woman with a wand."
Noah: Where did her wand come from?
Me thinking: Her wand? Where did the little woman come from!

Me reading: "The next day the Grand Duke took the glass slipper to every house in the kingdom."
Noah: What if he had to go potty?

And heard around the house...
Noah to Aaron: "Lucifer! Lucifer, come here! Lucifer!"
Me to Noah: Why are you calling him that?
Noah: He's the cat, you know, from Cinderella?
Me thinking: I'm just not ready to have that conversation yet. Aaron will have to live with it for a day.

Now, Noah's attention has shifted to his new favorite: Pinocchio. Not my favorite tale, but I've read it enough lately that I'm beginning to see all sorts of similarities to The Matrix, Pilgrim's Progress, etc. Perhaps there's a reason these stories have been around so long...

*Note: I've found it helpful to look up movies at Common Sense Media beforehand so I know whether it'll be appropriate. If you scroll to the very bottom, they have tons of movies listed by their title's first letter.