The Hobbit...and Doing Something Right

[Daddieo]

I'll try to keep the story with this photo short...it's a story of doing something right as a parent. And we all know there is never any certainty about that...

Years ago, when my kids were much younger, and well into the "Harry Potter" thing...the same time I had filed for divorce...I was tracking with the most serious intent, the creation of the greatest series of movies ever made, The Lord of the Rings. I researched the process, the people, the theory behind making three movies simultaneously...I tracked this movie for over four years before the first episode was even released. I had also read The Hobbit and the Trilogy of the Rings back in college...

As part of my deal with myself about taking care of my children through this divorce, I sat them down and told them that there were some movies being created that were going to make history. In many, many ways. I also told them that I wanted to be the person that shared these movies with them, to be a part of history with them, to be a giver of some quality for their eyes, and thoughts, and hearts...there are many values and morals expressed in these movies...friendship, loyalty, helping the underdog, courage and bravery, love, sacrifice....it's endless. I promised, and carried through with that promise...and we, my kids and I, watched the entire trilogy side by side over the course of it's screening of almost four years.

It has come full circle. The Hobbit is about to be released. My children called me last night and told me that they have purchased tickets to the Midnight showing...at 12:01, in 3D, and WE are all going. It wasn't a question...it was a statement that they have gained the love and attachment that their Dad has for them...and they wish to return it in kind. Sappy maybe, but if they have come away from our brief life together as a family that I love them beyond all measure, than, I obviously did something right.

Why don't some of you think about taking your kids to the movies, I don't care how long they have been away from the house, I don't care how complicated lives have become...make it happen. Family will be just that...family...until you are in a box. And if you've done it right as a parent...even after you're gone....your family is going to remember the night you took them to see The Hobbit. Make history.

[Serenity]

I read books to my daughter. Movies are very difficult for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HoH). A few theaters now have CC glasses, but it is all quite expensive now.

My daughter is not a great movie goer. They wait for the DVD to come out and watch it as a family. It makes more sense to me to do that.  But, if you are a movie lover, then sharing it is a joy.

A friend and I went to the movies and it was $25 to get it - no $8 tickets.  I think we had to pay for the 3D glasses - and I found out 3D makes me nauseated.  I stay away from that sort of expense.  It is the only one around with the CC glasses 

[exedir]

There and back again, a childrens' story, an expensive childrens' story if it is going to the movies.  And yes, I remember when it was a 25¢ or was that a 10¢, it certainly wasn't $8 or more. Of course this isn't children's matinee either, it is Tolkien's, The Hobbit.

Long awaited, certainly, and the necessary prequel to LoTR but then again this isn't just Tolkien it is Peter Jackson's Hobbit, as in the telling of the story that fits and expands LoTR and makes a few bucks as a result.

The real telling of The Hobbit is as an adventure and the nature of people....er....those of the Middle Earth working together to deal with a common foe for the advantage of all, more or less. And yes, the consequences of one action leading to another, another adventure more difficult and of a far greater concern in the telling of LoTR.

As to what children get out of the stories now, in the 21^st century is a little harder to define. As a fantasy it is populated by what is common in most video games, as to violence, actually pretty tame to what can be dealt with by a controller and button. The use of magic and magical people, been there, done that. A ring, a cloak, same, same, it is all invisible to me.

What is used is imagination, the imagination of the writer and the imagination of the reader, viewer. And if that is a child, what a wonderful thing to have and do, to have an imagination and those around them that appreciate it.

[Mandy Muffin]

I often took my kids to movies when they were kids.  I remember the Star Wars movies and then there was Superman, the first one with Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder.  My son is in his 40s now, but still remembers watching the scene when Superman was flying through the streets of Metropolis when he turned to me, grabbed my sleeve and said, "Dad, did you notice, Superman doesn't need a car."  We laugh about this line at family gatherings to this day.  I also remember the line when Margo Kidder asks Superman if he can see what color her panties were with his ex-ray vision.  A couple of lines later in the dialogue he say, "PINK."  Maybe I will call one of my three children up this Christmas and invite them to a movie.  I am also a fan of "The Hobbit," as I read it in the 1960s and saw the Trilogy of the Rings series.  There was an old animated version of "The Hobbit" that I also saw that came out a while back.