Last week the boys (ages 4.5 and 2.5), King Phekus, and I had the opportunity to go see an advanced screening of the movie Free Birds. The movie was rated PG for peril and crude humor, but after watching several previews and trailers, I thought my boys could handle it. There was not one time in the movie that the boys were scared (and they are scared of many, many things) and the humor was no worse than the potty humor they provide at dinner each night.
This was actually Little Guy’s first movie theater movie. Buddy saw his first movie, Planes, this summer and we thought we would give another movie a shot.
Attending the advanced screening was sweet, I’ll admit. The PR staff was super friendly, and they had prepared Free Birds themed gift bags for both of the boys which included t-shirts, Thanksgiving-themed crafts, and tattoos. The movie was in 3D, and the boys thought wearing the glasses to watch the movie was super fun.
I’ve seen critics’ somewhat negative reviews of the movie, but based on our experiences, I will respectfully disagree. First, the movie held the attention of both boys from start to end, which included them keeping their 3D glasses on for the entire movie. Any parents of preschoolers will tell you that this is no easy feat. Next, King Phekus and I both thought the characters were well developed – we’ve seen lots of kids’ movies lately with very flat characters, but we all loved Reggie, Jake, Jenny, “Steve” the time machine, and the chicks. The 3D was appropriately done, and especially added to the time travel scenes. I’ve read that people are worried that this movie will turn their pint-sized viewers into vegetarians and honestly, that just seems absurd to me. My kids definitely did not make the connection between these turkeys, the first Thanksgiving, and our Thanksgiving. The movie is silly, so my guess is if this movie turns your kid into a vegetarian, then your kid was probably going to become a vegetarian on their own at some point.
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