Kangatopia

It’s the holiday season, and this means, usually, that lots of kid friendly movies are to be released at the theaters. The ones queuing up for this year- Enchanted, Fred Claus, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium - are ones that Shep and I have agreed that we wouldn’t mind taking the kids to see. So, on Friday night after Bear went off with his grandfather to indulge his fascination with online games, the girls and I decided to see a movie. But, which movie would it be? This would turn into a sort of shell game. Shep and I both agreed that seeing Enchanted and Fred Claus would be kind of fun. We went to see a movie a few weeks ago, and sat in on the first few minutes of Bee Movie which we thought was kind of lame so neither one of us wanted to pay for that one. I realized that in order to leave the opportunity open for us both to see movies that interested us and not leave the other one out, I would have to encourage the girls towards a choice that neither one of us had previously considered, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium.

I went on to IMDB and read the reviews, and they looked pretty good - though the trailer kind of made the film seem less magical and more annoying. I found an old $10 AMC gift certificate that Monkey won a year ago for participating in a community trash pick-up day, and then began the process of finding the theater to which we would go. The AMC theaters were out because the start time was too late. The other local theaters were too expensive. Then, it turned out that a theater the kids go to with their daycare was showing it, and the cost would be a total of $11 for the three of us. This was perfect! It was cheap and I could see this theater the kids visit almost every Friday during their summer vacation.

Now for the manipulation process. “Monkey,” I said, “would you like to see Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium?” and I showed her the film’s website. “Yes!” was her enthusiastic response. Winston, however, wouldn’t be such an easy sell. Monkey sensed this too and began talking to her excitedly about how it’s about a toy store and magic and she would love it. “I want to see Bee Movie”, Winston replied. “But, Winston, look at how cool this looks,” and we played the online trailer. “Bee Movie!” she insisted.

“Ok, how about this? Why don’t we ask Daddy to take you to Bee Movie?”

“Will he?”

“Yes, of course, honey. He loves taking you to see movies.”

“Ok”

Great! So, we packed up and drove to the theater. I was really, really surprised when we arrived. I knew it was a two screen movie house, but I didn’t expect it to look one step removed from the sort of place where people go see pornos and then whack each other off in the seats. I couldn’t just turn the car around and go to one of the AMC theaters with the later start times. This was the place where my two older children have seen at least a gazillion summer movies. So, the girls and I donned our coats and walked in through the dingy doors which had glass that was totally obscured so that it would be impossible to peek inside and see what was going on. A man greeted us at the door, opened the ticket office and took our $11 for the tickets and another $5 for sodas. Since the lobby was almost completely deserted, we weren’t sure if it was okay to go ahead and find our seats. We opened the doors hesitantly and saw that no one was inside. We carefully stepped down the aisle and found the most optimum seats in the place for viewing the movie.

We needn’t have worried. No one else showed up to see the movie. I have never seen a movie in a completely deserted theater until that night. I have seen movies with maybe only 5 other people who weren’t a part of my group, but never completely alone. So, even though I should have used the opportunity to teach the girls about proper movie going etiquette, we threw out all the rules and talked and laughed and at one point - cried (but not because of the movie) - audibly.

As we left the theater, we saw not one other person. No one at the concession stand. No one in the restroom. It was, I tell you, creepy, but also really, really cool. I think we will definitely go back. And plus, we all got our sparkle back!

The day after, Winston was convinced that her daddy would take her to see “Bee Movie” and so later in the evening I finally got around to sending him an email to warn him.

That night I took the kids to spend the night with their Daddy. Winston fell asleep early and when she woke up several hours later, she freaked out because she didn’t know immediately where she was. After her daddy calmed her down, the first thing she said to him was, “Just say yes to Bee Movie.”*

*Ok, so I know the punchline is kind of lame, but if you knew this child you would recognize her brilliance as the 4 year old champion of well-timed one-liners. I don’t know where she gets it.