Noah Schnapp | Cinema Parrot Disco

A couple of kid-friendly Halloween movies for Horror Month today. Although I’m not sure how kid-friendly those hideous witches in The Witches actually are…

The Witches (2020)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Based on The Witches by Roald Dahl

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci, Jahzir Kadeem Bruno, Chris Rock

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDb)
A young boy and his grandmother have a run-in with a coven of witches and their leader.

My Opinion:

Okay, I actually thought this movie was bloody terrible but I liked the main kid (Jahzir Bruno) and Octavia Spencer so much that I’m giving this an extra point to make up for the -1,000 points I want to subtract from it for Anne Hathaway’s dreadful performance and those horrible witches that I found far too disturbing for a kids’ film. I know they’re meant to be hideous but bloody hell! And Hathaway was so over-the-top and what in god’s creation was that stupid accent?!

Honestly, the kid and his grandmother were so likeable and the beginning had great Motown music and the whole thing was going far better than I was expecting until those stupid ass witches showed up & ruined the whole film. Kind of important to get the witches right in a movie called The Witches! Disclaimer: I probably have no right to judge this anyway as I never read the Roald Dahl book NOR watched the 1990 film with Anjelica Huston that everyone seems to far prefer.

My Rating: 5.5/10

Hubie Halloween (2020)

Directed by Steven Brill

Written by Tim Herlihy & Adam Sandler

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Julie Bowen, Ray Liotta, Rob Schneider, June Squibb, Kenan Thompson, Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Buscemi, Maya Rudolph, Tim Meadows, Karan Brar, Paris Berelc, Noah Schnapp, China Anne McClain, Michael Chiklis

Plot Synopsis: (via Wikipedia)
The film follows a Halloween-loving delicatessen worker who must save the town of Salem, Massachusetts, from a kidnapper.

My Opinion:

I liked this, although it’s certainly not my favorite Adam Sandler film (I did a top ten of his movies HERE so I suppose I should add this at some point). Not sure where I’d rank this – maybe around 10th place or so. But I’ve seen way more than ten of his movies so I should rank all of them – Hubie Halloween is probably somewhere in the middle.

What I liked about this movie more than anything was 1) the fact that it’s set at Halloween & I want more movies set at Halloween and 2) the inappropriate t-shirts his character’s sweet old mother wears and especially 3) Steve Buscemi. I love Buscemi.

I do like Adam Sandler, unlike some snobby people who refuse to admit to ever liking his films. However, I also fully admit that some of his movies are complete & utter shit. Where Sandler does best is when he finds people who make his movies better. Drew Barrymore & Steve Buscemi elevate the Sandler movies they’re in. Too bad Drew wasn’t in this one! Sandler has great chemistry with Drew & Buscemi has ended up being surprisingly hilarious in all of his small Sandler movie roles. Well, Buscemi was great again & the highlight of this film for me (plus it’s a much bigger role than most of his Sandler cameos). My kid was like “Steve Buscemi!” as soon as he came on screen. How many pre-teens get excited over Steve Buscemi, let alone even know who he is?? I’m a cool movie parent.

My Rating: 6/10

The Peanuts Movie (aka Snoopy And Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie) (2015)

Directed by Steve Martino

Based on Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz

Starring Voice Actors: Noah Schnapp, Hadley Belle Miller, Mariel Sheets, Alex Garfin, Francesca Angelucci Capaldi, Noah Johnston, Venus Omega Schultheis, Rebecca Bloom, Marelik “Mar Mar” Walker, Anastasia Bredikhina, Micah Revelli, William “Alex” Wunsch, AJ Teece, Madisyn Shipman, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Kristin Chenoweth, Bill Melendez

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDB)
Snoopy embarks upon his greatest mission as he and his team take to the skies to pursue their arch-nemesis, while his best pal Charlie Brown begins his own epic quest back home.

My Opinion:

I love Peanuts. I adore Snoopy. I’ve been a huge fan from a young age, always reading the comics in the newspapers while growing up and watching all the Peanuts TV specials (which I now have on DVD all sitting proudly next to my husband’s Star Wars DVD collection while every other DVD we have is boxed & put away). Peanuts isn’t as big of a thing in the UK so whenever I see anything whatsoever with Peanuts on it, I buy it. My daughter is always guaranteed to have several articles of Snoopy clothing as I can’t exactly NOT buy her Snoopy clothing whenever I see any. Okay – and I may have several articles of Snoopy clothing as well (mostly pajamas). 😉

My point is this: I’m a huge fan of Peanuts so I was of course extremely worried when I first heard they’d be making a Peanuts movie. I’m not a huge fan of other films made by Blue Sky Studios (things like Ice Age, Rio, Robots, Epic – I can take or leave all of these). I was also really dreading some kind of horrible disaster like those Garfield movies. Then when we first saw the look of the characters for the new Peanuts movie, I had a tiny bit of hope as they stayed quite true to the classic look. I’m so happy that I got to see a preview of this over the weekend as it doesn’t fully come out in the UK until the 21st and….. I’m SO HAPPY WITH THE MOVIE!!!! 🙂

This movie stays true to the spirit of Peanuts and it was nice to watch a movie with my daughter that was pure innocence. They didn’t try to update this in any way or throw in any naughty little jokes for the adults. I hate when they take something classic and try to modernize it for a new generation and that was my biggest fear going into this movie. That occasionally works for some things but, for the most part, modernizing something like this usually ends in disaster as all you’re going to do is piss off the fans of the original and probably still not gain any new, younger fans.

As I say, though, I’m a huge fan so I expected this to be faithful & respectful to my beloved Peanuts. My hubby & I disagreed slightly on this movie as he felt it brought “nothing new to the table”. They still had things like Snoopy using a typewriter & Charlie Brown getting tangled up in an old phone cord so they’ve not brought this film into modern times. I loved that while the hubby seemed to feel that they should’ve brought it up to date in some ways (while still remaining loyal to everything that Peanuts stands for). I don’t know – what does everyone else think? I admit that I’m totally blinded by my love of this group of cartoon characters who’ve been such a big part of my (many) years on this Earth. To me, this movie did things perfectly & I wouldn’t change a thing.

I’m going to wrap this up because 1) I don’t have anything interesting to say because I clearly love Peanuts so damn much that I’d just blather on & on about it and annoy everyone (this is why I’ve reviewed hardly any all-time favorite movies of mine on this blog) and 2) I’m off to see Krampus in a few minutes, which I’m wanting to be the new Gremlins so my expectations are clearly too high as nothing can be as good as Gremlins.

Summary:

As this movie is coming out in the UK so much later than in the US, I’ve completely avoided reading all reviews. I’m assuming that all long-time Peanuts fans breathed a big sigh of relief afterwards as I don’t think we could’ve gotten a movie that was much more loyal than this one.

I’m very glad that it has come out now while my daughter is six because I think she’d maybe be too old for it in another year. I have zero complaints about the movie but, yes – my husband is right in some ways about this movie needing to modernize in order to gain new fans. Today’s kids are quite different from how those my age were when we grew up in the Seventies & the Eighties and they sadly seem to lose their innocence at such a young age now. I love how they chose to not modernize, though, as I don’t think it’s necessary. A big thank you to the filmmakers for keeping the pure innocence of Peanuts alive in this film. The characters are so iconic (especially Snoopy) that there will always be new fans anyway. Who isn’t going to fall in love with Snoopy?? That’s why you still see him all the time. He’s one of the greatest creations in history! (Did I mention that I love Snoopy????!!!! 🙂 Okay, I’ll shut up).

I think it was more important to keep the old fans happy with this one and they certainly managed that with this fan. As for my daughter, I do feel that a part of her is humoring her crazy old Peanuts-loving mother but I did see a big smile on her face whenever I looked over at her during the movie plus she giggled quite a lot at Snoopy’s antics. Trust me, she’s a Snoopy fan at the very least. And Sally! She always giggles at Sally as well.

The Peanuts Movie is “safe” but it’s very sweet without ever being saccharine plus it never feels forced or fake. I think Charles Schulz would be very happy with it. I know I am!

My Rating: 8/10

**Oh! I was in a hurry so I didn’t add that, luckily, the fantastic Vince Guaraldi music is in The Peanuts Movie. Good grief – can you imagine Peanuts without it?? 🙂

Cosmic Scrat-tastrophe:

This mediocre Ice Age short was shown before the movie. It was… Mediocre! Just like the Ice Age films. Meh. Actually, as far as all the Scrat shorts go, this has to be the weakest. I suppose kids who love Scrat will like it. Should I rate it? Hmm. 4.5/10.