The Movies

Another first for Punky this month: her first trip to the movies.

Again yes, I know she's four. Many kids have their first experience at the theater long before four. These days animated movies are released in incredible numbers and the marketing directed at children is astounding. Each film is accompanied by mounds of related toys, clothes, books, candies, and endless other trinkets. The branding is everywhere and there's no escaping it.

The main reason I haven't taken Punky to the theater sooner is because I'm simply not a movie person. Once in a while I'm in the mood to watch one, but rarely ever at the movies. It's much more convenient, not to mention a hell of a lot cheaper, to watch in the comfort of my couch and pajamas. And my microwave popcorn has way less calories.  Plus, Punky's not all that fond of the dark, she doesn't like loud, and sitting still for ninety consecutive minutes?  Nearly impossible without duct tape or glue and last time I checked those options were still illegal parenting tools.

Lately though we've been having family movie night quite regularly. Punky's interest and attention span have finally matured to the point where it's almost possible to watch an entire movie with only a handful of interruptions. We've gone beyond our skimpy shelf of DVDs and actually rented some movies from the local grocery store and on-demand through our cable.  We even picked up a few cheapies from the $5 bin at Walmart.  

Now that Punky is finally excited to watch different movies (rather than the same three or four over and over and over and over again until her parents' eyes bleed), the time was right to have her first experience with the big screen.  I saw the online preview trailers for The Croods and thought it would be a good movie to introduce her to the theater.  It's animated and colorful, funny and adventurous, and has a mix of interesting characters to hold her attention.  I hoped, anyway.

As it turned out, the movie itself wasn't as nearly as good as I expected it to be, but the experience went rather well.  Punky was completely captivated by the immense size of the movie screen.  I was so surprised that she didn't complain once about the loud volume in the theater.  She literally sat on the edge of her seat the entire film.  She smiled from ear to ear, she laughed out loud, she shoveled handfuls of buttery popcorn in her mouth, she drank more soda in one sitting than she probably has all year thus far, and when the movie ended she asked when we can go to the theater again. 

I'm so glad she enjoyed it.  I'm thrilled she made it through the whole film without losing interest and acting up out of boredom.  I'm happy she now understands why I always say popcorn tastes much better at the movies. And I'm glad to know we have another option for something to do when the weather stinks and we want to get out of the house.

However, given the fact that it cost us forty dollars to see a Saturday matinee with one tub of popcorn and two sodas, I don't see us visiting the theater more than once or twice a year.  I can't even really wrap my head around that cost.  It's ridiculous.  I don't care how good the popcorn is.