Book Review: Dinotopia - Windchaser (Series)

The Dinotopia series of books for kids uses the setting established in James Gurneys' original illustrated book to continue telling further stories of a land where dinosaurs never died out, and in fact evolved intelligent brains capable of society and language. They inhabit a remote island hidden by tides and weather from anyone other than shipwrecked castaways, who have integrated their various cultures into one harmonious civilization with the dinosaurs to achieve... well, a utopia. It's farfetched in a lot of ways, even if you can get past the basic premise. You may want to spend some time explaining concepts to younger readers; I for one didn't want to let some of the assumptions about the perfect society portrayed in the book slip by without a little discussion first.

The plot of Windchaser is fairly simplistic. However, one of the two protagonists (both apparently preteen boys) loses his father right off the bat in a prison ship mutiny. During the mutiny the ship is destroyed by a freak wave and the two boys are the only ones to survive. They are carried to an island by some helpful dolphins, and they soon discover the secret of Dinotopia. A heavy way to start such a simply-written book. Younger readers will need some supervision in order to understand some of the more complex philosophy, moral questions, and emotional undertones that come up throughout the book; older readers will be put off by the extremely basic plot and underdeveloped characters.

Movie Review: "Night At the Museum"

We watched “Night at the Museum” for family movie night -- it was a bit silly, but engaging for the kids. It had some scary parts that freaked out our 5-year-old, and some doubt cast upon the competence of Ben Stiller’s character as a father made me a little uneasy. The movie obviously wanted to show that Ben Stiller’s character could be a good dad even if he wasn’t exactly the most employable or best entrepreneur. However, his competition is his son’s stepfather, who is a stockbroker or some other kind of well-compensated responsible job, and the son’s character makes WAY too big a deal about how great that is.
Larry (Stiller’s character) just about hits rock bottom and accepts a job as a night watchman at the Museum of Natural History. His chronic irresponsibility soon becomes a much bigger problem for him on his first night on the job, since he doesn’t pay attention to the directions given to him by the elderly cranks who used to do the job and are now retiring. As it turns out, everything in the museum comes to life at night, and there are many specific ways of dealing with them that allow the museum to be ready to open in the morning. Larry knows none of these tricks, and even manages to destroy the only copy of the directions before he has a chance to read them all.
The rest of the movie consists of many crazy scenarios involving historical artifacts and characters; unfortunately none of it seemed to encourage any appreciation of history since it tended to be inaccurate and blended with modern situations and dialogue. The characters from history were all interacting with each other as well, and it made for some fairly campy interactions, especially between Larry and the miniature models from the Wild West and Roman times.
To complicate matters, the former night watchmen hatch a plot to steal the magical artifact that brings everything to life at night. The movie does its best to bring all the good guys together to use teamwork to beat the bad guys. It’s also Larry’s chance to be someone better than he used to be. It is just a bit heavy handed.
Overall there were some laughs for the kids, some winks to the parents, and no matter how big a disaster Larry’s life or handling of this job might be, everything works out OK in the end.
To summarize things a parent might want to know:
There are several scary scenes that will be too much for most kids under 6 or 7 (Attila the Hun repeatedly talks about ripping peoples’ limbs off). It is an opportunity to discuss with kids how most kid’s movies always seem to turn out all right at the end, and that even though the good guys suffer setbacks it’s usually not an occasion to worry. It’s also a good opportunity to start talking about how life REALLY works (compared to a movie or TV show), if you’re so inclined. The father character is unfavorably compared to a more successful stepfather, and the crux of the crisis revolves around the son’s character completely losing faith in his father. This did not strike me as the most positive or constructive idea to be introducing to young children, even if the father discovers a way to make up for his failings in the movie. However, it is a good starting point for a discussion about following your dreams, being responsible, and working together, as well as introducing historically significant figures .