Today we took Amari to her second movie - the 2D version of "The Lorax." We figured the 3D glasses alone would be too distracting in and of themselves. What we didn't figure was the previews to this soft, fun, colorful, musical, whimsical animated feature would be dark, loud, and frightening.
When we saw "The Muppets," I think the previews were for "The Lorax" and some other G-Movie. This time, after five minutes of fielding questions like, "Where's the movie, Dada? Is the movie coming? Is it? Is it? Really?" (this is a new behavior which toes the line between cute and crazy-making), the theater lights dimmed simultaneously with loud music filling the darkness before giant images of goofy teenagers, spiders, and bad guys filled the screen. Really? Another Spiderman movie? It looked like a "Smallville" version of "Superman," but a la standard preview style it showed a lot of action and frightening images which left Amari saying, head buried in my chest and her little hands covering her ears, "Amari wants to go bye bye now."
Fortunately the second preview, "Franken-Weiner," a new Tim Burten production I believe, was a little less frightening. Claymation makes reanimation less terrifying. At the end of each preview, as she does when her cartoons are over at home, Amari blurted to our fellow audience members, "The End." Needless to say, we were all grateful when the stunning, colorful animation of "The Lorax" began.
With the exception of a single bathroom break, Amari sat riveted the whole time. I kept checking in with her early on to make sure she wasn't just paralyzed by the fear of giant cartoons, but her gaze and mindless munching of popcorn set my mind at ease.
As we walked out of the theater, Carrie asked what her favorite part was and she said, "My favorite thing was the orange guy." He was very endearing. And so was she.
