Thursday, April 21, 2011

Blossoms Popping Right Before My Eyes

My favorite sign of spring is the beautiful tree that blooms in our front yard.  When I came to St. Louis to look for a home, I drove up in front of this house and the tree in the front yard had pink blossoms on it.  I said, "I'll take it!"


We finished reading The Waterhorse by Dick King-Smith.  It's the story of a Scottish family who raises a waterhorse from birth to Lochness Monster.  It's very sweet, but that really is the whole story.  The kids enjoyed it and it was a really quick read.


The movie The Waterhorse: Legend of the Deep came out in 2007 and the waterhorse is very lifelike.  Here's the thing: there really isn't enough drama in the book to make an interesting movie, so I appreciate that the producers added a more substantial plotline.  BUT, they added a storyline about soldiers moving into the family's house during WWI and then killed off the father of the family to make saying goodbye to the waterhorse some sort of deep metaphor.  You know what kids love?  Not movies with old Scottish soldiers and deep metaphors.  My kids were bored and confused while watching the movie and they didn't even stay to watch it until the end.  They loved the scenes wtih the waterhorse, though.

To sum up: Book=good.  Movie=boring for young kids.

3 Wisecracks:

Patti said...

What!? The dad didn't die in the book? Being a kid trapped in a grown-up body, and a lover of Scottish accents, I really enjoyed the movie. But if I ever need a waterhorse fix I'll grab the book instead and skip the really sad stuff.

melissa said...

As a grown up, I really liked the movie. It was just too heavy for the kids and too different from the book. They hate that.

Andrea Lee U.R. said...

These pictures are giving me hope. There is a LOT of white outside my window right now. You have some serious talent in taking amazing pictures. I can almost smell the flowers....... ahhh!!!