TinkerBell & the Great Fairy Rescue

Menonton kartun merupakan kesenangan tersendiri. Memanjakan imaginasi, menghibur diri, masuk ke dunia penuh warna.

Disney's TinkerBell & the Great Fairy Rescue menceritakan pertemuan pertama TinkerBell, si peri yang selalu ingin tahu & berjiwa petualang, dengan manusia, yakni Lizzy, si gadis kecil yang memiliki keyakinan mendalam akan keberadaan peri. Kemunculan TinkerBell dalam hidup Lizzy juga mengubah sudut pandang ayah Lizzy yang hanya percaya pada fakta & segala yang di luar fakta adalah dongeng, melulu hal tak berguna.

Ada sepotong dialog menarik antara si ayah dengan Lizzy:
"Tapi bagaimana caranya?" tanya si ayah.
"Ayah tak perlu tahu caranya. Ayah hanya perlu percaya," jawab Lizzy.

Anak memiliki kekuatan menakjubkan yang terkadang hilang oleh ketidakpercayaan orangtua. Film ini wajib tonton & sangat direkomendasikan, untuk kita berlatih melihat tidak hanya dengan mata, tapi dengan hati. Kekuatan keyakinan & keindahan persahabatan.

Watching cartoon is a unique pleasure. Spoiling the imagination, entertaining, get into the world of colour.

Disney's TinkerBell & the Great Fairy Rescue tells about the curious & adventorous fairy, TinkerBell's first meeting with human named Lizzy, a little girl who has a very deep faith about the existence of fairies. TinkerBell's appearance in Lizzy's life also changes Lizzy's father's view point, who used to be a guy who only believes in facts, that whatever outside the facts are tales, useless things.

There is an interesting dialog between the father and Lizzy:
"But how?" asked the father.
"You don't need to know how. You just need to believe," answered Lizzy.

Kids have incredible strength that sometimes disappear because parents do not believe. This movie is highly recommended, for us to train not only to see with eyes, but with heart. The power of faith & the beauty of friendship.

The Princess & The Frog

Few days ago I bought the VCD of Disney's The Princess and The Frog and till this minute my daughter has watched it for 5 times! A story of kissing a frog might not turn it to a prince but instead turn you into a frog!

A modern day retelling of the classic story The Frog Prince. The Princess and the Frog finds the lives of arrogant, carefree Prince Naveen and hardworking waitress Tiana crossing paths. Prince Naveen is transformed into a frog by a conniving voodoo magician and Tiana, following suit, upon kissing the amphibian royalty. With the help of a trumpet-playing alligator, a Cajun firefly, and an old blind lady who lives in a boat in a tree, Naveen and Tiana must race to break the spell and fulfill their dreams (www.imdb.com)

Tiana's daddy taught her to always do the right thing; only dreaming won't bring the dream to reality but hardwork will. Do we have the determination to chase our dreams? Are we willing to do the hardwork? Sometimes before we move to the chasing dreams or work hard (and smart) issue, the most vital question will be "DO WE DARE TO DREAM?" It doesn't sound that easy. Only if we start to dream, we can start to put the blueprint in our mind. Only having the blueprint in mind that we are able to put it into actions, give best effort, and see it turn to reality. That easy? See the word "give best effort", that might be the hard part. That's why we have to put determination as one of the ingredients!

Adult's common reaction when hearing their kids' dreams is to laugh. Don't. Please do encourage them, show them the ways, guide them, and let them grow to glow

Shrek Forever After, The Final Chapter

Last Friday I went to the movie with my 7-year-old daughter, to watch “Shrek Forever After, the Final Chapter”. In case some of you haven’t watched it, here’s the plot summary written by IMDb Editors (www.imdb.com):

A bored and domesticated Shrek pacts with deal-maker Rumpelstiltskin to get back to feeling like a real ogre again, but when he's duped and sent to a twisted version of Far Far Away -- where Rumpelstiltskin is king, ogres are hunted, and he and Fiona have never met -- he sets out to restore his world and reclaim his true love.
The moral of the story is quite hard to be understood by kids although the entertainment is successfully delivered in amusing way. Look at the scene when Shrek tried to escape from Rumpelstiltskin’s palace, also when the Piper made all ogre dance. Prepare to have a good laugh when Shrek tried to ensure Donkey that he’s his friend, when Donkey was asked to woo Dragon, when Puss-in-Boots begged Donkey to lick his wet body… very, very funny!

Anyway, the moral is simple yet the hardest thing for us to apply… gratitude. Be gratitude with what you have. Shrek’s wife, Princess Fiona, was astonished when Shrek wished to be back to the time when he hadn’t saved Fiona, the time when he was a furious ogre, full of adventures. Fiona said to him “You have 3 cute children, a wife that loves you so much… but why it’s you that can’t see this?”

The grass in neighbors’ garden is always greener than ours. Other’s possession and life is always better than ours, well, at least from our view. We will keep having this in our mind until one day (hopefully) we’ll realize that ours are not less than others’, it could be that we are actually having more than others. Mr. Sutanto whose daughter, Velisia, is in treatment for her leukemia, ever wrote in facebook that if we want to see how people struggle for life survival, try to go to the oncology room, then we’ll realize how lucky they who have good health, how we should learn to appreciate more of what we have now, take good care of ourselves, and remember to thank God for these all. These words come from a father who has to watch his daughter goes on heart-breaking treatments every day.

I always think that from time to time we have to look up to the successful people to turn on the ambition in us to try even harder for a better life. However, we do need to balance it by looking around for the people who are less lucky than us; this is to light up the gratitude in us, to enable us to appreciate what we have in hand now. Let’s learn together…


Anyway, I always cherish my movie time with my daughter, just two of us, there’s always something new to learn. If it’s not new, it’s always good to refresh!!

Cloudy w/ a Chance of Meatballs

The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need, can hit hard (Sloan Wilson)

Last week I went to the movie with my daughter. We watched “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and we both loved it! Flint Lockwood and Sam Sparks, the main role characters in this 3D animation, represented the two so-called-nerd who finally saved the world from the over-operating food processor. Flint, a never-tired inventor since small, whose ability is only trusted by her mother (who then passed away, leaving him with no one believe in his talent, even his Dad) invented a machine that can change water into food as ordered. The machine is put above the cloud. This invention was highly successful in the time of food recession in his town, where people can only eat sardines. Flint is so amused by all the praise he never had before, that he ignored Sam’s warning that the food processor has started to go wild. When the disaster happened, he felt he’s fail as an inventor, a dreamer, and as a human, that he hides in a trash can, throwing himself in as all his invention. His Dad, the one who disagree him being an inventor and want him to be his partner in his fishing & bait shop, finally encouraged him to resolve all the mess he has made.

Sam, the genius girl who hides her super smart brain in her trial to wipe-off her childhood sadness of being called nerd, at last she can accept herself fully and be comfortable with her own self, a pony-tail girl with a big glasses and of course, a wonderful brilliant brain (well, with a peanut allergic altogether). Together with Flint, helped by friends, they saved the world. And of course, after saving the world, Flint & Sam click together!

For me, this is a very nice animation; entertaining with a high-imagination story line, great lively pictures, and meaningful messages:
• Kids are supposed to be supported to be just themselves, be creative, be inventive, and most of all, be responsible. Guiding their ways through what they have chosen to be is far more encouraging than choose for them what to be & prevent them to be just simply their own self.
• Parents… please learn computer! (If you watch this movie, you will understand why!)

UP, The Movie

Beberapa bulan yang lalu saya menonton fim UP (Pixar Animation Studios) dan yes!! This is a film worth for all thumb up!! Yang paling, paling kusukai dari film ini adalah 10 menit pertama, yang berkisah tentang Carl Kecil yang sangat mengidamkan petualangan, bertemu dengan Ellie Kecil yang juga sangat mencintai petualangan, berkepribadian riang & berani. Ellie Kecil memiliki sebuah Adventure Book, di mana keinginan terbesarnya adalah tinggal di tepi air terjun di Paradise Fall. Lalu kisah melompat ke setting altar gereja di mana setelah dewasa, keduanya mengikat tali pernikahan dan memulai kehidupan bersama yang sederhana.

Saat mengisahkan kehidupan mereka berdua, sama sekali tidak ada dialog namun kehangatan & kasih sayang antara mereka sebagai suami-istri tergambar begitu alami dan manis, misalnya saat mereka berbaring bersama di padang rumput, menatap langit dan awan yang beragam bentuk di mata mereka yang penuh imajinasi. Salah satunya awan menjadi berbentuk bayi. Aha! Keduanya menginginkan anak dan kemudian tampak mereka menghias kamar bayi bersama-sama. Hidup tidak selalu indah... berikutnya bagian yang menunjuk Ellie duduk tertunduk di depan dokter yang sedang berbicara, sedangkan Carl berdiri di belakang Ellie, menepuk bahunya. Keadaan ini dengan jelas menggambarkan mereka menerima kabar buruk dari dokter bahwa mereka tidak bisa punya anak.

Carl yang sedih melihat Ellie patah semangat, kemudian teringat pada impian Sang Istri yang ingin pergi ke Paradise Fall dan menetap di tepi air terjunnya. Untuk mencapai impian tersebut, mereka harus giat menabung karena profesi Carl hanya sebagai penjaja balon. Digambarkan mereka mulai menemukan spirit mereka dan dalam usahanya, mereka menabung koin-koin di stoples besar bergambar impian Ellie. Tahun demi tahun berlalu dan tabungan mereka tidak pernah penuh karena ada saja keadaan urgent yang membuat mereka terpaksa memecahkan celengan mereka; ban mobil yang pecah, Carl dirawat di rumah sakit, rumah yang tertimpa pohon...

Di usia tua, Ellie yang tahu dirinya tidak akan berkesempatan menggapai mimpi Paradise Fall nya, kemudian memberikan Adventure Book kepada Carl sebelum dia meninggal dunia. Kesedihan menjadi-jadi saat Carl dipaksa tinggal di Rumah Jompo sepeninggal Ellie. Dengan kenekatan & tekad kuat, Carl mengikatkan begitu banyak balon di rumahnya dan terbang menuju Paradise Fall, menuju impian Ellie, impian mereka bersama. Ada tokoh Russel, si wilderness explorer berusia 8 tahun yang secara tidak sengaja ikut dalam misi ‘rumah terbang’ ini.

Walaupun film ini adalah film kartun namun kekuatan gesture, mimik dari para tokoh benar-benar memukau dan bisa menghanyutkan kita ke dalam setting cerita. Film ini bermoral bagus, tepat untuk the kids & the adults!! Bravo, Pixar!!