Children’s Movie Reviews

Megamind

Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell) tends to have bad days. That’s not for lack of trying to have a good one. An alien sent to earth as an infant, he was raised by ambitious but forgettable criminals and survived some difficult schooldays (rejected by his fellow kindergartners). Today he’s the resident super-villain of Metrocity (a name he mispronounces to rhyme with “velocity”), living in a fortress with his minion named Minion (David Cross). Here he devises contraptions and conjures schemes to thwart his enemy, the inexorably righteous and square-jawed Metro Man (Brad Pitt) — another…
Secretariat

Known as Red around the barn. Secretariat was a spectacular racehorse, one of those rare creatures who lived up to his hype. From the moment he was born, according to the Disney version of his life, the colt was ready to go. He consistently awed and surprised the people around him and set records that have yet to be beaten, even 37 years later.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Each day, the young barn owl Soren (Jim Sturgess) and his little sister Eglantine (Adrienne deFaria) act out the stories their dad (Hugo Weaving) tells them. These are stories of courageous and wondrous owls, the Guardians, who protect regular, less valiant owls from a group of bad owls. But even as the young siblings imagine themselves into the heroic tales, Soren’s older brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten) ridicules him for believing them. Dad gives them a hint: “Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean that it isn’t real.”
Alpha & Omega

Wolves just want to have fun. At least when they’re omega wolves. According to Alpha & Omega, wolf packs divide themselves into classes, one (omegas) ever childlike and rambunctious, the other (alphas) more serious and responsible, trained in a special “alpha school” to hunt for food and defend their fellow wolves against enemies. The two types respect each other’s differences, but don’t spend much time together. In fact, the alphas tend to look down on the omegas.
Flipped

In 1957, Bryce (Ryan Ketzner as a child, Callan McAuliffe as an eighth grader) moves with his family into a new neighborhood. Across the street, he spots Juli (Morgan Lily, then Madeline Carroll), and both their lives are changed. From now on, through to 1963, when Flipped ends, the kids will be flirting, fighting, and trying to figure out how they feel about each other.
Nanny McPhee Returns

“I’m managing perfectly well,” protests Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) at the start of Nanny McPhee Returns. Even as she says it, you know she doesn’t believe it. And neither do you, for you have seen the meltdowns preceding: her kids are fighting, her house is a mess, her farm is falling apart, she can’t make her tractor payments, and her husband (Ewan McGregor) is away at war.
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

The cats and dogs are at it again. Specifically, the super-secret agent cats and dogs last seen in 2001’s Cats & Dogs are at war again. This time the opposition is complicated by a few new characters, including the galumphy German shepherd Diggs (voiced by James Marsden) and the shrewd Russian Blue cat Catherine (Christina Applegate).
Ramona and Beezus

“No matter what my sister Beezus says,” announces Ramona Quimby (Joey King), “I’m not a pest.” She’s got it partly right. Ramona’s view frames most of this movie, but numerous reaction shots invite you to see Ramona from other perspectives. To Beezus (Selena Gomez), as well as their parents, classmates, and neighbors, the nine-year-old is sometimes a pest — lovable and irrepressible, but a pest nonetheless.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Dave (Jay Baruchel) is a good kid. He studies physics at school, lives alone in a one-room New York apartment, and does his best to forget a childhood trauma. That trauma is recounted during the early moments of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: as a boy, he stumbles into an old curios shop, where he meets the wild-haired sorcerer Balthazar (Nicolas Cage). Informed that he’s a special child, young Dave is not exactly thrilled. In fact, he’s quite frightened by the raucous magic wreaked by Balthazar and his glowering nemesis Horvath (Alfred Molina). Worse, he’s humiliated when his classmates discover…
Despicable Me

Life as a super-villain isn’t what it used to be. Just ask Gru (voiced by Steve Carell). Once a renowned evil genius, he had little trouble cooking up crimes and maintaining his big bad rep. But as Despicable Me begins, Gru is feeling pressure from a new kid on the block: when slick young Vector (Jason Segel) steals the Great Pyramid of Giza, he grabs headlines and makes Gru look “lame.” Even when Gru comes up with a great way to top that stunt by stealing the moon, he finds the Bank of Evil unwilling to make him the usual loan. Drat. Now he can’t finance the shrink-ray gun he’ll need in…