Children’s Movie Reviews

The Perfect Game

A baseball movie with all kinds of heart, The Perfect Game is inspired by the true story of the 1957 Mexican Little League team that won the World Series. At film’s start, Cesar (Clifton Collins Jr.) comes home to Monterrey, Mexico following a disappointing stint with the St. Louis Cardinals. Though he sets himself to working at the local iron factory, he still yearns to play ball; when word gets out that he knows something about the game and has even been to America, the town’s just-conceived team asks him to coach -- with a little extra encouragement from Padre Esteban (Cheech Marin).
The Last Song

Ronnie (Miley Cyrus) is at that rebellious age. At the start of The Last Song, she resents both her parents for divorcing, her mom for remarrying, and her dad for leaving, or being kicked out or however her childhood went. She wears black boots and torn black pantyhose, and she slouches like she’s miserable in her own body. She’s recently been accused of shoplifting in New York City. And she’s mad that her mother (Kelly Preston) is sending her and her little brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) off to live with their father, Steve (Greg Kinnear), for the summer.
How to Train Your Dragon

Back in the very olden days, all the Vikings were broad-shouldered and courageous, loud and stout. All except for Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel). His Viking tribe, he narrates at the start of How to Train Your Dragon, spends most of its time on the island of Berk fighting off threats, sometimes from trolls or boars, but most often from dragons. These, he reports, come in all shapes and sizes, some fire-breathing and some flying, some large and some smallish. All of them, he says, are fair game, as Vikings are trained from birth to be dragon killers. Being slight of build and quieter than his peers, Hiccup feels…
Diary of a Wimpy Kid

“The only reason I agreed to do this at all,” explains 11-year-old Greg (Zachary Gordon) at the beginning of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, “is because I figure later on, when I’m rich and famous, I’ll have better things to do than answer people’s stupid questions all day long. So this book is gonna come in handy.”
Alice in Wonderland

Alice Kingsleigh has nightmares. Or, as she puts it, she has “only one,” the same bad dream again and again: she’s falling down a dark hole, then landing hard in a woodsy place where she meets strange creatures -- a dodo bird, a smiling cat, and a rabbit in a waistcoat. When she’s just six (and played by Mairi Ella Challen), her father (Marton Csokas) comforts her, assuring her that even if she has lost her mind, “All the best people have.” Thirteen years later, Alice (now played by Mia Wasikowska) misses her father, recently deceased, and tries her best to please her mother…
Percy Jackson & The Olympians

Like many high school students, Percy (Logan Lerman) is restless. He feels distracted in class, especially because his dyslexia makes reading a chore, frustrated that his mother, Sally (Catherine Keener), endures verbal abuse by her husband, the ignominiously named Gabe Ugliano (Joe Pantoliano). He’s also tired of Sally telling him, “Some day it’ll all make sense.”
The Tooth Fairy

Primarily, The Tooth Fairy is an occasion for The Rock to wear a pink tutu. A thin premise for a movie -- even a family movie that's being dumped to theaters in January -- it is somewhat buoyed by Dwayne Johnson's considerable charms. He plays Derek Thompson, an almost-hockey star now serving as the "enforcer" for a team in Lansing, Michigan. Whenever he's called out onto the ice, he's supposed to knock down an opponent ("Find a dark jersey and hit it!" commands his coach). It's not exactly an image to feel proud of, but Derek treats it as a job: on good nights, like the one that opens the movie, this violent…
The Spy Next Door

By all appearances, Bob (Jackie Chan) lives a dull life as a pen importer. Little do the kids next door—Farren (Madeline Carroll), Ian (Will Shadley), and four-year-old Nora (Alina Foley)—know that he is in fact a superspy from China, on loan to the CIA. Because they think he’s a “nerd,” the children are unhappy that he’s dating their mom, Gillian (Amber Valetta), and quite horrified when the topic of marriage comes up. Conveniently, so does Gillian’s father’s illness, which means she has to leave her brood in Bob’s care for a few days. He promises her that…
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

Having conquered the pop music industry in their first movie, the Chipmunks in The Squeakquel go to high school. This plot is advanced by Dave (Jason Lee), who believes they need "a normal life" after all the previous hubbub. Problem number one: Dave breaks just about every bone in his body during the first scene, when Alvin causes a stage accident. Dave thus remains in traction in Paris -- mostly absent from the movie except by phone calls -- while the "boys" head back to L.A. Here their caretaker is Toby (Zac Levi, who plays Chuck on NBC), a videogame aficionado who spends most of his time with eyes glazed and…
Avatar

As this not-so-new plot takes shape over 160-some minutes, Jake and Grace jump back and forth between the lab and the forest. This allows for comparisons between the two realms imagined and constructed by Cameron, in both 3D and IMAX. Reportedly, he's been working on the concept -- and especially the technology -- since he was king of the world via Titanic, 12 years ago. And that technology is frequently awesome, as the Na'vi zoom around aboard their flying beasties or jump from tree to tree, fight off big-cat-like wild things or hit back at super-choppers with bows and arrows. These action scenes are vividly…