Jenna has seen some
English-speaking programs dubbed in Spanish, but not many foreign language
translated into English. She said she
tried to watch “The Snow Queen” and wasn’t impressed.
Last night we watched
“Help, I Shrunk the Family”. I don’t
know if I had heard of it before. Jenna
has watched all the “Honey, I Shrunk the kids”, “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid” and
“Honey, I Shrunk ourselves” I assumed that this was related. It’s not.
Not Disney. Not American. Not English speaking – which is okay. Everybody should have an opportunity to be
entertained in his or her own tongue.
Apparently I’m a
theatre snob. I think I might have
picked some of it up from my brother Corey.
I get bugged when the mouth and speech are not in sync. More than that I really hate bad acting. Though the two children who played Nelladella
and Johanes seemed to have acting skills (by their facial expressions, it
appeared that each was portraying a believable character) the overall reading
of the script translated into English was not that great. All read well, but only two of the English
dubbed voices were convincing enough to match the expressions. The girl who read for Nelladella was not at
all believable and neither was the voice that played her dad – but I actually
don’t think the guy playing the physical character of the father was all that
great of an actor either – or perhaps it was poor direction.
The over
exaggeration of the hurt arm could have been enforced by the director. I don’t know who was at fault in the scene
where they are acting cold. The kids on
screen were believable as they wrapped themselves in their arms while
shivering. The actor that played the
father didn’t appear to be cold but looked as though he were fighting a bad
case of diarrhea.
It was Totally kid
vid. Both Jenna and I thought of “The Indian in the Cupboard” as we watched
each seen when he would talk with the pocket-sized man in the beginning and at
the end of the movie.
The cover makes it
appear as if the boy has shrunk the other three. That’s not what happens.
It was an okay
movie. I know I would have enjoyed it
more if the readers had gotten in character instead of just reading the
words. Perhaps those who watch it (and
understand) the language in which it’s filmed may not be as critical. Jenna and Roland and I thought parts of it were funny. I think my niece and nephews would enjoy it.
