Showtime!

I am not sure at what age the typical American child first goes to the movie theater, but I am guessing that it is usually younger than 5. Elise has never been to the movies. This is not because I am being over protective or cheap (though I am those things), it is because Elise is a scaredy-cat. She is literally afraid of any kind of movie or tv show with anything even remotely scary or even one with a bad guy/antagonist, so pretty much anything with a plot. Certain bad guys like Swiper are somewhat tolerable (because sometimes he's also Dora's friend) but she really hates it when people are mean in any way and really doesn't like anything even remotely scary, such as violence of any kind, being chased, dark/cloudy scenes, etc.

We have movie night every Friday and for a long time we typically just watched episodes of Calliou or Angelina Ballerina because actual movies were just too terrifying for her. But over the past year she has gotten a little less scared of things. Last summer she started being able to watch Cinderella without having to fast forward past all the parts with Lucifer the cat in it. And she has watched a few other Disney movies without running out of the room crying more than once (Snow White and Cars). Recently we watched Beauty and the Beast and Tangled and while she didn't exactly love them she did not cry hysterically or have nightmares. This is a move in the right direction!

Of course I am not in any real rush for my kid to watch movies. She will eventually not be so scared and for now I actually kind of like that she only really likes watching things that have 15 minute episodes. Sure, I was kind of sick of watching pretty much only Cinderella every single Friday night for months at a time, but at least Cinderella is a fine movie.

But over the holidays pretty much everyone in her class at school went to see the Muppet movie in the movie theater. Everyone was talking about it and boy was she itching to be a part of that. I love going to the movies and was excited to take her for the first time, but I just wasn't sure that she would enjoy it just yet. Especially a movie like the Muppets which is live action (she has never seen a non-cartoon movie) and it was rated PG, not G so it probably had some scary parts in it - or at least a mean bad guy.

So when I heard that they were re-releasing Beauty and the Beast into the movie theater in 3-D I was very excited. This is a movie that she has seen a few times before - and one that I have seen - so we would both know what to expect. This seemed like a great way for her to have her first theater experience without the potential of traumatizing her for life.

On MLK Day I got home from work early and the two of us went out for a movie date. We got popcorn (of course!) and our 3D glasses and headed into the theater. We only got seated about 5 minutes before the movie was supposed to start but it felt like forever to my eager little girl who kept leaning back in her movie theater seat, which kept collapsing on her!

When the lights finally dimmed, the previews began. One after another, with Elise repeatedly saying "is this the movie? when is the movie going to start?" After at least 15 minutes of previews (the typical amount of time she usually has an attention span for tv) started the Rapunzel short film. She did like it, but was very confused as to why we were watching Rapunzel and not Belle.

FINALLY, about 40 minutes after we first sat in the theater, Beauty and the Beast started. The 3D glasses freaked her out a little, but she was a good sport about keeping them on even though she really didn't want to. I also had to keep reminding her to sit down because she isn't one to sit for long periods of time so the movie theater was actually sort of a form of torture - sit in one seat - no standing - and stay there for hours!? Are you kidding me?! Eventually she crawled into my lap and stayed relatively still.

At the end of the movie (which may I remind you, we have seen at least two times before) she did do something odd. When **SPOILER ALERT* the Beast died, Elise acted as though 1) she had no idea this was going to happen 2) she had no idea that he was going to come back to life 3) this was the single saddest most horrible thing she'd ever seen in her entire life.

She SOBBED. Loudly. Borderline hysterically. Movie-goers were definitely staring. I quickly reassured her that he was going to be ok and luckily that scene isn't too terribly long but when the movie (happily) ended I think she was completely emotionally drained.

So the first movie experience was somewhat of a success. She really, really enjoyed the popcorn eating aspect of the movie - that's a definite. And when I asked her if she liked going to the movie theater she said "I really liked spending time with just you and me" which - while incredibly sweet - is not exactly a resounding affirmation. We'll have to wait to see how it goes next time - whenever she feels like she's ready...which could definitely be a while!