It appears the mass personal email campaign against the new kids movie, The Golden Compass, is catching fire among Christian parents.  I must say that normally I totally ignore mass emails like the one I received, but I thought it important enough to do some checking on my own and feel like they all might be correct:

There will be a new Children’s movie out in December called THE GOLDEN COMPASS. It is written by Phillip Pullman, a proud athiest who belongs to secular humanist societies. He hates C. S. Lewis’s Chronical’s of Narnia and has written a trilogy to show the other side. The movie has been dumbed down to fool kids and their parents in the hope that they will buy his trilogy where in the end the children kill God and everyone can do as they please. Nicole Kidman stars in the movie so it will probably be advertised a lot. This is just a friendly warning that you sure won’t hear on the regular TV. (read the whole story here)

Rating: B

Beneath the streets of London, Roddy St. James is a pampered pet mouse who thinks he’s got it made. But when a sewer rat named Sid–the definition of “low life”–comes spewing out of the sink and decides it’s his turn to enjoy the lap of luxury, Roddy schemes to rid himself of the pest by luring him into the loo for a dip in the “whirlpool.” Roddy’s plan backfires when he inadvertently winds up being the one flushed away into the bustling world down below. Underground, Roddy discovers a vast metropolis, where he meets Rita, a street-wise rat who is on a mission of her own. If Roddy is going to get home, he and Rita will need to escape the clutches of the villainous Toad, who royally despises all rodents and has dispatched two hapless henchrats, Spike and Whitey, as well as his cousin–that dreaded mercenary, Le Frog–to see that Roddy and Rita are iced, literally.

Also Known As: Ratropolis
Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Genres: Comedy and Animation
Running Time: 1 hr. 24 min.
Release Date: November 3, 2006 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG for crude humor and some language.
Distributors: DreamWorks SKG
Production Co.: Aardman Animations
Studios: Dreamworks Animation

Family Duscussion Guide

I want to encourage families to use movies as an opportunity to ask important questions about life. When done in this context, you can have fun while influencing the character and growth of your children.

1. Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman) lived alone in a wealthy house and had no family (other rats) to relate with. Was it good for Roddy to be alone? How did Roddy feel about not having friends or family?
2. There’s a scene where Roddy overhears a family discussing something, and he assumes that they were really going to do something bad to him so he stole their boat and took off very upset.  What happens when we assume?  How can we stop ourselves from believing something negative about someone (i.e. negative beliefs)? Help your children understand that it is always better to ask someone if what you’re thinking is true before acting on a negative belief that may be false.  You can relate this back to Roddy and what happened to him when Rita finally caught up to him.
3. There’s a scene at the beginning when Sid (the dirty rat) takes over the house and Roddy tries to trick him in to being flushed down the toilet.  If we want someone to change or to leave us alone (perhaps a friend or neighborhood kid that isn’t being nice) how can we approach that in a positive manner?  What could Roddy have done differently that might not have led him to be flushed away?

A 900-pound domesticated grizzly bear named and a scrawny, one-horned mule deer named end up stranded together in the woods during hunting season and it’s up to the duo to rally all the other forest animals and turn the tables on the hunters.

I would give this movie a (B).

Movie Mom on Yahoo Movies gives us the following helpful information:

• Audience: 8 and up
• MPAA Rating: PG for some rude humor, mild action and brief language.
• Profanity: Some schoolyard language
• Nudity/Sex Some crude humor and potty jokes
• Alcohol/Drugs: None
• Violence/Scariness: Comic peril and violence, tranquilizer gun, hunters are the bad guys, no one badly hurt
• Diversity Issues: A metaphorical theme of the movie
• Release Date: September 29th, 2006 (wide)

This is a movie you don’t want to miss. It’s a classic kids movie with good adult humor to keep mom and dad involved with the laughter. Boog (voice of Martin Lawrence) is a lovable bear who has the easy life until he meets Elliot (voice of Ashton Kutcher), then his life basically goes down hill from that point in the movie.

There’s some good family lessons in this movie. Afterward you could definitely hit the following topics:

1. What does it mean to be a real friend?
2. Why did Elliot upset Boog?
3. Was it a good thing for Beth (voice by Debra Messing) to finally let Boog go into the wild?

Movies are a great way to utilize teaching moments for your kids. It’s a nonthreatening way to get good conversation going.