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Reviews
Treasure Island (2012)
Love-Hate Relationship
Treasure Island is one of my absolute favorite books, and so I tend to shy away from movies of it; they never do the book justice. This feature is no exception- and yet it is one.
The deliciously adult depictions of the pirates, the times, and the addition of the storyline about Mrs. Hawkins and Mrs. Silver work beautifully to add twist and interest to what might be an over-familiar tale. I thought Izzard was a brilliant Long John Silver. I also felt Wood's Ben Gunn was wonderfully true to the spirit of the character, and the twist to his tale (away from the original book storyline) at the end also was thoughtful and interesting, and more just to the character.
On the other hand, the serious destruction of the characters of the Squire and the Doctor utterly destroy the main contrasts and points of the original story: the pitting of honesty, generosity, courage, and loyalty in believable, likable characters against the evils of self-indulgence, trickery, greed, and cowardice of the pirates. It also takes away from Jim Hawkins coming-of-age by handing that role- strangely- to the Doctor.
I also thought it utterly idiotic to dump the treasure at the end. It is almost like somebody decided they wanted to have the treasure dumped in an allegory against greed, and so they fit the "good guys" to this ideal, making them into bad guys, just like the pirates. Or, perhaps they wanted you to cheer harder for Long John Silver and be happier about him getting away in the end (I'm all good with Jim helping him to escape, especially with the insertion of the woman-at-home storyline to compliment it), so they had to make the "good" guys into cowardly jerks so you wouldn't want them to win- which is, of course, superficial and stupid.
In the end, it is a beautiful rendition, if you can get over the annoying changes to the Squire and the Doctor- or just take them as given as they are, and watch it for the wonderful complexity of Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins and their shifting and changing relationship.
Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu (2011)
Actually impressed
So far, we've been surprised by how well done this series is. Being a toy-selling series, we honestly were expecting the kind of shows we saw advertising toys when we were young: pointless, poorly written, and cheesy beyond belief. As adults, we actually ENJOY watching this series, and seeing what happens! Since it is geared to children (I would say about ages 8- 12), some of the plot "twists" are actually fairly obvious for an adult, but still interesting.
The ideas about devotion, loyalty, and accepting differences have also been really useful in our household, where we have been able to have effective discussions about autism, disability, and ability based on these characters and their adventures. We have also been able to discuss social interactions and ways to think about others in ways that can be hard to broach with this middle-elementary age: that people who seem to be friends may not be, that bullies have their own issues, and ideas of including others and finding your own talents when others don't include you. There are lots of other good, complex issues of relationships presented here, in terms this age group can grasp and see.
We actually find ourselves wishing there were MORE toys associated with this series, not less. And unfortunately, many of the figures are exclusively available through the larger, very expensive Lego sets (do keep in mind this series is intended to sell you toys!)