The 2010 holiday film season looks like fun for kids, with plenty of action, adventure, comedy and fantasy. Fairytales abound, including fairly dark ones, like the most recent editions of the Narnia and Harry Potter sagas, both of which promise some pretty grownup fight scenes and scares.
Although these offerings may be a bit too scary for the youngest children, Disney’s new take on the fairytale of Rapunzel and Warner Brothers’ animated Yogi Bear should go down well with even the smallest filmgoers.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
In case you’ve somehow managed to miss the news, the final book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is being released in two parts, with the first half due in theatres on November 19, 2010. In this instalment, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) leave the safety of Hogwarts School to do battle with the fearsome Lord Voldemort. Compared to the earlier films in the series, this one will feel a lot more like the Lord of the Rings trilogy in terms of its epic depiction of all-out battle between the forces of good and evil.
Tangled
On November 24, 2010, the 3D Disney adaptation of the fairytale "Rapunzel", about the long-haired princess shut away in a tower, hits screens. Mandy Moore voices the lock-laden maiden, with Zachary Levi (Chuck in the TV show of the same name) as the charming bandit who lures her out into the real world and Donna Murphy (Trust Me) as Mother Gothel, who wants to keep Rapunzel imprisoned. From the looks of the trailers, Tangled will be a hoot for grownups as well as kids.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Michael Apted directs this third installment of the Chronicles of Narnia, based on by far the scariest of the original seven Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. In the second film (Prince Caspian) Peter and Susan were told they were too old to return to the magic land of Narnia, so this time it’s only Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes) who return, via an enchanted painting... along with their disagreeable cousin, Eustace Clarence Scrubb (Will Poulter).
The Pevensie children encounter old comrades Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) and Reepicheep the knightly mouse (voiced by Simon Pegg), and accompany them on a sea voyage in search of seven lost lords of Narnia, an odyssey that takes them to islands of enchantment, humour and horror on the way to the end of the earth. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader opens on December 10, 2010.
Yogi Bear
The new feature-length live action computer animated version of Yogi Bear opens on December 17, 2010. Young children may not be so familiar with Yogi (“smarter than the average”) Bear, but parents and grandparents will be pleased to be reacquainted with the charismatic bruin from the Hanna-Barbera cartoons (in 3D, no less!)
Get ready for a charm-fest: Yogi is voiced by Dan Aykroyd, while the always-lovable Justin Timberlake supplies the words for Yogi’s sidekick Boo-Boo. Anna Faris also stars as the documentary filmmaker who meets the picnic-basket-obsessed bear in his natural habitat of Jellystone National Park.
Photo captions (click on images for bigger version)
- Tangled: (L-R) Flynn, Rapunzel, Pascal. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1: (left to right) Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger in the fantasy adventure Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo by Jaap Buitendijk
- Yogi Bear: Boo Boo, as voiced by Justin Timberlake, and Yogi Bear, as voiced by Dan Aykroyd, in the live action computer animated adventure in 3D Yogi Bear, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
Sarah B. Hood - Author of We Sure Can! How Jams and Pickles are Reviving the Lure and Lore of Local Food and Toronto: The Unknown City.
