Junie Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 (edited) I was just on the American Girl site and saw that Amazon Prime is showing the American Girl Melody movie for free through Jan. 16. No membership is needed. Melody is an African American girl living in Detroit in the 1960s. I haven't watched the movie (yet), but I wanted to share it before the offer expires. http://www.americangirl.com/ http://s7d1.scene7.com/is/content/AmericanGirlBrands/Ecom/site_home/amazon_site_home_mp4.mp4 ETA: Here is the link to the movie. The above link is just the trailer. https://www.amazon.com/American-Girl-Story-Melody-1963/dp/B01LWMYJK4/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1484350740&sr=8-11&keywords=american+girl+melody Edited January 14, 2017 by Junie 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athomeontheprairie Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frugalmamatx Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Thanks! We'e watched it before and found it to be really good - ended up having several thought provoking discussions from it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 What ages do you think is appropriate to show this movie? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
school17777 Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 Thanks! We watched it as soon as I saw your post. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted January 14, 2017 Author Share Posted January 14, 2017 What ages do you think is appropriate to show this movie? I haven't yet decided if I'm going to let my 10-year-old watch it. (Disclaimer: I tend to wait a long time to let my kids see things.) There is quite a bit of discussion about the church bombing in Birmingham. Some of the kids (and adults) are mean and discriminatory. Discrimination is something that my dd10 has no experience with. Yes, she will learn about it; I just don't know if I'm up for it this weekend while the movie is free. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilaclady Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 Thanks for posting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 We (my 8 and 10 year old boys, 16 year old daughter, and I) watched it a while back and thought it was excellent. Really well done and addresses a lot of important issues on a kid level. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xixstar Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 We watched it with my 8yo and 6yo last night. I think the movie was well done and did a good job of addressing a lot of issues in a realistic way. It didn't gloss over lived experiences the way I've seen other shows do. That said, my 8yo was in tears the majority of the movie. We stopped a couple times to discuss scenes and what was going on. It was intense for her and I am not sure it was the right choice to watch it -- it was certainly more direct than I expected it to be (way to go AG for not shying away from exploring hard realities). And the end was somewhat uplifting but for my child it didn't balance everything leading up to it (and I am not saying it should have). I didn't want a Pollyanna ending, but after how emotionally intense it was, I was hoping DD would be able to end the movie with a little more hope and the ending didn't get her to that point. Just keeping the ending the same and just taking a little longer to show it might have been helpful. But overall, it was a great launching point for a lot of discussion. We had to talk a lot more about what people were doing then, the people that were taking action, the supportive people; not just those fighting back against the civil rights movement. We had to talk a lot more about what happened over time. In hindsight, I would only show this after we had completed a more in-depth discussion on the civil rights movement. I would not use this an an introduction and also would not watch with very sensitive kids, at least not without more prep. It was more realistic than I expected AG to be. We are now doing a crash course on civil rights this weekend because I just can't leave it at what we discussed during the movie. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reader411 Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 We watched it with my 8yo and 6yo last night. I think the movie was well done and did a good job of addressing a lot of issues in a realistic way. It didn't gloss over lived experiences the way I've seen other shows do. That said, my 8yo was in tears the majority of the movie. We stopped a couple times to discuss scenes and what was going on. It was intense for her and I am not sure it was the right choice to watch it -- it was certainly more direct than I expected it to be (way to go AG for not shying away from exploring hard realities). And the end was somewhat uplifting but for my child it didn't balance everything leading up to it (and I am not saying it should have). I didn't want a Pollyanna ending, but after how emotionally intense it was, I was hoping DD would be able to end the movie with a little more hope and the ending didn't get her to that point. Just keeping the ending the same and just taking a little longer to show it might have been helpful. But overall, it was a great launching point for a lot of discussion. We had to talk a lot more about what people were doing then, the people that were taking action, the supportive people; not just those fighting back against the civil rights movement. We had to talk a lot more about what happened over time. In hindsight, I would only show this after we had completed a more in-depth discussion on the civil rights movement. I would not use this an an introduction and also would not watch with very sensitive kids, at least not without more prep. It was more realistic than I expected AG to be. We are now doing a crash course on civil rights this weekend because I just can't leave it at what we discussed during the movie. Thanks so much for your review. The movie sounds great, but too emotionally intense for my crew now. I'm filing it away though! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luuknam Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Thanks. We just watched it. It was a little intense at times, and I had to pause it a few times to talk about things (like when she threw away her astronaut costume we talked a bit about Mae Jemison, who would've been 3-4 years younger than Melody if Melody were real), but overall the kids were okay. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athomeontheprairie Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Thanks for this! We really enjoyed it! I thought it was great, and intense. Maybe I'm just hormonal but I had tears through most of it. It spawned good discussion with the kids 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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