Ramona and Beezus movie

[s.z.ichigo]

I saw this with my daughter on Tuesday. I think that ANYONE with a little girl should go see this movie. It was great in so many ways.

 

1. Ramona is a little girl. That should be obvious...but so many kids movies these days have little girls who are just miniature teenagers. Ramona, on the other hand, dresses in non-trendy, "normal" clothes. No skinny jeans. She gets dirty. She doesn't have a crush on a boy (a boy is her best friend). She gets sad, angry, happy...but in an immature, genuine kid way. She isn't snotty or rude. It's sad that is was shocking to see a kid in a movie that was really truly a KID, but it was great to see. She's relatable.

 

2. Ramona has parents. The adults in the movie play the part of adults. They're not mindless buffoons, or overbearing authority figures, or props in the background while kids run the world. They're real people and have realistic story lines.

 

3. Follows the books. Anyone who has read the books, even if it was 20 years ago, will recognize things. Pretty much the entire movie is pieces taken from the various books, which is great nostalgia for us, and great for our daughters who are just the right age to be reading them now.

 

The only bad thing about the movie is (spoiler), Picky-Picky's death. It's not a long scene, but it (particularly little Ramona's way-too-real emotions during his funeral) is just SO overly real and SO very sad. My daughter wasn't affected, but she's a little rock. I was practically bawling. Oddly, after that scene he's never mentioned again. Not even when they're trying to sell their house and they'd have to leave the grave behind and I was thinking (what about Picky-Picky, guys? Guys...?).

To make matters worse, part of the climax of Aunt Beatrice's story line involves her boyfriend finding a box of old stuff of his coming out of the flooding back yard ground. It was the neighbor's yard, but that wasn't made too clear. So my first thought was "Oh man, they're gonna find a dead cat in the box". Not a big deal, but it's my only complaint.

 

So I highly recommend you take your daughters to see this. When I went the theater was packed, mostly with moms, dads, and daughters, but also with a surprisingly high number of old ladies. So I guess it appeals to multiple generations. :001_smile:

[Jan in SC]

Well, I took my 7 year old son and he loved it! Of course, he had read most of the books. We thought it was a great movie. I don't remember being confused about the neighbor's backyard, though.

[ChristusG]

I wonder if my 6 year old DD would like this? She usually prefers animated movies....and we haven't read the books yet.

[DaffodilDreams]

Thanks for the review. Looking forward to taking my dd. She read all the books last year, and I read them as a kid. We love Ramona!

[TN Mama]

We saw it last weekend and LOVED. I cried, my kids didn't. I only wish we had waited to go on a day when my husband was off from work. It was a great daddy/daughter movie, imo.

[ProudGrandma]

I am so glad to hear this...I honestly was expecting it to be a bad movie (according to my standards)...so it is nice to hear that it is not what I was expecting. we might actually go and see this one.

 

Kathy

[athena1277]

I'm so glad to hear that it is not full of junk like immodest clothes and potty humor. I was going to avoid it, but now I think I will try to take dd to see it soon!

[kesmom]

I think I might take my 4.5 yr old for her first theater experience. (and because I heart Ramona ;) )

[KnitWit]

I am so glad to hear this...I honestly was expecting it to be a bad movie (according to my standards)...so it is nice to hear that it is not what I was expecting. we might actually go and see this one.

 

Kathy

 

I love Ramona too and I, also, was worried they were going to dash my fond memories and love of those books. I appreciate your post.

 

My eldest turns 19 in a couple of weeks and moves away to school 4 days later. She also loves Ramona. Maybe we need a birthday/moving out/etc. movie. :)

[momto2Cs]

So glad to hear good reviews! I'm taking my dd tomorrow as we've been reading through the books.

[Kfamily]

It was a delightful, funny movie. My younger dd (7) identified with Ramona who is more her age and my 13 year identified more with Beezus who was more her age. It was a great family movie that all can enjoy.

[Splash]

Thanks for the review. I was wondering if it was a good movie to take the girls to this summer.

[abreakfromlife]

oh cool. I can't wait to go see it. By myself :tongue_smilie: I won't let the kids watch movies until they've read the books. I've been looking forward to this one! I love Ramona.

[oldskool]

We went to see the movie yesterday and all my kids really enjoyed it. Very sweetly done.

 

Lesley

[KrissiK]

We saw this movie yesterday (DS7, DS6 and DD4) and they all loved it. I loved it. I was a little teary all through it. The family dynamics were so wonderfully portrayed. I mean, parents who actually loved each other and even if times were tough had the committment to stick together. Wow! Amazing! The little girl who played Ramona was so charming, but what I really loved about this story was, as was previously posted, that the people were pretty real. The parents had dignity. They loved their children and each other, they were adults and not idiots and the movie didn't play into that childish fantasy of life without adults. And I really loved that the dad wasn't portrayed as a fool, as is the case with most of what Hollywood puts out these days. It was a really "pro-family" movie.

[jujsky]

We saw it today. Two big thumbs up from both DS and DD. DS identifies with Ramona because he is ALWAYS getting in trouble and a lot of it is due to innocence or impatience -- just like Ramona. It was a very sweet movie. The auditions for the Miss Peanut Butter commercial was my favorite part :lol:

[s.z.ichigo]

Oh man, I completely forgot something I was going to include in my original post.

I don't know if every theater shows the same previews before the same movies, but when we went there was an ad for a(nother) really terrible, cheap looking 3D/cgi movie put out by a no-name (non-Pixar :glare:) studio. It's called Alpha and Omega. The complete opposite of what Ramona is. I probably couldn't count the number of poop/butt/blatant sex jokes if I had to. I do believe we'll be skipping this one!