But things did not turn out quite as I had planned. We enjoyed the first 40 minutes of the film – until a witch appeared, at which point Skye made her feelings of wanting to be shot of the cinema as fast as possible – and in the arms of her Daddy – unequivocally loud and clear. We made a scramble for the doors. After five minutes I managed to persuade her to give Brave a courageous second chance (how appropriate) – ‘the witch will be gone by now, I’m sure’ – only to find, as we re-entered the cinema, the screen dominated by a rearing, angry brown bear.
Skye fled the cinema, with mummy in hot pursuit. We left a tell-tale trail of popcorn behind us.
So – three things I learned from Brave – or from the first 40 minutes of it... 1. I won’t be overlooking the ratings on children’s films again in a hurry. I presumed my toddler would be able to cope with a PG, but evidently she wasn’t ready. We’ll be sticking to 'U's for the foreseeable future.
2. Merida hacks chunks out of her bedposts with a sword when she’s feeling stressed with her parents. A nice little acknowledgement of children’s need to express and release emotions – although not necessarily one to try at home.
3. When they’re worrying about Merida’s future, her parents do a role play – one of them pretending to be their daughter and the other practising how to communicate the important message that they want to get through to her(which happens be about her future marital status– personally I don’t expect to be discussing this subject with my daughter for some time). But, seriously, it’s a fantastic parenting technique to try.
While we’re on the theme of films – check out Anya’s round-up of the best and worst in 2012’s children’s films.
I’ll watch the rest of Brave when it comes out on DVD later this month, so don’t tell me what happens in the second half.
