Thursday, March 11, 2010

Somebody in Wonderland

My sister Erin and I took her kids and Tammy's kids to see Alice in Wonderland this weekend. I was a little nervous that it would be too Tim Burton-y for my taste but it was really good. As expected, Johnny Depp was amazing as the Mad Hatter (or the "Hat Man" as my nephew Ben calls him). And Helena Bonham-Carter was HILARIOUS as the Red Queen. We all loved the movie and the kids went so far as to universally declare it to be their favorite movie of all time. EVER. That's quite an endorsement, folks!

My favorite part of the movie, though, was Ben, my 5 year old nephew. As I've said before, Ben has no concept of the "inside voice" - he just talks at the top of his lungs regardless of where he is or what's going on around him. He was a little nervous that the movie might be scary so, about 10 minutes into it he says:

Ben: Catchy? Since this is a new movie, I might need you to hold my hand if it gets a little scary.
Me: Okay, bud. Just let me know when you get scared, okay?
Ben: Okay.
[Alice falls into a hole and lands in a room with a table and a bunch of locked doors.]
Ben: [Transfixed with hot dog frozen mid-air in his right hand] Oh . . .
[Alice begins trying to open the doors around the perimeter of the room.]
Ben: [Louder and nervously. Hot dog hasn't moved.] Oh . . .?
[Alice sees a key on the table.]
Ben: OH!
[Alice runs to the table, grabs the key, and begins trying to unlock the doors.]
Ben: [Thrusting his left hand up into the air and, without taking his eyes off the screen, says firmly and urgently, yet with some calmness about him] MY HAAAAND!! MY HAAAAND!!

He held my hand for about 20 minutes and then he was fine. He watched the rest of the movie with no problem, even turning to me during the most frightening part of the whole thing to yell - yes, yell - "This is a fun movie!" Then afterward, he kept imitating the "Hat Man" by doing a dance that the Mad Hatter does at the end of the movie. This led to more impressions by the other kids of THEIR favorite characters:

Savannah: Look! I'm the Red Queen! [uses best mean voice] "Off with their heads!"
Avery: Look! Look! I'm the White Queen! [Walks around daintily with her arms out.]
Ben: I'm the Hat Man [dances like the Mad Hatter]
Emma: I'm Alice -
Ben: What? [looking at Emma like she's crazy] Who's ALICE??

Sooooooooo, apparently, we need to work on attention to detail . . .

2 comments:

Emma said...

I can't see to type for the tears of laughter!!! I vaguely remember hearing the story.....so I feel like I just got it for the first time!! Hilarious!!!

Unknown said...

That is awesome!