El Bola

By: Samantha Brown

El Bola, a Spanish film, depicts a twelve year old boy named Pablo who carries a ball bearing as a good luck charm. Pablo keeps to himself at school until Alfredo who is a confident and more sophisticated schoolmate befriends him. Pablo looks up to Alfredo as a role model and begins to spend time with Alfredo's family since Pablo's family is not a loving and caring family. Pablo's home life is filled with abuse and constant disapproval from his father. The loss of Pablo's older brother a few year earlier leads the father, Mariano, to always believe his youngest son will never measure up. Mariana is a hardware store owner who is bored with life and takes his anger out on his son and wife. When Pablo is not in school for several days Alfredo begins to worry and figures out that Pablo is not attending school because his father forbids him to see Alfredo's family again and gives Pablo a beating that leaves him with a black eye. Pablo can take the beating no longer and runs away begging to stay with Alfredo's family. Alfredo's family tries to help Pablo, but they must choose between facing kidnapping charges and sending Pablo back home for possible death by his father's hand. This movie is enjoyable, but is not recommended by this writer as a children's film. There are a few scenes with moderate violence and a few words that would not be suitable for anyone under the age of 18 to view. This movie is not rated and listed as a child's foreign film on Netflix, but is not recommend as a family appropriate film.

Help for Parents

While we have been exploring these films from around the world we have noticed that some of them have things in it that some children may find upsetting because they aren't use to seeing it in most western films. such as the spirits in Spirited Away. As a parent it can be a struggle to find just the right film for your children this site "Common Sense" does more then rate a film they suggest ages for the views and explain why they chose that age. Parents have the chance to also rate the film and share there thoughts on it. The mission of Common Sense is to improving the media and entertainment lives of kids and families. They exist because media and entertainment profoundly impact the social, emotional, and physical development of our nation's children. As a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, they provide trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume. What’s so great about this site is that it rates on the film in many categories such as Violence, language, consumerism, (that's a cool one!) Drinking, drugs and smoking, Message and role model. What I love about this is that for example Spirited Away was a wonderful film but there are a few things that some parents may want to discuss with their children before they views this. This site flagged violence and it stored 3 out of 5 (low scores means there isn't any violence) Here is what this site said about the violence "Birds attack the a main character who has taken the shape of a dragon. Some scary supernatural scenes including parents turned into pigs." Over all Spirited Away received positive reviews from "Common Sense" and got 5 stars. They said that the main character is a strong girl character who sees the good in all and saves the day and is a positive role model. One parent gave this film a "go" and said "This is such a great movie! I have watched it many times and each time love it even more. It teaches some good lessons and it's heart-warming too. I would suggest to get some other movies like this. Maybe "Totoro". Anyways Thumbs up for me!"Another parent gave it an "iffy" but still that parent gave it 5 stars. This site can even review films that are in the theaters as well. this site is made for mostly western films but has its own search engine so feel free to look for other films I found the one that I watched for this project on it. I would suggest before seeing a film with children that you do not know much about read about to find some more guidance on choosing the film. This site is a great resource!

Here is the link to the home page of Common Sense
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Bug Me Not!

Bug me not was a Chinese movie that would be appropriate for the ages 12 and up. This film had real people as well as animated bugs of all kinds which spoke to the humans. These children who were in the movie were probably eight grade or high school students. This movie had some suggestive language. This movie was not rated and the rating was N/R on the cover. This movie starts with a little girls in a field of grass talking to some bugs. Her mom tells her she may not talk to these bugs any more (gibberish) and start speaking correctly. Some of the children in this movie had special powers and the teenager in this movie (moon) understood these bugs since she was young. Some of the special powers in this movie were: calling all bugs, magic tree's, talking bugs, not being able to touch other people, etc. Moon had this ladybug help her win this young boys heart (Hyland). Other adults always tried to kill the bugs if they seen them, so she had to keep them hidden. When the bugs watched a man capture, what they thought was the "leader" of the bugs, and then kill the bug, they all freaked out and wanted to attack the teenagers. Meanwhile, the teenagers are singing and dancing with flashlights at night looking for these bugs. They finally succeed and find the bugs and the leader of the bugs is not dead! All the bugs and teenagers are excited. Finally, the movie ends where the story begins,at that is in a field of tall grass. Moon tells Hyland she loves him while they are hanging out in the grass. They run of and play with each other. This movie has great quality in filming with animation and bright colors. This movie was one hour and twenty seven minutes long.

This is a Wiki reference to Chinese Cinema, it shares the history of film throughout hundreds of years. CHECK IT OUT! :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_China

This is an article about Chinese media: It basically summarizes a book about children in china who watch films from their country. We see that their interactions are different between being able to see media and movies at home vs. at school. Here in America things like media is readily available to many children. One of the points of this book was that Chinese film has the main focus on education where as American children's films focus solely on entertainment. Which after I watched this movie I did not understand the educational value of this movie. I viewed this movie as pure entertainment and did not receive any educational value from this movie. I found this topic mentioned in the article very interesting based on the movie I viewed from china; however, movies in china may have that goal in mind.

http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=618&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupp

This is a clip from Bug Me Not!: (this link will allow you to pick and choose the clips you would like to see)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9WF1P-PUGo&feature=player_embedded

Meet Ashley Shevel

My name is Ashley Shevel and I am a Jr. Early childhood Education major here at Malone University. I work at the Weaver Child Development Center and I am a nanny to 3 children. I love to be creative. I spend my spare time with my family and friends.
I have always loved and appreciated children's films and I feel that a lot can be learned from them. One of my favorite films is the Wizard of Oz. I just love the magic this films brings, as a child I liked it but as an adult I have grown to love this film.
Before this class I had little to no experience with films from other countries but I am enjoying all I am learning through the films I have watched so far this semester.
I hope everyone enjoys exploring childrens films from around the world with us.

To our Followers

All of us Bloggers have a passion for children in some way. We also all have a great love of movies. This semester we have decided to broaden our horizons by taking a World Cinema class. We are learning to appreciate foreign films, and we are learning about other cultures as well. Since we college kids can learn to enjoy other cultures through films, we all agreed that children should be able to have the same experience! We have created this blog so that children and families can explore the movies that we have pre-viewed. With this blog, we offer comments, ratings, and our own personal opinions on how these movies will benefit (or should be avoided) by families and children. We remind you to keep an open mind when exploring film from other cultures, and parents are cautioned to view these films before they watch some of them with their children. Clips and trailors are at the ends of all of our entries, and this site includes websites and book recommendations to consider when exploring movies for young children. We remind you that some movies are in fact in the language of the culture, and are subtitled. Children that are unable to read yet may need assistance in watching these particular films. Please feel free to comment on any of the blogs. We hope you and your families will enjoy watching these movies that we have chosen as much as we have. Enjoy the show!

Spirited Away

By: Ashley Shevel

This film is rated PG for some scary moments. and I agree that this film would probably best fit children ages 8 and up. Especially because spirits aren't something that most of our children are use to knowing about and the idea of spirits coming alive and capturing you could be very frightful for a child.

The film Spirited away is a child's film originated from Japan.Ghibli studios, the company that produced this film signed a deal with Disney to release their films worldwide. This animated film once purchased by Disney had new voices added to the characters making the language in English. Chihiro is a 10-year-old girl who is moving to a new house. Her and her parents get lost in th car on the way to the new house, in a forest, outside of a tunnel. They decide to investigate, and end up at an abandend theme park, or so they thought. Chihiro is reluctant to go look around with her parents but goes along for fear of being left alone. Her parents find a single food counter, filled with fresh food. They start to wolf it down with the idea that they will just pay after they have eaten and the server comes back, much to the dismay of Chihiro. She runs off, and she meets a boy, who tells her to leave before its "too late." She runs back to her parents, but they have been turned into pigs. To free her parents of the spell she must work at the 'theme park', which is actually a bathhouse for the Gods and Spirits, of japan. The Japanese culture is evident through out this entire film. It did not explain much about the culture because this film was originally released in Japan. The writers assumed the audience would understand the idea of the spirits and what role they play in their culture. I figured out that in this culture everything seemed to have a spirit. The character Haku was a spirit of the river, who some how became a worker like slave to the bathhouse owner. Because he couldn’t remember his real name he was destined to work at the bathhouse forever.
She goes through newmous "tests" and ends up putting others needs before her own and in the end she ends up being able to free her new found friend who is a spirit of a river and her famiy all because of the corage and selflessness. Through out this film the viewers can watch the main character Chihiro grow, and gain the strenth she needs to over come the frightfull opsticals of this unhuman world.

Here is the trailer check it out for your self and see if its a movie you would like to share with your children.

Pinocchio

By: Ashley Dennerlein


Pinocchio is an amazing tall of a mischievous wooden puppet, and his journey to becoming a real boy. Many have seen Disney's interpretation of the movie. This was quiet similar following the same story line. However, the real life version is so much better than the cartoon. I watched in the the English-Dubbed version of the Italian movie. The movies stars Roberto Benigni. Roberto also wrote and directed the film. The movie was incredibly vivid and full of fantasy. It is suitable for children of all ages. The bright colors and whimsical characters are fun to watch and laugh at. The story itself is very imaginative. All of the costumes seem as though they are directly out of a child's imagination. I do suggest that the movie be watched in its original Italian language, or with English subtitles. The dubbed version makes the characters seem more annoying than fun. Though a child might not know the difference, i do believe something is lost from the film when it is not heard in Italian since the story takes place in Italy. Children that are unable to read might have a difficult time with the subtitled version, so parents might want to watch it with their children. The movie however viewed is very entertaining and something that the whole family can enjoy.

Here is the trailer to the movie Check it out!

Meet the Bloggers! Victoria Lorenzo

I am originally from Caracas, Venezuela, a country in South America and I have been living in the United States for 11 years now. I moved to Ontario, Canada at the age of eight and my family and I lived there for five years. From Canada we moved to Florida and then to Ohio. I am a senior at Malone University majoring in sports management with a minor in coaching. I played soccer for Malone last year and coached Shakers Heights JV women’s soccer team this past fall. Collegiate women’s soccer coaching is ultimately what I would like to pursue as a professional career.
I love watching movies and I am interested in watching different and foreign film. I think children’s movies are a great way to learn about a certain cultures and its traditions.

Meet the Bloggers! Ashley Dennerlein

My Name is Ashley Dennerlein. I am a Senior at Malone University. I have a double major in Physical Education and Health Education, and I plan to be a teacher someday! I played soccer at Malone for 4 years and next year I will be helping coach the team. Soccer and sports are my passion, which is why I wanted to be a physical educator. I currently live at Malone, but I am originally from a small town outside of Pittsburgh. I live with my parents, two younger brothers, and my border collie Piper. Watching movies is a favorite pasttime of my family, and it continues to be a huge part of my life today. I also have a strong passion for children and teaching. Any way in which they learn is exciting to me. I have found that children learn a lot from the media that they take in, especially and specifically from movies. I am excited about this Blog because it can help parents and children discover movies that are unlike many they have seen before.

Meet the Bloggers! Melissa Thorne

Hello,
I'm Melissa Thorne.I will graduate this spring with a Bachelors of Arts in  Community Health Education. When I not overloaded with college curriculum I enjoy traveling on the weekends and "chillaxin" with family and friends. My hobbies include scrapbooking,baking, and roller skating. Upon graduation I hope to work with a public health organization in a community or hospital setting. That's all folks!!!

Meet the Bloggers! Samantha Brown

Hello, my name is Sam Brown and I am a student attending Malone University. I am a fourth year double major in Health education and Physical education. I am also a goalkeeper and play for the Malone University Women’s Soccer team. My background with foreign films is not extensive. My history with foreign films is only about two or three movies deep before the World Cinema class. Now being a student currently enrolled in the class I have viewed a few more foreign films and have also learned to appreciate foreign films. We chose to do our project on children’s foreign film because we have very little experience with films that are made in other countries. Children’s foreign films sparked my interest because of my passion for teaching children. Knowing what children from other countries are interested in will not only slightly educate me in foreign culture, but I will be improving as a professional because of my future working in a setting where children from other countries could become one of my students.

Meet the Bloggers! Jen Vickers

Hello, my name is Jen and I am a fifth year student at Malone University. I am majoring in Physical Education as well as Health Education. Next semester will be my last year here at Malone, so yes I have enjoyed my classes here. My history of foreign films before this class was probably one or two movies, but for the most part these six films we have watched for class is the extent of what I have seen in the foreign genre. I have taken time to watch these movies and examine their narrative patterns, visual tropes as well as filmic devices. I had not learned of these terms before this class being, World Cinema, so that was all new to me. We chose to do our project on foreign children films since we really have not seen any of those for class and researching movies of this topic was not difficult at all. I know I want to see what kinds of movies are used for entertainment for children of other countries in comparison to the United States. Also with the possibility of being a parent one day, I may want to have my child see these types of films if I know that it will be suitable for my child to view. This may open my eyes to what children view in other countries in addition to their culture about their lifestyles.