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Video Review: Wallace & Gromit
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Harebrained inventor creates hopping horror.
Your daughter is determined to train your pet to be a circus dog. Trouble is, your pet is a cat, not a canine. Her enthusiastic attempts to balance a ball on Kitty’s head prove unsuccessful. Your daughter finally realizes she’s barking up the wrong tree.
When you try to turn someone into something they’re not, disaster can strike. That’s the lesson of the animated movie Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, released on home video February 7. After watching the movie, hop into a family discussion about respecting others for who they are. Then play our game, Carrot-Top Hop, to bring the lesson to life!
The film features a village that’s got veggie-mania. Everyone’s spent all year grooming his garden for the annual Giant Vegetable Competition. For inventor Wallace (voice of Peter Sallis) and his dog, Gromit, business is booming. They run Anti-Pesto—a humane pest-control service—and are responsible for keeping hungry rabbits out of the garden patches.
When Wallace’s brain-altering contraption designed to make rabbits dislike vegetables goes awry, an unexplained veggie-ravaging rabbit monster starts attacking the town’s prized plants. Can Gromit help Wallace reverse the damage he’s done and save the Giant Vegetable Competition from doom?
Talk Together
Think of things in the movie that were sacred to the characters—the bunnies loved vegetables, the villagers adored the Giant Vegetable Competition, and Wallace was crazy about inventing.
Take turns sharing something you couldn’t live without—perhaps you could never part with peanut butter, or your inline skates are glued to your feet.
How would you feel if someone tried to take those things away from you? Perhaps you wouldn’t turn into a monster, but you might be upset that part of your identity has been altered.
Can you think of a time when you tried to change the core of someone or something’s identity? Maybe you bullied your brother into giving away his beloved train set, or you constantly made fun of your sister’s eccentric wardrobe. Did trying to change them work? Did you ever end up like Wallace, with a big mess?
Play Together: Carrot-Top Hop
Hop till the carrot tops drop!
You will need:
- 10-20 paper or foam cups
- Orange paint
- Package of green pipe cleaners
- Scissors
Paint the cups orange. Let dry. Use the scissors to poke a small hole in the center of the bottom of each cup. String a pipe cleaner through each hole, leaving most of the pipe cleaner sticking out of the bottom. Use your finger to twirl the pipe cleaner so it stays put. Each cup is now a “carrot top,” with green pipe cleaner “leaves.”
Think of a situation in which you want someone or something’s identity to change, like training your cat to be a circus dog. Place a row of five carrot tops on the floor. Label this row one of the ways you’re trying to change—in this case, the row could represent rewarding your cat with dog biscuits instead of tuna fish.
Take turns hopping over the row, trying not to knock over the carrot tops. Once you’ve succeeded, stack a second level of carrot tops, in a pyramid shape. Make up an even more outrageous way to change the identity—for example, making your cat wear a frilly tutu and fake doggy ears.
Take turns trying to hop over this level. Continue stacking and hopping until you knock down all of the carrot tops.
When you’re done playing the Carrot-Top Hop, point out to your kids that—just like it was harder to jump over a higher pyramid of carrot tops—the more you try to change someone, the harder it will be to succeed. Not only will you be unsuccessful, but the other person will probably be hopping mad!
Go to cinematters.com for more film fun!
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