Who's the fairest of them all?

Sean Bean as the King

To-day is my daughter's fifth birthday! To celebrate, since it's raining and I'm poor, I rented several movies for her. One of which was Mirror Mirror starring Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer, and a brief appearance by Sean Bean (I'm on a role this week with him lol). The movie was charming, bright, and everything a child should enjoy. Even better, while watching it I did not want to claw my eyes out like many other children's movies I have watched--attempted to watch--with my daughter. Mirror Mirror presents a new take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves that girls need in this day and age. A strong role model, who--like Merida of Disney Pixar's Brave--presents a female role model who isn't dependent on a boyfriend/Prince/male to save her from harm. She breaks the mold and for a single mom of a young and impressionable girl, this is a fabulous thing. I honestly hope that Hollywood keeps up in this direction of changing what girls think of themselves. We need our young girls to have strong and intelligient female role models similar to the new Snow White of Mirror Mirror or Merida of Brave. Julia Roberts performance was not the best I had seen from her, yet she was still enjoyable for me to watch, especially because she was so despicable but kept it so light and unfrightening for a child. All in all I will have to say Mirror Mirror is more of a family movie, so for a family I would rate this a 7/10--however, if you're planning on just picking this up to watch after a movie night with movies such as Drive, then I would have to give this about a 5/10. Again, judge for yourself, just remember--this movie is geared towards families.

Change Your Fate

Disney is notorious for having Princesses that are weak and needy, always needing a Prince to save them and to fall in love with. Not Brave, Disney Pixar's first feature length film featuring a female lead, an independent one at that. Brave's princess hales from Scotland and her name is Merida (played by Kelly Macdonald). She carries a bow and arrow and rides freely on her stallion, Angus. She is certainly a free spirit and her personality matches that of her fiery hair.

The story unfolds as Merida becomes of age to become betroved and her mother insists on her marrying one of the three clans of Scotlands heirs. Merida doesn't agree with this of course and sets off into the wilds where she meets a witch and begs for the witch to change her mothers mind. I won't go into specifics, but I will say this is a movie fit to be seen on the big screen! It is beautifully done, rich colors and attention to detail are stunning and leaves you awestruck. Brave is definitely one to be added to the collection as soon as it comes out, especially since my picky daughter loved it. I give Brave a 10/10! Check it out!!!