Tiny Titans: Welcome to the Treehouse

Those of you who know me in RL have heard my superhero rant before--big industry (I'm talking about you, Hollywood!) promotes its superhero summer blockbusters to young children (buy the happy meal toy! the lunch box! the coloring book! the pajamas!) when the material really isn't age-appropriate. I find myself regularly explaining to parents of preschoolers that no, there really isn't anything about Batman on our shelves that's likely to appeal to their 3-year old in terms of content, illustrations, or length of text, no matter whether or not the child has already seen the movie. Ditto for the 6, 7 & 8-year olds. (Yeah, there's another rant in there about taking them to the movie in the first place, but I'll spare you that for the moment.) While there've been a few beginning reader series over the years that have helped fill the kid-friendly superhero void a bit, they go out of print, and when they go, they go fast. Thankfully, we're seeing some new offerings these days. The Big Two (DC and Marvel) have recently been publishing more kid-friendly superhero comics and even (gasp!) chapter-books. And I'm here today to tell you about my new favorite from DC:


Collecting issues #1-8 of Tiny Titans, TINY TITANS: WELCOME TO THE TREEHOUSE (ISBN 9781401220785) is a must-have superhero title for young children. Written by Art Baltazar & Franco (Patrick the Wolf Boy!) with art by Baltazar, it's an exceedingly cute and funny look at the teen titans as young children. They've got the powers, costumes, and personalities their later teen and adult selves would evidence but all of the emo, the angst, and the age-inappropriate baggage has been removed. This is a truly kid-friendly, all-ages title that shows the young sidekicks/super-hero wannabes attending elementary school (their teachers are all super-villains, though the most villainous thing they do is assign homework), exploring the Batcave (watch out for the penguins!), reveling in their first crush, making new friends, finding the perfect pet, and doing "battle" with their future nemeses on the playground. The humor here (horrible knock-knocks and all) is sure to appeal to anyone 4th grade on down but there are also some serious issues being addressed. Raven, Rose, and Robin all struggle to find their own identities and disassociate themselves with their sometimes embarrassing parental figures (Trigun, The Terminator, and Batman, respectively.) Cassie learns the hard way to be true to her self and to not let her peers dictate her sense of fashion. And Starfire gets a close-up look at what it means to be a two-faced friend.

Things, meanwhile, that made me howl with utter glee:

*Alfred putting the intrepid explorers, penguins and all, into the time-out corner.

*"Tiny Titans versus the Fearsome Five : The Winners Get to Use the Swings!"

*Aqua Lad's pet fish, Fluffy.

*The "How many Beast Boy Alpacas Can You Count? (Hint: They're the Green Ones)" activity page.

*Cyborg as Easy-Bake Oven

There's a lot here to appeal to adult fans of the Titans and a number of in-jokes that may go over the heads of anyone unfamiliar with the older-audience fare, Principal "They call him The Terminator" Slade, for example. As such, Tiny Titans is good clean fun for the whole family. Go check it out now!

Coraline

Went to see Coraline Saturday night for the 2nd time. Still haven't managed to catch it in 3D yet, but I suppose there's still time. The animation in this movie is amazing. I loved, loved, loved it. And will undoubtedly own it once it's released on dvd. I loved the audience response last night, too--the kids were utterly silent for the most part, totally caught up in the film. And two little boys insisted on staying through the credits. Here's a trailer, in case you've missed it:




(BTW, I once again made the mistake of reading YouTube comments. They both amuse and irritate me no end. For the record, this is NOT a movie by Tim Burton. It is a movie by Henry Selick. Written for the screen and directed by Selick, actually. And yes, he worked on Nightmare Before Christmas. He was the director whereas Burton was the writer. Working on a movie together does not make Mr. Burton and Mr. Selick the same person. And, last I checked, Neil Gaiman was NOT a Scientologist. Nor is he trying to brainwash viewers to the Scientologist point of view. YMMV. And actually...this IS a movie for children. Just because a film is creepy and disturbing doesn't mean it's inappropriate for kids. Give kids some credit--they know how to appreciate both. I really must avoid the comments in the future. I can feel my blood pressure creeping ever-skyward.)

As much as I love this film, I do have a few quibbles with the liberties they've taken with the original source material. Spoilers abound below for both the book and movie, so consider yourselves warned...highlight over the text to read as per Wilma's most excellent suggestion! (And if anyone reading this knows how to hide text below a cut in blogger, please sing out. Help files only apply to "classic templates." Oh, LiveJournal, I miss you so...)

I don't mind that they've turned an independent and spirited young British girl into an independent, spirited, blue-haired young girl from Michigan who seems to have been transplanted to Ashland, Oregon. (Ashland?! That was the only explanation I could come up with for the folks running about in Shakespearean garb. Other thoughts?) I love the blue hair, actually. And the American setting bothered me not a bit. Though I missed the Frog wellingtons.

The insertion of spying dolls was interesting and while it had nothing to do with the book, I loved their look. (I want to make a Coraline of my very own.) The creation scene of Coraline's "Little Me" at the beginning was deliciously creepy and did a lovely job of setting the tone for the rest of the film.

I missed the rats' musical numbers from the book, but was delighed to discover that the Other Father sings. (And yes, that IS They Might Be Giants performing the number. Heee!!!)

Here are my main problems with the film version: I was very surprised and disappointed by the introduction of an original character--Wybie Lovat. Don't get me wrong, I like Wybie--he was good for comic relief and the provision of a very timely rescue. But that's what bothers me--the fact that Coraline NEEDED to be rescued.

Coraline of the book was a very courageous and determined young lady who did what needed doing (with a little help from a curmudgeonly cat)on her own and succeeded. That's a very powerful message for children, and it was diluted in the film. In fact, my most favorite line in the book was missing completely from the movie: "Because when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave." That's a message that children (and grownups, too) need to hear.

I was disappointed by the final well scene in the movie. In the book, Coraline schemes and builds a trap for the Other Mother's right hand and disposes of it quite...handily. She shows smarts & courage. In the movie, she's pretty much on the run from the hand and is rescued at the last minute by Wybie and his dirtbike. They don't seem to have an actual plan for the hand's disposal--the well's proximity dictates their actions, not any actual forethought or planning. In short, movie Coraline is less brave, less independent, and less smart. And that just makes me mad.

All of the above being said...I still think you should go see it. And while you're at it, check out the book, too. Or the audio, read by Neil with music by the Gothic Archies , or the amazing graphic novel with illustrations by P. Craig Russell. You won't be sorry you did.

Hollow Fields v.1

Okay, so I lied about not providing actual content. Being on vacation has given me an opportunity to catch up on my reading and I feel compelled to share an actual review.

Hollow Fields v. 1
ISBN 9781933164243
written & illustrated by Madeline Rosca
published by Seven Seas Entertainment

Our story thus far: our plucky almost 10 year-old 5th grade heroine, Lucy Snow, has arrived by mistake not at Saint Galhat's Academy for Young Ladies, but at Hollow Fields, a school for budding young Mad Scientists. Once enrolled (Lucy really should read contracts before signing her name to them) Lucy realizes that en suite bathroom or no, her new school is quite a bit more than she bargained for. Rather than devoting their time to reading, writing & arithmetic, Hollow Fields students spend their days learning the fine arts of grave robbing, killer robot design, live taxidermy, and cross-species transplantation. (Yes, the latter is exactly what it sounds like. Pigeons and cats should never be crossed, I'm just saying.) Academic competition is cut-throat as each week, the student with the lowest grades is removed (often by force) to the old windmill on the premises, never to be seen again... With only her faithful stuffed dinosaur and the questionable mentorship of the clockwork Dr. Bleak, Lucy is determined to escape Hollow Fields and rescue her classmates.

This title was the first winner of Japan's International Manga Award and caused quite a stir at its debut in 2007. I'd argue it's not manga ('cause I'm all about the nitpicky semantic arguments), but OEL (original English language) manga as its creator is Australian. Given that it was originally written in English, the narrative and dialogue flow quite a bit better than a lot of the translated Japanese titles available today. Despite it's decidedly non-Japanese origins, it certainly LOOKS like manga (b&W, big eyes, overly expressive facial characteristics, and excessively cute characters) and is sure to appeal to teen manga fans.

Why teens you say? The protagonist, after all, is quite young. And the title is most often compared to HARRY POTTER. I'd argue that given the sinister setting, the fairly sexualized female teachers and staff of Hollow Fields (I will never, ever understand manga's obsession with French maids. Never.), and the conservative nature of my community that this is a better fit for the teen collection than the children's area. Although there are great number of 5th graders out there who'd undoubtedly really enjoy it. To me, the tone and storyline are much more in keeping with Eoin Colfer's ARTEMIS FOWL series or Catherine Jinx's EVIL GENIUS than with HARRY POTTER. We have a truly evil collection of adults, a (thus far) mostly evil collection of fellow students (all of whose parents except Lucy's are currently employed in the Mad Scientist/world domination field), a gruesome curriculum, and a number of missing-presumed dead (or worse) students. Despite the cute characters, the story has a lot of dark undertones.

That being said, I couldn't put it down. I find the overly naive, klutzy and, dare I say it, somewhat stupid Lucy to be quite charming. (Hmm, it would appear I've just described a young Bella Swan.) Lucy's got a lot of courage, determination, and drive and I sincerely hope that in future volumes she brings Hollow Fields to its knees. Hollow Fields the place is also extremely intriguing--who knows what lurks within its clockwork walls? From the outside, it would appear to be an abandoned factory, but appearances as we're learning in this series, can be extremely deceiving.

Finally...MAD SCIENTISTS. A school for MAD SCIENTISTS. How can this fail to appeal?