Thank You Dreamworks

We brought Eve to the cinema for the first time last Thursday. It may sound funny, but I was kind of nervous about it. I know (because I used to be in the same position) that a lot of people think parents of small children do things just to annoy them. You hear it everywhere, from planes to restaurants: “Why,” they ask, “do people bring children here?” The understanding being that these places are for grown-ups alone and for the most part I agree; A nice restaurant isn’t the place for a small child and a plane is hellish enough without a screaming toddler kicking the back of your chair.

The problem is that it gets to the point where you can be intimidated into never leaving your house, even to go to the places that are meant for children. Either that or you develop the thick skin that screams, “yea, my kids are little monsters but you’re just going to have to live with it!” (Hmm, t-shirt slogan perhaps?) Neither option appeals to me.

We chose our film carefully and planned the timing with military precision. A sweltering Thursday afternoon and a showing of a film that’s been out for over a month (Over the Hedge) would mean the cinema was fairly empty. Eve went down for a nap at the prime time to ensure a balance of adequate length and precision waking time so she was at her freshest and least cranky. Even with all this planning, as we walked into the cinema foyer and she squirmed to get out of my arms so she could explore, I wondered if we were making a mistake. She’s too young to stay still for so long, I thought, she’ll want to run around the cinema and climb up to the screen or crawl under the seats. There’s no way her attention will be held and we’re sure to have a meltdown when we try to get her to stay in her seat. Already I imagined the other cinema-goers would be looking at us and thinking “I certainly hope they’re not going to the same film as us!” I faked some of that thick skin and ploughed on.

In the end the whole thing passed off beautifully. The second the lights went down Eve was entranced. She sat on my lap the whole way through, her eyes wide and glued to the screen. I enjoyed the film (the animation on the Grizzly bear and the hyperactive squirrel was priceless) but I found myself watching Eve more than the screen. Every now and then she’d look back at me with a huge grin on her face as if to say, “Can you believe how cool this is!? A giant cartoon!” I wondered if she would remember it like I remember my first cinema film, “The Jungle Book”, which I went to see in the Savoy when I was just a little bit older than Eve is now.

When the inevitable slow moment came about a third of the way through, a bag of popcorn was plenty to keep her occupied until the final act sped things up again. Matt and I walked out of the cinema with stunned smiles on our faces as a world of opportunities to leave our house opened up before us.

Next week it’s “Cars.”