David Pinson chronicles his 14-month-old daughter’s first movie-going experience with Tinker Bell and the “Secret of the Wings”.
When it comes to my little daughter, Khora, I have many high hopes. I think that’s normal and I try to keep all expectations at healthy levels to minimize the need for therapy in the future. Khora is only a couple months over a year old so my wish list for her is still short but important:
– I hope she lives to be at least 103 with each day bearing more happiness than the day before. I realize that this, mathematically, may be hard to achieve and that those last couple of decades would possess such compounded happiness that it may be hard to suffer through but I’m staying firm on this one. I want K to bask in happy happy times and this should be a constant.
– I hope she knows true love that matches the love she has brought me. I know that’s a touch sappy but I’m talking about my first-born baby girl here. You will have to indulge me.
– I hope, hope with great intensity, that she shares my love for movies. I know this may sound trivial in comparison to true love and intense happiness but to me it’s a very close third. Obviously, I love movies (Look at what I’ve become with Cinemastance…I can’t just watch anymore. I need to analyze, compose and share. It’s a sweet sickness.) and this began at a very young age. I wanted to become a director at age seven after viewing “E.T.” Looking back I think I chose Mr. Spielberg’s profession simply because his name was last in the opening credits. Then I wanted to be an actor. This lasted awhile but then I woke up hung over one day in Burbank, thirty years old with only a staged reading with Ed Asner to my credit, and realized that the futile endeavor was not really for me. Now I write movie reviews because, as the saying goes, “Those you can’t do, teach. And those who can’t teach write the text books.” Or something like that.
So I would love to curl up on the couch with K one day and blast through some classics knowing that she shares my passion for the moving image. To insure this day will come, I began programming her very early. Never too young, right? We began with small doses of hardcore eye candy. “Yo Gabba Gabba” and the flailing DJ Lance Rock. She simply loved it from first sight. Good sign. Then I pulled out my Complete Series Collection of “Pee Wee’s Playhouse”. She was mesmerized by the screaming man-child!! Then she began paying close attention to what mommy and daddy were watching, a mortifying discovery that sent the wife running for the remote as Michael Fassbender swung around his Fassbender in a scene from “Shame”. I’m sure Khora will have no memory of this. Actually that is another one for the “Hope List”.
To keep Cinemastance.com current and relevant, I attend regular screenings thanks to a lovely PR firm here in my hometown of San Diego. I have been scouring the schedule for some time for the perfect opportunity to take K to the cinema for her first trip. Finally, there it was: A Saturday morning screening of Tinker Bell’s latest adventure “Secret of the Wings”. Lots of wiggly kids, Disney and fairy wings!!! I would take her by myself. I needed to do this alone. The wife did not argue and took the afternoon for a spa treatment.
I carried with me a diaper bag filled with all sorts of Goodies: Animal Crackers, baby food pouches, banana puffs. A plastic Mickey, a plastic Pluto. Raisins. I needed many tools to distract and pacify. I did not, for one minute, believe that I would simply sit the child down and pick her back up once the movie was over. This was going to be a task.
As I has suspected the theater was filled with very young children, mostly girls, ready to cheer on the spirited pixie. I found a pair of seats in the first row, right on the aisle in case of a meltdown involving banshee wails. She’s a good kid but she has her dark side like the rest of them. We got there early and Khora stayed close by me as she watched the older kids run the aisles in a Milk Dud fueled frenzy. Then the lights dimmed and the entire wall turned into a giant television. Khora’s eyes brightened as she sunk into my lap in approval. She understood now. This is why we were in such a strange, huge room. To watch the magic stuff happen.
Now I am new to the modern Tink movies. I guess she talks now? She lives in Pixie Hollow and makes things with her fellow Tinker Fairies. In this current chapter, Tink is forbiddened to travel to the Winter part of Pixie Hollow but, of course, she goes anyways. She meets a kindred spirit named Periwinkle and then other things happen. I will not be much help with the goings-on in the movie as Khora took much attention. The workout went like this:
Khora in lap. Feed crackers. Set her in the aisle. Another cracker. In lap, hand her Pluto toy. She drops toy, pick it up. More crackers. Put in the seat next to you. Back in lap. Mickey toy, down in aisle. Puffs. In lap and find Mickey toy. Crackers…. And so on and how it goes.
About an hour of this and I decided to change the kids pee diaper. Just to break it up. Out we go to find a bathroom with a changing station. None to be found. I tried four men’s bathrooms and nothing. I contemplated giving her to a stranger-lady and see if she would be so nice as to help me out but thought better of it. I double-checked for poopy, saw there was none, and headed back to our seats.
There the cycle repeated over and again. Up and down. Food and toys. I mixed in a bottle of milk and she watched as Tinkerbell and friends tied up their conflicts. Before I knew it, the end credits started up. A wave of joy hit me, I choked a bit as I held back my tears. We made it. No wails, no fits. And I’m pretty sure she liked it.
I walked out into the sunny day with my head held high with pride and my baby daughter in my arms. I realized that I’ll be fine if she is not obsessed like her father as long as she gives me a moment or two like this every once an awhile. When we got home, Khora has fallen asleep during the car ride. Lucky because in my excitement I was going to show her “Evil Dead 2” on Blu-ray. I have to remind myself, baby steps.
SECRET OF THE WINGS is Available on Blu-ray/DVD October 23rd