By Laura Gray
Your son finds that the cool swimming hole looks a lot less inviting from a rocky ledge 20 feet up. But he’s followed his friends and now realizes his mistake. He tries to talk them out of it – to no avail. They taunt and tease and threaten him if he tells. Frustrated, he climbs down and calls you. Just in time, you and the other parents arrive to stop a potential tragedy.
When the other boys discover their misjudgment – and what could have happened – they grudgingly acknowledge your son’s life-saving actions. Doing the right thing pays off for everyone.
In our me-centered culture, that’s a lesson kids may not hear every day. But it’s one they’ll learn by watching Disney’s “Race to Witch Mountain,” available this month on DVD. Enjoy the movie with your family and discuss its themes with our Talk Together points. Then play “Right Racers” to reinforce this valuable lesson.
In “Race to Witch Mountain,” cabbie Jack discovers two strange teens in his taxi. Sara and Seth offer him a wad of cash to drive them into the desert to what looks like an abandoned house. Uneasy about leaving them in the middle of nowhere, Jack follows the siblings inside. They explain they are from another planet, sent to Earth to retrieve a device that will save their home planet from destruction.
Soon, the kids are being pursued by two menaces: a robot from their own planet whose mission is to kill them and U.S. government agents who want them for experiments. With the device in hand, they set out to find their spaceship, which crashed near Witch Mountain. Jack enlists the help of a UFO scientist, Dr. Alex Friedman.
The teens locate their ship on a hidden military base and the group attempts to sneak in. But they are captured, and the military doctors prepare to experiment on the kids. Jack and Alex escape and rescue Sara and Seth, just as the killer robot arrives, wreaking havoc on the base. They board the spaceship with seconds to spare and take off. On their way home, the teens drop off Jack and Alex in Las Vegas and promise to return someday.
TALK TOGETHER
Jack has a hard time believing that Sara and Seth are aliens. How do they convince him they are telling the truth? What might have happened if Jack did not believe them?
At first, Jack thinks Dr. Alex Friedman is weird for believing that aliens are real. Why does he ask for her help with Sara and Seth? What can she offer that no one else can?
Telling the truth helped Sara and Seth save their planet. Tell about a time that you told the truth and it benefited your family or friends. How would the story have turned out if you had not told the truth?
PLAY TOGETHER: RIGHT RACER
You will need:
• Shoe box or shallow cardboard box
• Cardboard cut to fit inside box
• Yarn or string
• Pushpins
• Marble
Fit the cardboard inside the box to make a thick layer on the bottom. Use the pushpins to mark a path along the bottom of the box. Tie the yarn around the first pin and then follow the path, wrapping the yarn once or twice around each pin. Place a marble at the beginning of the path and move the box gently to maneuver the marble through the course. Time players as they move their marble along the path. The winner is the one who can get to the end first. Your kids will learn that taking the right path is always a winning choice!
For more film fun, go to www.Cinematters.com.
© 2009, Cinematters.
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