Today wasn’t feeling great but really didn’t want to miss out on week 2 of my Family Movie Night series.  The goal behind this series is to provide a recommendation from off of Netflix stream that you can watch for FHE or a family movie night.  This week’s choice is The Wild Thornberry’s Movie.

If you haven’t seen the movie it is based on the Nickelodeon cartoon about a family that makes a nature television show in Africa.  The youngest daughter Eliza is given the ability to talk to animals but she must keep this power secret or she will lose it.

In this movie version Eliza is sent to England to keep her safe but she is worried about a cheetah cub she saw abducted.  She sneaks away and makes it back to Nairobi and starts on adventure to find her parents, save the animals and find the poachers.  It’s very exciting, beautifully animated with good vocal performances by Tim Curry,  Lynne Redgrave, Lacey Chabert, Marissa Tomei, Rupert Everett and more.

The music is very well done with songs from Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon to name a few.  It’s funny without being too immature and I like that the lead is a little girl who doesn’t always make all the correct choices.  She’s a well rounded believable character.  Her sister Debbie is a bit of a caricature as the snobby teen but you do see some growth from her over the course of the movie (She is kind of like a grown up Angelica from Rugrats).  She does get a lot of the good humorous lines in the movie so I don’t mind her Valley Girl character.   Darwin the monkey is also a source of a lot of laughs.

There are some moments of peril but they are broken up by humor and I don’t think too scary for little children.

It’s a movie I think would easily work into a FHE lesson about conservation, nature, endangered species etc. Plus, you could talk about how we all have special gifts like Eliza has the gift to talk to animals. She also never gives up no matter the obstacle put in her way.

Here is the trailer.

If you have any ideas for a Netflix film you’d like me to pick for next week’s family movie night pick let me know.  Thanks and thanks for watching my review on youtube, giving it a thumbs up.  Take care.