movies – Mediocre Mum

Top 5 Movies from a 5 Year Old

I had a bit of a chat with my daughter last night as I was curious what her favourite movies were. I was pleasantly surprised that many of her choices were the classics. I know some of them can be a bit dark and I’m still personally scarred from when Bambi’s mother was shot by the hunter but I’d much prefer her to watch the classics than a lot of the crap that is on offer at the moment.

So without further adieu in reverse order:

Number 5 – The BFG by Roald Dahl (1989)

“Whizz POP Whizz BANG!
Feel the bubbles go down!
Whizz BANG Whizz POP!
Bursting all around!”

A free BFG Activity pack to download

Number 4 – Bambi (1942)

Faster! Faster, Bambi! Don’t look back! Keep running! Keep running!
[Gunshot is heard, then silence] (Queue the tissues!)

Number 3 – Pinocchio (1940)

‘Mummy can you fast forward it to the part where Pinocchio comes alive as it’s my favourite bit?’

Number 2 – Snow White (1937)

Walt Disney’s first full length feature animation and still delivers!

Number 1 Cinderella (1950)

The prince and princess live happily ever after! Need I say more? Every little girls dream!

What is your favourite children’s movie of all time?

Disclaimer: Madame’s Cinderella outfit was courtesy of Jokers’ Masquerade, who stock a huge range of children’s fancy dress outfits, with Halloween around the corner you may want to check them out!

I’ve cancelled my free subscription to Netflix

I’ve been waiting for ages for Netflix to come to the UK. My family uses it in Canada and its brilliant being able to stream videos with the touch of a button. So, when I heard an ad on the radio for it, I raced home and signed up even though having to register using my Facebook details annoyed me.

I was really thinking this was when my AppleTv as going to come into its own. For those of you who aren’t aware what it is it’s a small wireless device that allows me to stream content (music, videos, etc) from my PC to our TV, I love it, but getting content can be a bit of a struggle unless you’re willing to fork out £9.99 to buy films from iTunes.

The Netflix service is excellent in itself; it was easy to set up and when you compare the price of renting a single film from iTunes (£3.49) a subscription for £6 a month for unlimited films seemed like a bargain.

B-List Movies

But sadly, the content is very poor; I didn’t recognize many of the movies/TV programme nor was I inclined to watch many of them.

So, in the end I didn’t feel it was worth the monthly charge and cancelled it before I started accruing charges.

Fingers crossed the content improves and if it does I will be one of the first to sign up again.

Is Lovefilm any better?

In the meantime, Lovefilm is trying to compete and has launched their own streaming service, so I thought I’d try it out. It’s £4.99 a month and the content is much improved. However, I’m not able to stream to my TV.

I didn’t realise before I signed up that I wouldn’t be able to do this via my AppleTv. I’d cracked how to use Airplay to watch content via my iPad, but sadly the Lovefilm App prohibits you from doing this with Lovefilm films. The sound comes through but no movie. I would love to know why.

Come on guys sort it out!

I find the whole situation frustrating, I can see that the technology is available to offer a service that I want and am willing to pay for, but we have two companies that are offering services that are substandard.

I’d love your thoughts on this.

Downloading kid’s movies made easy!

I have an Apple TV and for those of you who haven’t heard of one it is NOT actually a TV. It’s a small box that sits beneath my TV and wirelessly connects to my laptop, so I can access all the content I have in ITunes via my TV; movies, music and photos.

I was sent a couple of promo-codes to download Hop and The Adjustment Bureau. If you’re not familiar with downloading movies via ITunes it’s dead easy. Simply go to the ITunes store, search for your movie, you can choose whether to rent or buy, confirm your security details and voilà it will start to download (note: depending on speed of connection this can take a while). It’s really no different from downloading music. I tend to purchase the movies for my daughter as she watches them over and over. However, my husband and I don’t tend to watch movies ourselves more than once so we just rent them.

If you don’t have an Apple TV you can also download movies via your PC or MAC, Iphone, Ipad or games consoles and watch anywhere. I wish I would have downloaded a few movies for our epic flight to Canada in the summer!

I no longer have a lounge scattered with DVDs, in the wrong cases and that have been scratched beyond repair! Plus, it also eliminates the frustration when queuing movies for my daughter as I’m not forced to watch the trailers and can opt to jump straight to the movie.

I can’t emphasize enough how easy it is!

Disclosure: In return for this review I received a ‘Summer Wind-down Package’ which included HOP and The Adjustment Bureau, some film merchandise goody bags for my daughter and a bottle of wine and some chocolates for me.