Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Our local library has family movie nights once a month or so.

We had never been before, so when I heard they were showing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, I figured that would be a great time to attend.

I was really interested in the idea of the movie, had heard and seen good reviews and things from those around me, especially other moms, and so we went.

Maeryn made it about ten minutes.  I should've known better.  The only thing she sits through in its entirety are Elmo's World videos.  Michael took her into the library proper and they hung out reading books and playing on the computers and things.

Jonah sat through the entire movie.  He sort of "made it".

It wasn't a good experience though.

There is a point during the movie where a little boy is about to get demolished by a mountain of food.

Jonah looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I am so worried for that little boy..." and then he started to cry.  Loudly.

Luckily there were only two other families watching the movie, so it wasn't a huge deal, though we got a lot of stares.

He's five.  There are plenty of other five year olds who would've loved the movie.

My son has high emotional sensitivity. It's actually a diagnosis.  It goes with the gifted thing.  Hoorah.

So there were tears. Several times.

I asked him if he wanted to leave, but of course the answer was no because now that he'd invested himself emotionally in these characters he had to see how the story turned out in the end.  So we stayed, through sometimes shrieks of terror when the characters were met with any sort of peril.

Of course one of the characters HAD to have a severe peanut allergy and then end up cut by a piece of peanut brittle and blow up like a balloon and almost pass out and require an Epi-Pen.  For most children this might have been one of the more comical moments of peril.  Jonah, of course, has a severe peanut allergy that would require the use of an Epi-Pen in a similar situation.  So we had shrieks of terror again, until she was well.

Then, of course, there had to be that fabulous storyline where the hero seems to be dead but then shows up miraculously.  My son is not experienced enough with movie plots to know that the hero always comes out alright in the end, and believed that he was, in fact, dead.  More tears and terrified shrieks.

When it was over, he said, "Mommy, I don't want to do that anymore."  I assured him that we wouldn't.

Today, of course, he talked about the movie the majority of the day, got his thousand questions answered, and would probably now very much like to see it again.

I'm not sure, however, that I am ready.

I must say, in spite of all of this, that the plot is good, the message is wholesome, and all in all, the film is very well done.  I was amused and enjoyed the thing very much.  I do NOT recommend it for highly emotional five year olds, however.  Stick to movies they've already seen three hundred times - that way they won't be scared...  probably.