What's Playing the week of March 23, 2007

Every Friday night is movie night at our house. Mighty Mo, Mistress and I order a pizza and then after eating that picnic style (in the living room) we all pile into the 'mommy and daddy' bed to watch a DVD. Its always been a cartoon and we try to watch something Mo has never seen. Sometimes its Power Rangers.

Usually Mistress will make real oil and butter popcorn and we fight for space on the bed and I fight to stay awake sometimes.

This week was Balto. Balto is cartoon movie about a half dog/ half wolf that saves the children of an Alaskan town by bring much needed medical supplies to them through a blizzard. Its a true story and the famous Iditarod dog sled race commemorates the event.

Mo was certainly happy with it and I confess I teared up a bit when they went live action at the end to bring the whole movie full circle. I can get emotional in movies for some reason. With all the sick kids in the cartoon, Mo made a point of saying that he is not sick, "I'm strawnger" he likes to say. Its a lie only a brave child like he can make as he is a 'sick' kid with lots of issues to deal with. But he won't tell you that he would rather ignore it.

And thats the good thing about movies like Balto. Balto got kicked around by the dogs in the movie because he wasn't all dog and he wasn't all wolf, but he loved everyone, even those that hated him. And when they saw that his heart was pure, even in face of misery, he became a part of the community. And the sick kids got better.

Happy endings are so much better than sad ones.