How old should ds be to go to a movie?

[SandraC]

Hi ~ ds turned 3 years old last month. He is really getting into the old Jungle Book movie and started collecting the McDonald's Jungle Book 2 toys. Right now, he is watching Jungle Book video.

We took our dd (9 now) to her first movie when she was 3 years old. It was Hunchback and it scared her, such a dark movie. She is just starting to enjoy movies now and she is 9!

This Tuesday our cimema is playing Jungle Book 2 at noon! I can take ds (3)! But I am wondering if he is too young. I think he would like it, probably sit on my lap for a while.

What do you think? S

 

[crazyforgoofy]

Hi SandraC, my opinion only here - every child is different. Does your son watch much tv? Does he follow plot lines? Is he comfortable in the dark in other situations? Does he understand "pretend?" Does he react strongly to visual images? Is his sleep ever disturbed after seeing or hearing something upsetting? Have you read the review of JB2? Does it seem age appropriate for your son? Those are the criteria I'd use. You know your son better than anyone else. I'm sure you'll make the right choice.

 

[Jordan's MOM]

Hey Sandra C, the other Sandra C.

I say give it a try. By three my DS loved going to the movies and though we got a shhh, one in a while he did quite well. This sounds like a perfect 1st experence. At that time of day you are mostly going to have other mom's and toddlers/preschoolers that should not be too upset he he does not handle it well. lf DD is in school she wont be along and upset if you have to leave the movie early. A big bucket of popcorn does wonders too!!
Have fun and let us know how it does.


Jordan's mom

 

[ohanaMAMA]

good of you to be worried about the appropriate age for movies... MAN i hate when someone takes a kid that is clearly not ready to an adult rated film! UGH! BUT junglebook 2 is perfect for that age. We took my VERY active dd2 to it this weekend. She loved it.. but then she is really addicted to disney videos. I always swore my kids wouldnt spend hours staring at a dummybox.. but i cant help it. its like Kaa's eyes.. hypnotizing
try it at noon..or maybe an afternoon one. after the nap

 

[SandraC]

I think I might try it. Noon on a Tuesday should only have preschoolers, I would think. The movie is 82 minutes long, add previews, we should be there about two hours. I honestly think ds will be in awe of everything and not say a word. Worse comes to worse, we leave and I learned a lesson. Thanks all, your help is GREAT! S

 

[disneyfan551]

We took our 18 m. old to see the Jungle Book yesterday, along with our 2 yr. old niece. And, they did great! Kendall was squirmy a few times, but we just take things that we know will hold her interest, such as a mini bottled water (something she usually doesn't get to have...), and DEFINITELY her paci's! And, she loved munching on the popcorn! I was pretty surprised that she did so well, she is a VERY active child. Yet, she adores Disney movies, so she was a good girl!

Her 1st movie was Lilo & Stitch when she was 10 months old, and she was good then! (would have been better if she wouldn't have dropped all THREE paci's in the floor...or we would have remembered her paci attacher... )

Have a blast! (And take your camera, to scrapbook the "1st Movie"...)

 

[TandyR]

We took our DD6 and DD3 and they loved it. (DD3 second movie in a theatre...first one was Jonah-A Veggie Tales Movie.) We are very careful about what movies we let our girls watch because DD6 worries about stuff a lot. We found that Jungle Book II fit what we look for in a movie perfectly...no really bad scary parts, both my girls liked the music. So I would say give it a shot, but with anything with a 3 year old if it isn't going well just leave...you can try it again when he is older.

 

[SandraC]

***UPDATE***

Hi all! This is Sandra, the original poster. WELL! I took 3 yo ds to see Jungle Book 2 this afternoon and it went 1000 times better than I thought! WHEW!

The show was at 12:10pm. Since it's a Tuesday I didn't not expect the theatre to be very busy. It was dead. A total of 4 adults and about 8 kids in the whole theatre! ds was very impressed with the building as we walked in. It's very grand and has lots to look at ~ very Disney like. One of those 400 screen theatres (lol, not really) We went to the door of our theatre and just watched some previews from the door. ds is practically non-verbal, a late bloomer in the speach department. But he did manage to say, "Go home." LOL! When I offered (bribed) him with candy, he said, "Open home". This movie thing sure is helping him talk! LOL! I didn't push him. The folks at the theatre made a big deal that this was his first movie. Even a nice lady who was bring her kids to see the same movie chatted to ds about how fun watching a movie is. I told him that we could watch the movie from the door and not even sit down, but when he saw other kids getting excited, my ds grabbed my hand and ran into the theatre! YIPPEE! We got amazing seats. I thought ds would sit on my lap the whole time, instead he insisted on his own seat and LOVED IT! He held my hand most of the movie. He smiled, laughed, pointed and had a great time! I asked him if he would like to see a movie again and he said YES! It was awesome! Thanks everyone for your advice! S

 

[disneyfan551]

So glad that you had a great experience! They grow up waaaay to fast...

 

[TandyR]

Yau...I am glad he enjoyed himself.

 

[SandraC]

THANKS! It was such a great experience. Once we got into the theatre and the movie started, I remembered that this actually is NOT ds's very first BIG screen experience. When he was 15 months old he saw HONEY I SHRUNK THE AUDIENCE at Epcot. That frightened him a little, but he was okay in my lap. He slept thru the LIVING SEAS movie. Jungle Book 2 is this first OFFICIAL movie! It was such a great day! S

 

[Barb D]

So, are you going to tell your DH that you were holding hands with another man in the movies?!?

My 3yo has been to a couple of movies; I think Lilo and Stitch was her first. She does fine, too. In fact, we even took her to "see" Harry Potter 2. The big kids wanted to go, and we didn't have a babysitter, so I timed it for nap time. I figured she'd sleep through the whole thing. NOT! She stayed awake the whole time, and didn't even seem too freaked out by it. I was stunned.

She and Grandma already have plans to go see Jungle Book 2 together. They were going to go today, but we got hit by a surprise snow storm and ended up staying home.

 

[jenjie]

I'm glad it was such a good experience! We took our kids (ages 4 and not quite 3) today to see Jungle Book 2. They just watched the original on tv last night, I wanted to make sure they'd like it before we went to the movies. They loved it! As the movie was getting ready to start, ds said "this is the bestest fun ever!" It was really cute hearing all the kids singing the opening song. IMHO this movie was better than the first one.