Harry loves dinosaurs. I would go as far as to say that he is obsessed with them. They accompany him at meal times, in the bath, in bed, to the childminders, and in the car. They even have their own special “dino” bag that they are transported around in. So when I saw that Pixar were coming out with a film called The Good Dinosaur, I was online in a heartbeat booking our tickets. Quite honestly I have been looking forward to this occasion for weeks. How I kept it to myself is anyone’s guess. When I told Harry that we were going to see it his little face lit up. Whilst we waited for Daddy to get ready I showed him the trailers for the film, so all we got in the car on the way there was “going to the cinema”, “going to see dinosaurs”, “it’s green”, and (my favourite) “it’s a diclodocuth”.
When we arrived his excitement was evident. He had led the way from the car to the foyer, danced on the glossy tiles on the way in, chatted away constantly, and could not sit still once we were inside. I’d pre-booked the best seats but he still sat on quite a few others to road test them and he even lay across the steps at one point to see if that was the best vantage point! Whilst waiting for it to start I lost count of the number of times he said to the people around us “it will be on in a second”. We left him to it as he wasn’t bothering anyone and it was really quite sweet. He soon came back to us when the lights came down and the sound came on.
The plot of The Little Green Dinosaur revolves around the friendship between a little boy and a kind hearted dinosaur. I won’t go in to it though as I don’t want to spoil anything should you think of going. The animation is what you would expect from Pixar, and Harry was absolutely mesmerised. So mesmerised in fact that he didn’t even bother with his mini popcorn or the drink that we got for him on the way in. The only time he interrupted the silence was to give some commentary to our fellow cinema goers “mummy dinosaur and daddy dinosaur”, “he’s sad”, “it’s broken” (when the dinosaur was recovering from concussion), and “look Mummy it’s a pterodactyl” . (This last comment made me squirm in my seat as I felt like one of those pushy mums that has forced their child to memorise the correct names for things. I assure you I am not. I still call squirrels, “squiggles” and sheep “sheepsies”).
The whole experience lasted two hours and in fact he could have quite easily sat there for two more. He only moved twice. Once to sit on Daddy’s knee and then to sit on Mummy’s. I honestly thought he would last about 45 minutes before we would have to make our excuses and leave, or before he fell asleep; I couldn’t believe that we were the last ones to leave. He very reluctantly trudged towards the exit door, shoulders stooped, head bowed and trailing his massive fat bottom lip on the floor. There was no dancing on the glossy tiles this time. As it turns out I don’t think he will have to wait that long for his next visit as a trailer for another animation caught my husband’s eye. I will quite happily watch anything just to share another magical family moment. Times like these are what it is all about.
Love
Harry’s Honest Mummy x