That's made me wonder. Is there a general age in narrative consumption where spoilers become important (for the subset of viewers who dislike them)? I'd imagine that at Matilda's age she wouldn't enjoy a movie much less if she already knew what was going to happen. But that's just based on my memories.

Any parents here with a better idea of it?

Unrelatedly, I wonder if Blake Lively and John Travolta are looking at the Battleship and John Carter box office receipts and cursing what probably seemed like a really good idea at the time, or if Taylor is crossing his fingers that his bad luck will be overshadowed by all the other more famous names and faces

I'm pretty sure John Travolta and his representatives have no idea about what is or isn't a good movie.

I also imagine they're too busy cursing the entire massage therapist profession.

It depends on how seriously she takes parent-in-danger storylines - for Dylan, it was completely traumatizing because he does NOT like it when bad things happen to Moms. One scene in Secret Life of Arietty was enough to put him off that movie entirely.

As far as spoilers go, it depends. In most cases, I find that preparing Dylan to deal with a scary scene (for example) just makes it worse because knowing he's supposed to feel scared makes it so. But as far as spoiling plot surprises, he could care less.

So I guess that rules out most of Disney for Dylan? Oh, and Babar books.

I'm pretty sure John Travolta and his representatives have no idea about what is or isn't a good movie

I just mean about the box office and the run Kitsch has had so far this year. Nothing to do with quality.

Matilda's pretty good at dealing with people-in-peril storylines as long as someone else is spoiled and can promise her that everything turns out okay. When we're reading chapter books with suspense or even potential peril, I have to reassure her that I've read ahead and that it turns out okay; if we're both unspoiled and I can't make that promise, she flips out.

So I think, with some prep beforehand reinforced with in-movie reassurance, she should be okay with Brave.

And, man, she has absolutely no concept of the badness of spoiling plot twists, which has been an issue when she and Emmett watch episodes of Korra and Adventure Time together as he's fairly spoilerphobic but his objections are completely baffling to her. And amusing to me, since he did the exact same thing when he was her age. He gripes and grouses about her spoilage, and when I point out that he did it to me all the time himself, he says, "Yeah, but that was when I was five!"

"And she is how old now?"

"But that's different! Don't ask me how! STOP JUDGING ME OKAY!"

So I guess that rules out most of Disney for Dylan?

If it's quick or offstage (Bambi, Finding Nemo), it doesn't register too much, so most Disney is ok. In Brave, probably 75% of the movie is the mom-as-a-bear being pursued and almost killed by everyone else ever, and it's not even remotely clear (except that since it's a kids movie it must be) that it will be okay in the end.

that's uh, quite a twist. I never would have guessed that the movie was about THAT.