I can't remember the name of the movie, but when I was very young (think kindergarten age), my dad let me watch some late night horror movie that included an apparent dead person with rolled-up eyes rising out of a bathtub to menace someone. When I turned around to him for reassurance, he'd rolled his eyes back so only the whites were showing.

I think that's Les Diaboliques. Or at least there is a scene very much like that in the movie.

For freaky childhood trauma, nothing quite beats the trip on the S.S. Wonkatina in Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka movie.

That didn't bother me, but I was terrified of the Oompa Loompas in that movie. They still kind of freak me out.

The hardest thing about taking the wee ones to the movies is leaving if they can't make it through. It's worth a try, though. With kids' movies, it's just expected that some people have to get up and it's a more tolerant atmosphere.

Liv will now sit through an entire film at 3 1/2. But I also make sure there are enough Twizzlers to get us through.

DH just double-checked runtimes and Ponyo is about 15 minutes longer than Totoro, which might be pushing it.

My 4-yr-old could sit through a whole movie when he was 2-and-change. But my 2-year-old can barely sit through a whole episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, so it'll be a while before we take her to the movies.

Also, David, I let this sit fallow, but in my book Watt > Hart, although I agree that Grant is some kind of ubermensch.

Also, David, I let this sit fallow, but in my book Watt > Hart, although I agree that Grant is some kind of ubermensch.

Have you heard Grant's solo stuff? I really love his song "Run, Run, Run to the Centre Pompidou."

Emmett saw a Pokemon movie when he was 2ish, and only sat through the first half hour short. A little later that year he sat through all of Toy Story 2. Matilda sat through (with some squirming and need to get up several times) Wall-E at about 26 months. And I intend to take her to Ponyo.

If you go to an early show there will be tons of kids anyway so you shouldn't worry too much about being disruptive.

Incidentally, I've seen about half of Ponyo standing around in a video store in Japantown. It's a simpler design and palette than a lot of his recent movies but the characters are very engaging.

Yo Gabba Gabba

I stayed at a friend's house on vacation and this program was on and *I* couldn't sit through an episode of YGG. It was just TOO much. If I had kids that had to see that every day, I think I'd take a hostage.

It's easily the least obnoxious of the entertainments my children like. I'll take techno & dancing and Mark Mothersbaugh teaching kids to draw and Biz Markie teaching kids to beatbox any day over the mindnumbing stupidity of Scooby Doo or the insipidity of Blue's Clues.

X-posted with Natter- The Ballad of G.I. Joe. [link]

Jaws

I didn't get to see Jaws until two years after it came out, and I had already read the book, so I figured I was pretty well prepared for it, but I still flinched at some of the "surprise!" moments, and for a few nights afterward shadows in my bedroom looked enough like sharks to make my pulse race.

Now I've seen Jaws so many times in passing on TV that I'm desensitized, and it only comes across as a comedy.

If you've never seen the movie, though, Robert Shaw as Quint telling the story of the Indianapolis alone is worth the price of the DVD rental.