The Velveteen Rabbit
Reviewed by Melissa J.
Carswell
"With a dance between real life and animation, The Velveteen Rabbit offers the best of both worlds in this movie for children and parents alike - - real life actors and delightful animated characters."
The Velveteen Rabbit, directed by Michael Landon, Jr. and put out by Feature
Films for Families, deviates from the beloved tale that I grew up with.
Because of that, I had a hard time getting into the film in the opening
moments. My daughter, on the other hand did not, and was mesmerized from
the first moment on.
Toby is a little boy, dropped off at his grandmother's by his grieving
father who can’t cope with the reminder of his dead wife when he
looks in Toby’s face. Grandmother seems to have no more love for
her grandson than her son has for him, and Toby finds himself lost in a
world of make-believe
to cope with these gaping vacancies in his life. In his make-believe world
he is joined by a horse, a goose, and of course, a little rabbit who has
big dreams of becoming real.
The story line seems predictable. A grieving father, a harsh grandmother,
and a hurting little boy. Grandmother’s heart begins to melt as the
movie progresses and the needed crisis for Toby’s father to come
around comes in the form of Toby’s near death experience with scarlet
fever.
Yet, despite the movies’ predictability, the presentation is so enchanting,
even I, as an adult was caught up in it. With a dance between real life
and animation, The Velveteen Rabbit offers the best of both worlds
in this movie for children and parents alike - - real life actors and delightful
animated characters. Although the animation isn’t say, Disney quality,
the charming quality of the story causes the viewer to not even notice.
My daughter is not quite two years old and yet she sat and watched this
entire film on my lap in one sitting. Up until now, not even her favorite
cartoon
characters have held her interest in that way. To me, this is a testament
of the talent, and heart, that went into the making of this film.
“All you need to do is believe”. This is the tagline for the movie
and even the most logical among us will find ourselves doing just that,
as we watch this movie with our children. It just has that magical quality
about it, that helps that happen.
Melissa
J. Carswell: Melissa
is a Board Certified Christian Counselor. However, due to the appearance of a
little bundle of Miracle in the past year, the counseling practice is now on
indefinite hold. Instead, Melissa has entered the world of freelance writing
from home. She is currently one of the content writers for TotallyHer.com (to
be launched in September of 2008). Melissa has a passion for mentoring teen girls
and young women and does so whenever possible. Her heart longing, along with
her husband, is
to use her
education and credentials someday to have a home full of abandoned, abused,
and terminally ill childen. They are still waiting for God's hand to unfold
that particular chapter of their lives. When Melissa isn't changing diapers,
doing laundry, cooking meals, mentoring the afore-mentioned young women, tending
to her garden, being her husband's
biggest fan, and soaking in every cuddly moment with her daughter, she reads
and she writes. It is not unusual to see 2-3 books laying around the house
at any given time and the hard drive to her computer houses several partially-written
manuscripts to the secret dreamed-of-published books Melissa hopes for in the
future. You can check out A Weak Rose here.
WATCH THE TRAILER: