Tall Tales movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Tall Tales from the Magical Garden of Antoon Krings

RATING: PG

LENGTH: 77 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: B

IN A NUTSHELL: This sweet family-friendly film is based on the French children’s picture books by the talented Antoon Krings. The movie will probably be best enjoyed by very young children. It’s not as cute as the movie A Bug’s Life or even Antz, but it’s still cute and perfectly safe for your little ones.

This kid’s movie is NOT in movie theaters but can be watched online by clicking on this link: Tall Tales from the Magical Garden of Antoon Krings

It’s currently playing on DirecTV, iTunes, Digital HD and On Demand. (Pretty much anywhere you can rent a movie nowadays.)

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Children can learn a lesson from the queen bee. She always complimented people on their hard work before she gave them another task. She was always kind and made decisions based on what was best for everyone in the hive.
Kids can also learn from Apollo’s and Bette’s cheerful attitudes.
Point out to your children that Apollo split his cookie in half to share it.
Talk to your kids about the importance of nature. The queen sneaks out every night so that she can spend time in nature to fill her soul.
Tell your kids what a “troubadour” is and what “forage” means.
Some bug violence.

THEMES:

Tradition
“We always have a choice.” – Queen Marguerite (Kate Mara)
Leadership, power
Kindness
Good vs. evil
Working together, hard work

THINGS I LIKED:

I loved the use of light. So many things magically glowed, from creature’s eyes to lampshades, flowers, and the sky.
So colorful and cheerful.
The main voice talents are Kate Mara and Justin Long. Kate said that when she was a little girl, she wanted to be a voice animator. Justin said he can juggle like his character Apollo can.
The babies in the nursery were so darling sucking on their daisy pacifiers.
Cute sound effects.
To add a little French flair in honor of the writer/illustrator Antoon Krings, two of the characters since a classic French song called La Vie En Rose. If you click that link, you’ll be taken to Lady Gaga’s version of it that she sung in the award-winning movie Star is Born, A: SE (2018).
Bette the Bee was so kind to Apollo. Talk to your kids about the contrast between her and Wendy the Wasp.
Phoebe the firefly is adorable.
The villains are bad but not too scary for young kids.
The animation is cute and appears to be done by computer (nothing drawn by hand.)

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Children might be disgusted to learn that the fuzzy little blue bug who is the queen’s assistant is a louse. They may not know that word, but the plural is “lice” a gross bug that no one likes. If their school had a lice infestation and they had to shampoo their hair with a special solution, they’ll know what lice are.
It’s a bit slow-moving without a lot of action.
Some of the characters’ names were silly or nonsensical. For example, one of the moth’s names was Sphynx. Why?
I have no idea what that little blue bug with the giant lips is supposed to be in the image of the movie trailer (above.) Do you know?
Some of the dialogue feels very forced and stiff.
I don’t know why they chose the title Tall Tales from the Magical Garden of Antoon Krings like they did. It seems like they could have come up with some more clever that had to do with bugs.

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