Children might recognize pangolins from fictional films like the 2016 adaptation of Disney’s “The Jungle Book,” but these mammals, also known as scaly anteaters, have been roaming the earth for 85 million years. In this new documentary from Pippa Ehrlich (who won an Oscar for directing “My Octopus Teacher”), we find out that pangolins are cute, sure, but also that they are among the world’s most trafficked animals, with their scales used in traditional Chinese medicine.
The star here is a South African pangolin called Kulu, who is saved as a baby in a sting operation. He’s cared for by Gareth Thomas, a Volunteer Pangolin Walker who treats the malnourished pangopup as his own. Interviews with the ant specialist and professor Dr. Caswell Munyai help deepen our understanding of these docile creatures.
There’s a somber tone here, of course, but overall it’s a beautifully shot, emotional story about the powerful connection between humans and nature. Older children with a soft spot for animals will fall in love with the adorable Kulu as he rolls in mud or cleans his scales. It’ll also get them thinking about conservation. And, yes, they’ll probably ask where they can find pangolin stuffies.
When a large black coyote started roaming through our yard this winter, my son took a stand for our family dog, Indy, exclaiming: “If that coyote tries to hurt Indy, I’ll swing it around by its tail, punch it in the face, and tie it to a tree! I know that’s violent, but nobody messes with my dog.” I didn’t love the violent part of his proclamation, but I admired his fierce love for our pup. It’s this deep bond between child and pet that’s on full display in Bryce Dallas Howard’s documentary, which features adorable youngsters talking about the cats, pigs, puppies, lizards and rabbits they adore.
In between these interviews, we meet people like Sterling “TrapKing” Davis, a cat rescuer and educator in North Carolina; Sergi Basolí, a Spanish adventurer who rescued a street dog and took him kayaking around the Mediterranean; Rodney Stotts, a master falconer; and Shinobu Takahashi, who runs a no-kill dog shelter in Japan.
The subtitle of this film could be “Adopt, Don’t Shop,” since most of the animals have been rescued. It’s tough not to get swept up in the sweet, innocent intention of it all. What Howard taps into is the powerful truth that what animals ultimately give us, at any age or stage, is hope.
‘The Addams Family 2’
The famously sardonic teen Wednesday Addams (voiced here by Chloë Grace Moretz) takes center stage in this 2021 sequel to the animated 2019 film. The plot kicks off with Wednesday competing in her school science fair. She’s figured out how to transfer her pet octopus’s intelligence into Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll). A mysterious tech genius named Cyrus Strange (Bill Hader) appears at the fair as a hologram and tries to recruit Wednesday to work for him, but she’s not having it.
When her father, Gomez (Oscar Isaac), decides to take the whole family — Morticia is voiced by Charlize Theron — on a road trip to see America’s spookiest sights, they encounter a lawyer (Wallace Shawn) who claims that Wednesday is not their biological child (he’s working for Dr. Strange).
Over the decades, Charles Addams’s original New Yorker cartoon has been retooled into sitcoms, musicals, live-action films and, most recently, the TV series “Wednesday” on Netflix. The kooky, spooky characters and snappy theme song remain true to the spirit of the original, only here you get Snoop Dogg as Cousin Itt. Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon (“Addams Family,” “Sausage Party”) co-directed, from a screenplay by Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, Ben Queen and Susanna Fogel.
‘Popular Theory’
The first thing you should know about the young genius Erwin Page (Sophia Reid-Gantzert) is that she’s named after Erwin Schrödinger, a founder of quantum mechanics. She’s a high schooler who, like her new friend Winston (Lincoln Lambert), skipped several grades and, while brilliant, is now wildly unpopular. Erwin’s mother, a scientist, has died, and she lives with her father (Marc Evan Jackson) and older sister, Ari (Chloe East), at her Aunt Tammy’s (Cheryl Hines) house. Tammy thinks her gifted niece should ditch science and focus on having a social life. So Erwin and Winston team up on a science fair project: They’ll create a hormone-laced gum that makes whoever chews it popular.
A sitcom like “Young Sheldon” or a classic high school comedy like “Can’t Buy Me Love” approach similar topics with a little more subtlety, but older elementary-aged children and tweens might relate to Erwin’s struggles and, ultimately, her acceptance of herself. Ali Scher (“Jessica Darling’s It List”) directed and co-wrote the script with Joe Swanson (“The Doorman”).
‘The Main Event’
There is no shortage of underdog sports movies out there dating back to 1931’s Oscar-winning “The Champ” and the 1993 favorites “The Sandlot” and “Rudy.” If your child is a sucker for these tales, this one about a boy who dreams of becoming a W.W.E. star should hit the mark.
Leo (Seth Carr) gets bullied at school, but when he finds a bright blue wrestling mask that possesses magical powers, his ascent from put-upon tween to wrestling titan is set in motion. Leo, a.k.a. Kid Chaos, enters a tournament with adult W.W.E. stars, but his magical mask allows him to jump, kick and flip with the speed of Sonic the Hedgehog. It’s over-the-top fun, and Leo is a kid you want to root for. He stands up for himself at school and, in the end, learns that real strength doesn’t come from some mask; it comes from the heart.
Tichina Arnold plays his grandma, Adam Pally plays his father, and a few real-world W.W.E. superstars like Kofi Kingston and Mike “The Miz” Mizanin make cameos. Jay Karas (“Abbott Elementary”) directed. And Larry Postel, Zach Lewis, Jim Mahoney and Peter Hoare wrote the script.
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