Sunday, August 26, 2007

The Last Mimzy

This is terrific children's entertainment, but a little slow for adults. The story follows 2 gifted kids who find a box floating in the ocean. The box contains some rocks that spin, a spider-looking plastic thing, and a stuffed rabbit named Mimzy who can speak to the little girl. It turns out this box is from the future and sent back to save the future by collecting DNA from a good person (apparently in the future we've really wrecked everything for ourselves). There are funny bits throughout, and the cast of adults is really very good. Rainn Wilson (from The Office) plays the little boys teacher and figures out that the kids know a bit more about Tibetan past and future mythology than normal kids (Mimzy and the rocks taught them). Inevitably the government gets involved (in the wonder that is Michael Clarke Duncan - the big guy from The Green Mile) and then it takes on many of the threads of the 1980s Flight of the Navigator - trying to escape, running away but back to the alien, and kids fighting for themselves. This is a very creative movie that runs very carefully at children's speed, so very light fare for adults, but perfect for kids and families.

2 comments:

Cat said...

I loved Flight of the Navigator as a child. Did this movie have Tim Robbins in it too? "Mimzy" is also a word used in Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky," I think..."All mimzy were the borogroves, and the momeraths outgrabe" (or something like that)

Jess said...

That makes sense since they say one of the "mimzys" was sent back to Alice - but she wasn't able to understand its message.