Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang

We have not seen all that much of Emma Thompson lately. It seems she has been doing more of her second job as script writer and making a sequel to her huge family hit.

Before this film I saw trailers for the upcoming films 'Marmaduke' and 'Furry Vengeance' and I found it interesting how some film makers treat children. Both of the trailers I saw made the films look hideous. I think this is where CGI is being used badly. Just because you can create a CGI animal does not mean you have to. Although in 'Nanny McPhee' there is the use of CGI animals, they are done sparingly and in a magical context. Not to get them to do things they would not do in real life. Which brings me to my point. Children's film (or family films as they are more commonly known) come in two categories: those that talk to children on an equal level and those that talk down to them. 'Marmaduke' and 'Furry' clearly talk down to children and think that a few crazy animal will amuse the kids. The sad thing is that both will be a huge hit. 'Nanny' talks to children on a their level. While it has all the gross humour kids love it does it in a more sophisticated way and does not make adults wish they had not seen it. Maybe it is an English thing. You really come to care about the character and story in this film as opposed to some of the other films where is all about seeing adults get tortured.


Although Emma is listed as the lead in this film I was surprised at how little we see of her. Emma takes a backseat to Maggie and the kids as their story is told. I really respect that as an actress she is willing to write a role for herself that does not give her most of the screen time and overshadow everyone else. The big surprise though was Maggie Gyllenhaal's English accent. While I'm not an accent expert I though she did an excellent job. Much better than most Americans. She is also an excellent actress who seems to be relishing the chance to do something slightly sillier than she is used to. The kids in this film are also excellent. I was especially impressed with Eros Vlahos. He was quite funny and had great comic timing.


One of the better children's films released at the moment. Adults taking their kids will not feel embarrassed to be seen watching the film.