Family Filmgoer

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" PG (NEW) -- Rich in wit and charm, this adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book uses old-fashioned stop-motion animation to great effect and ought to delight kids 8 and older. The characters have real-looking fur, their movements are appealingly herky-jerky and the sets look three-dimensional, like landscapes for toy trains. Dahl's works have inspired some highly original films, both animated ("James and the Giant Peach," PG, 1996) and live-action ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," PG, 2005; "Matilda," PG, 1996), that don't talk down to children. Director Wes Anderson, a brainy-quirky filmmaker, has created a piece that anyone 8 and older can enjoy. Because of the danger Mr. Fox brings upon his friends and family and how vividly it's portrayed, as when all the woodland creatures frantically dig tunnels to escape farmers coming after them with guns, bulldozers and hoses, the film may be too intense for under-8s and even a few who are older. The only "strong" language occurs when the animals say "the cuss you are!" Mr. Fox (George Clooney), a former chicken thief who has retired to a quiet life writing a column for the woodland creatures' newspaper, is bored. He moves his family into a huge tree facing the land of three farmers. Mr. Fox aims to sneak out and steal from them. But mean farmer Bean (Michael Gambon) organizes the farmers against Mr. Fox, who foolishly involves his visiting nephew Kristofferson (Eric Anderson) in the caper, while his own son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) feels inferior and ignored by his dad. Ash eventually proves the moral: What makes you different makes you special. Everything about "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is special.

OK FOR MANY KIDS 10 AND OLDER:

"Old Dogs" PG (NEW) -- This painful comedy stars John Travolta and Robin Williams as Charlie and Dan, respectively -- lifelong friends and business partners. Charlie is an unattached good-time guy. Dan is shy and depressed and longs to reconnect with Vicki (Kelly Preston), a woman he met and drunkenly married in Las Vegas seven years earlier, though the marriage was quickly annulled. Vicki arrives and tells Dan they have 7-year-old twins whom she's been raising alone. Vicki needs to go to jail for two weeks on a conviction for environmental activism (seriously) and asks Dan to care for little Zach (Conner Rayburn) and Emily (Ella Bleu Travolta -- real-life daughter of Travolta and Preston). Of course, Dan hasn't a clue how to care for kids and what follows is a big mess, but the mess isn't funny; it's tedious and tasteless and the stars look desperate. In addition to a divorce theme, drinking and hints of depression, the film has toilet humor, slams in the crotch and prescription drug side-effects jokes. The late comedian Bernie Mac has a cameo, but he couldn't save the film, either. Not for under-10s.

"Planet 51" PG -- This computer-animated feature about an American astronaut landing on a distant planet doesn't seem to know who its audience should be. Most of the jokes are geared to adults and are a little tasteless, yet the story itself seems aimed at kids. The animation doesn't look all that slick, and there are dull spots during which kids may fidget. The round, rubbery, greenish folks of Planet 51, though they don't look human, seem to live in America in the 1950s and even speak English. When astronaut Chuck Baker (voice of Dwayne Johnson) pilots his lander onto Planet 51 and walks around in his spacesuit, both he and they freak out. There are crude gags about using corks as protection against alien "probes." Astronaut Chuck is helped by Planet 51 teenager Lem (Justin Long), who wants to impress his crush Neera (Jessica Biel). The kids soon realize that Chuck, while vain and thickheaded, means no harm. But Planet 51's General Grawl (Gary Oldman) is determined to capture and dissect him. The film's rather complicated premise, its reliance on crude humor (toilet jokes and penis jokes, too) and its slow spots make it iffy for kids under 10. The child characters and their pets are cute, as is Chuck's doglike robotic helper. Too bad the script and story don't function as cleverly.

"Disney's A Christmas Carol" PG -- Although it sticks pretty closely to the plot and dialogue of Dickens' classic fable, this film is mostly a showcase for actor Jim Carrey (intense and unfunny) and for advances in a particular type of computer animation. It is too frightening and humorless for kids under 10, some of whom may need lobby breaks during spookier scenes. Director/screenwriter Robert Zemeckis uses the same "performance capture" technology (shooting live actors, then overlaying their performances with animation) he used in "The Polar Express" (PG, 2004). This time he's added 3-D and dizzying 360-degree perspectives in some action sequences. Scrooge (voiced by Carrey, who also plays younger versions of Scrooge and the three Spirits who visit him) is so stooped, gnarled and angry, kids may actually be scared by close-ups of his arthritic hands. All the "visitations" are quite chilling, starting with Marley's ghost (Gary Oldman). Happier moments are overshadowed by the film's overall dourness. There are many scary, spooky, nightmarish scenes, vertiginous flying with the spirits, and a shot of a 19th-century Londoner taking snuff.

PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" (NEW) -- The longing drags on in this darkly lit, slow-moving adaptation of the second book in author Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight Saga" quartet. But if you're a teen girl in love with the books, the films, and the actors in the "Twilight" juggernaut, you'll be happy with the film, no matter what critics say. "New Moon" is OK for teens in general but, critically speaking, kind of a snoozer. Moody high-school senior Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) goes into a depression after the vampire she loves, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), tells her he's leaving for good. He wants to protect Bella from his world and refuses to turn her into a vampire, even though it is what she wants. (The vampire metaphor for becoming sexually active -- to bite or not to bite -- makes the gauntly gorgeous Edward quite a gentleman.) Bella's childhood friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner) tries to comfort her. He comes from a mysterious Native American tribe who can morph into werewolves and who despise all vampires, though the tribe has a treaty with the Cullens. Jacob adores Bella, but she can't think of him romantically. Whenever she does anything dangerous, such as jump off a cliff into the ocean, Bella sees an image of Edward watching her, so she takes greater risks. This leads Jacob and the other werewolves to her rescue, but also to confrontations with vampires. Bella's desperation and Edward's internal conflict lead them to a climactic vampire council in Italy. "New Moon" is full of subtle sexual innuendo, but never shows more than a desire-filled kiss. The werewolves are huge snarling beasts, and the vampires are yellow-eyed when aroused. The fights are loud and fast, but generally not graphic, though there is an implied neck-snap beheading, a few bloody gashes and a woman with facial scars from a werewolf claw. There are subtle suicide references. OK for teens.

"The Blind Side" -- One might could dismiss this uplifting tale as a phony feel-good story in which an inner-city African-American youngster is saved by idealistic white people, but this story happens to be fact-based. Even though director John Lee Hancock lays it on a little thick, "The Blind Side" is thoroughly involving and ought to hold most teens rapt. Based on Michael Lewis' nonfiction book, "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game," it recounts how a wealthy Memphis decorator, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock as a likable steamroller), took under her wing a homeless teenager, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), she encountered one frigid night near her kids' private Christian school -- a charity case who was flunking out. Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy (country singer Tim McGraw) become Michael's legal guardians, get him a tutor (Kathy Bates) and groom him for football and college. (Oher now plays for the Baltimore Ravens.) The road, of course, isn't smooth. There is mildly crude language, overt and implied racial slurs, brief nonlethal violence, drinking, drug references, a car crash and a mildly implied marital sexual situation.

"2012" -- All those folks with signs warning "the end is near" were right, it turns out, in this overlong, fake-looking, but surprisingly fun thriller. "2012" has a refreshingly diverse cast and world-conscious point of view. The last half-hour degenerates into silliness, but before that, it's cool to watch the White House scientific adviser (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the President of the United States (Danny Glover) and his hard-bitten chief of staff (Oliver Platt) agonize over what to do (and whether to tell "the people") when they realize that the Earth's crust is shifting and that quakes and tsunamis will shortly wipe out civilization. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) takes his children (Liam James and Morgan Lily) on a camping trip to Yellowstone. He sees the Army guarding a mysterious site, and meets an eccentric radio talker (Woody Harrelson) who's tells him ancient predictions are coming true. Jackson also learns the government has built huge "arks" to rescue a few hundred-thousand and tries to get his ex-wife (Amanda Peet), his kids and even his ex's boyfriend (Thomas McCarthy) onto one of them. The film shows people falling to their deaths as buildings collapse, being swept away by waves, or suffering bloody but nongrahic injuries. There is rare profanity and drinking. forces. There are flashbacks to a violent murder, and occasional mild profanity. Too intense for middle-schoolers.

R's:

"Pirate Radio" -- American high-schoolers 17 and older will be surprised to learn that England, the land of the Beatles, no less, allowed almost no rock or pop music on state-owned BBC radio (and that's all there was back then) in the mid-1960s. So off the coast of England, "pirate" stations broadcast from boats, until the British government shut them down. "Pirate Radio" is a hooty bit of nostalgia about that era and a loving nod to its great music -- from the Beatles to Janis Joplin to the Kinks. It is not for under-17s because of its hints of sexual promiscuity, implied sexual situations, near-nudity, drug use and drug references, drinking and strong profanity (including one character with an obscene surname). The crackerjack cast under writer/director Richard Curtis ("Love, Actually," R, 2003) includes Philip Seymour Hoffman as the station's one American deejay, Rhys Ifans as his chief rival on the air, Bill Nighy as the owner of the rattletrap ship, January Jones (of TV's "Mad Men") as a groupie, Tom Sturridge as a shy teenager sent by his socialite mum (Emma Thompson) to work on the boat, and Kenneth Branagh as the comically malevolent Cabinet minister bent on shutting them down. There is a scary disaster at sea.

"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" -- Never less than riveting, but not for under-17s, this raw, graphic and upsetting story of an abused teenage girl is tough to watch. Yet director Lee Daniels and his fantastic cast tell a gritty and finally uplifting tale that has much to say to adults. Claireece "Precious" Jones (gifted Gabourey Sidibe) is hugely heavy and failing in school. She has one baby with Down syndrome, which her grandmother raises, and she is pregnant again -- both pregnancies the result of rape by her biological father, whom we only glimpse in graphic flashbacks as he violates her. Her negligent, resentful mother (the amazing Mo'Nique) abuses her verbally, emotionally and physically. Expelled because of her second pregnancy, Precious takes a counselor's advice and enrolls in an alternative school. She's sullen and angry, escaping into overeating or fantasies, but a teacher (Paula Patton) and a social worker (Mariah Carey) eventually reach her. "Precious" tells of a human being's rebirth. There is strong profanity, drug use and drinking.