We are just days into summer break in the city and the kids are already, ALREADY, starting in with the “what are we doing today?” questions. Ugh. Yes, they will be in camps (soon) and yes, I’m telling them to play… read… explore… ride your scooters… dig in the garden! But Mommy needs the mornings to blog, you know?
Summer is traditionally a time for big movie blockbusters, too. We’ve been anticipating EARTH TO ECHO and were fortunate enough to check it out last week.
You may have seen the ads? The story follows a group of young teens as they embark on their last night together. Their neighbourhood is being evicted due to a highway that is planned to take over their community. While their families get ready to move, their cellphones go haywire; the curious kids, of course, want to figure out why. All signals direct them to alien robot, ECHO. The kids’ mission? Get ECHO home!
It’s kind of like an updated ET made attainable to a new generation.
The three friends make an interesting team and the actors are believable in this “reality-like” film. Munch (Reese Hartwig) is the techy wiz kid who’s obsessed with gadgets, Tuck (Brian ‘Astro’ Bradley) is the street smart kid with a passion for uploading his daily life videos onto the internet, and Alex (Teo Halm), a foster child who is used to being uprooted. A fourth character, Emma aka Mannequin Girl (Ella Wahlestedt), joins in the adventure mid-point in the film.
The story is an interesting concept and my 9 year old was into it. We would have both loved to have seen more of ECHO — he’s very cute and a little mischievous! Most of the film is shown in the style of “found footage” on Tuck ‘s GoPro camera so if you’re super sensitive to that you may want to take note. I checked with my kid a few times throughout the movie to see if he felt oozy and he seemed to be fine. There are a few spectacular special effects that are pretty cool for this PG audience who may not be old enough to see the other blockbuster films this summer.
A friend of mine said “this doesn’t sound like your usual kid’s movie.” That’s a great way to describe it. EARTH TO ECHO is not so much about the the robot alien but more about the idea of working together as a team and believing that you can do anything… even as a kid!
EARTH TO ECHO is in theatres now.
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We just saw it on the weekend – with my 6 YO and we both loved it! I bawled….