Recently, and through no real deliberate design, Fridays have become Family Movie Nights. It started when we all sat down to watch Disney’s superb Encanto a few weeks ago, but is now an official part of the week, with Miles even making pre-emptive requests for upcoming films.
For instance, after spotting it on Disney+, Miles has spent the better part of this week asking for Pinocchio to be the next family movie. While I think he’s seen it before, he was definitely too young to recall it and I figured that seeing a bunch of ill-behaved children terrifyingly mutate into donkeys might scare him straight. And so it was agreed upon — Pinocchio would be this week’s movie.
Well almost immediately this one was doomed. Miles quickly became uneasy upon seeing the lifeless (and initially mouthless) puppet. “I don’t like this,” Miles mumbled a few times as we tried to assure him that everything was okay.
Things escalated after Geppetto painted a mouth on the puppet. “AHH! I DON’T LIKE HIM TALKING!!” Miles shouted as he scrambled to the door, fumbled with the knob, threw the door open, and took off down the hall. Yes, this happened before Pinocchio was brought to life, while he was still an inanimate object sitting on Geppetto’s shelf.
And that’s how we ended up watching Ferdinand for this week’s Family Movie Night, a film starring John Cena and a particularly delightful Peyton Manning.
The Perils (& Pride) of Paternity 