Opinion: A trip to the movies isn't always about the film itself

At least one of us was very excited to be going to the movie. Photo / Ilona Hanne

For the past week and a bit, my husband and I have been enjoying watching the Harry Potter movies with our 10-year-old. It's something I have looked forward to for a long time, sharing a film series I love with our youngest son. Admittedly we could have done it sooner, last year or even the year before if it wasn't for my parenting stance of "you can't watch it until you've read it".

Now he has read them, it's time to watch them, and it has been just as enjoyable as I had hoped. Long, contented evenings of snacks, cold drinks and plenty of gasps, laughs and more than a few tears (Dobby, Hedwig, Sirius ... they get me every time). Introducing my children to the books and films I love has been one of the highlights of parenting for me.

One of the lowlights, however, is also movie- based. Specifically, those featuring animated characters, plenty of annoying earworm songs, schmaltzy storylines and a large catalogue of movie-related plastic toys to be marketed at us for the next 18 months.
Don't get me wrong, it's not every animated movie I hate - the Toy Story series, Lion King, even Frozen - now Let it Go has finally stopped playing on what seemed like endless repeat from my daughter's bedroom - has its appeal, but generally speaking, I like my movies to feature real people, albeit ones who send mail by owl post and keep their cash in goblin-run banks.

So it would be fair to say I wasn't wildly excited when our youngest child asked me to take him to the movies recently. In fact, I did try the old "I have work" to do, followed by a dose of "how about we go to the bike park" and even an offer of "I can buy you some Lego instead" but no, he was adamant - so off to see Sing 2 we went.

Just he and I that is, because the husband did really have work, and the two older children smugly stayed at home because they are teenagers and therefore far too old for such nonsense (apparently they are also too old to be successfully bribed to swap places with their mother on the outing, sigh).

I wasn't exactly skipping down the street at the prospect of an afternoon indoors on a sunny day,but the 10-year-old was. He was fizzing with excitement, not just at the fact he was about to listen to a koala, a porcupine and a mummy pig all ruin perfectly good pop songs, but because he was going to watch it with me.

He's still at an age when hanging out with Mum or Dad is not just okay, but actually desirable, and I know that one day that will change. It feels like only yesterday it was my oldest son and I spending summer afternoons in a movie theatre watching such "classics" as Cars, Yogi Bear and King Fu Panda. It wasn't only yesterday of course, it was a few years ago, but it was practically only yesterday- actually last month - that the same eldest child unceremoniously recanted his invite for me to join him in watching the latest Spider-Man movie in favour of going with his friends instead.

Remembering this as we trundled up the stairs to the ticket office made me a tad more appreciative of the time I was about to spend watching a cartoon - and apparently more generous than normal too, judging by the 10-year-old's glee when I let him stock up on snacks and drinks with the tickets. By the time we had settled into our comfy seats (the advantage of living in Stratford is we have such a beautiful, grandiose and comfortable movie theatre right in the heart of the town), I was actually almost looking forward to the movie.

I could lie at this point, and say I have since watched it three times so great was it, but that would be an outright lie, and I prefer to avoid any hint of fake news in my paper. I can say, however, it was far better than I had expected, the singing wasn't as bad as it could have been, and that gorilla really can dance!

Ask me my favourite moment and I will struggle to convincingly answer you, but ask me my favourite thing about going to the movie and I can answer in a heartbeat - it was getting to sit with my son and enjoy time with him. It was watching him, not the movie, that made the outing special and I am glad we went, even if I now can't get the lyrics of Girl on Fire out of my head.

The movie of course came with a message, as all good animated kids musicals do. In this case its a truly laudable message of being true to who you are and overcoming your fears, but the message I have taken home with me, along with those darn lyrics, is that sometimes parenting is about watching wizards, and other times you have to find the joy to be had in hearing your son laugh as he watches an elderly iguana (with one eye) get paintballed by a grumpy lion.