It took a while, but we finally took our kids to a movie theater. Noah was five and Charlotte four.  The reason we didn’t take our kids to the movies sooner was that Noah hated loud noises for a long time.  They don’t seem to bother him anymore, so that’s definitely a good thing.

I still wasn’t sure how our kids would do, though. Movies are long.  Asking young kids to sit down and watch a movie from start to finish can be a lot to ask.  Think about how your kids are at home.  Do they typically sit down and watch an entire movie without getting up and doing other things or taking a break?  I’d say it’s pretty rare for my kids to sit patiently and attentively for an entire movie.  In fact, Noah rarely even watches TV or movies anymore.  He is, however, a big fan of watching YouTube videos and playing games on his tablet.  Charlotte, on the other hand, likes cartoons and has three favorite movies.  She loves Beauty and the Beast, Frozen, and The Greatest Showman (mostly for the music).

Despite not being too sure how our kids would handle sitting and watching an entire movie in a theater we decided it was time to give it a try. The timing worked out, because Toy Story 4 was just released and we figured that would probably be a good first movie for our kids.  They had seen the first Toy Story, but not the other two.

It was a Saturday matinee at Regal Cinema. We arrived a couple of minutes after the start time, but that actually turned out to be a good thing since there were 10 or 15 minutes of previews.  Before we went into the specific theater we stopped at the large concession stand.  We got a huge tub of popcorn that I knew Charlotte would enjoy sharing with Ashley and me.

The theater had huge comfy reclining seats. Noah liked playing with the seats a little and reclined pretty far back.  Charlotte stayed mostly upright in her chair.  That might be because the tub of popcorn sat beside her on her chair until it was empty.

The kids’ first movie theater experience went quite well. We saw the entire movie.  I think that alone should make it a success.  Charlotte loved the popcorn just as much as we expected.  She got scared a few times; but I have to admit those ventriloquist dummies were rather creepy.  She said she wanted to go home a few times, but she eventually sat on Ashley’s lap and managed to stick it out for the duration of the movie.

Noah, on the other hand, really liked it. So did I. Toy Story 4 didn’t simply keep my attention the whole time; I was on the edge of my seat.  I figured it would be amusing, but I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed it.  There was action, adventure, chase scenes, romance, and plenty of comedy.  I laughed more than I have during most comedies.  So, yeah I was impressed.

There were some very funny characters, especially some of the new ones. Woody and Buzz were humorous as usual.  Bo Peep was adventurous and Woody’s love interest.  The new star Forky (the spork a little girl turned into a toy) was hilarious.  There were other great ones, too.  Ducky and Bunny were a great comedic duo and Duke Caboom, who was actually voiced by Keanu Reeves, was a very funny addition.  Buttercup, a unicorn, was probably my favorite toy.  It had several awesome quotes revolving around trying to get the dad in trouble or arrested in order to stop the family from leaving the RV park they were in.

Once the movie was over, Noah enjoyed another other kind of movie fun. He posed with every single movie display inside the theater’s lobby.  Charlotte was tired and just wanted to go home, but Noah refused to leave until his photo was taken with each and every giant movie sign (that’s why Charlotte isn’t in any of the pictures).  The kids got some nice Toy Story 4 cards with pictures of several characters from the movie free with their movie tickets.  That was an added bonus I didn’t expect.