Newton In A Bottle….Physics For Kids!

This movie is really nothing like anything else I've seen. My first thought upon opening the press material was that there was no way that this movie was going to be interesting for young kids if it's about physics. Then I suspected that if it was interesting to babies it probably wouldn't be interesting for older preschool kids, and definitely not for primary aged kids.

A true test of a movie at my house is if it can attract my kid's attention away from the toys and each other, then it is considered a keeper. I put this move to the test by slipping it in the VCR without any prior warning to the kids while the room was full of toys and they were engrossed in building and reading. I didn't tell them anything about the movie, I just slipped it in and quietly left the room. My house is rather open and although I'm not right in the room sitting on the couch or floor I can watch the kids and see the TV.

About five minutes into the movie, I knew this was a keeper. The youngest children had put down their blocks and cars. My middle child put down the book and my oldest had quietly joined the group watching this movie.

The movie is about an animated cat named Max who does all sorts of neat tricks. There are colliding and colored balls, colored lights, shooting balls and more. All of the neat stuff in this movie is actually educational in that it is based on Newtonian Physics.

The movie also presents the theories of leverage, gravity, momentum, light and projectile motion. They touch on the space and the solar system too, which is when one of my younger children asked what that was in the movie, one of the older siblings took advantage of the opening and started explaining about our stars, asteroids, moon and other planets. It was really amazing to watch the interaction that a computer animated movie started.

The graphics are fabulous, to say the least and look like something straight from a major movie studio with its 3-D animation. The colors are vibrant and eye catching for all ages. Max, the cat is so cute I actually thought how nice it would be to add to our zoo with a smart sweet cat. Thankfully I remembered that Max is an animated cat and the three cats we do have probably wouldn't appreciate a new addition.

Go To Page: 1 2