Category: Movies

September 18, 2017

Fuller House Returns Back and Better #StreamTeam

One of my favourite Netflix spin offs, Fuller House, returns in Season 3 on September 22nd, 2017! Fans young and old will love the comedy and family fun in this original series.

About Fuller House

In the spinoff series, Fuller House, life can take you into unexpected directions and also back into familiar territory when veterinarian and recently widowed D.J. Tanner-Fuller finds herself living in her childhood home with younger sister and aspiring musician Stephanie Tanner and DJ’s lifelong best friend/fellow single mother Kimmy Gibbler. The women reunite to help support one another navigate careers, parenting and relationships with the kind of love and humor you can only get from the people you grew up with.

The Tanner childhood house is fuller than ever with not only DJ’s three boys — the awkward 13-year-old Jackson, neurotic 7-year-old Max and baby Tommy Jr. — but also Kimmy’s feisty teenage daughter Ramona and Kimmy’s not so estranged ex-husband Fernando all under the same roof.

Fuller House stars Candace Cameron Bure as D.J. Tanner-Fuller, Jodie Sweetin as Stephanie Tanner, Andrea Barber as Kimmy Gibbler, Juan Pablo Di Pace as Fernando, Soni Nicole Bringas as Romona, Michael Campion as Jackson, Elias Harger as Max, Dashiell and Fox Messitt Twins as Baby Tommy, Scott Weinger as Steve Hale, John Brotherton as Matt Harmon, and Ashley Liao as Lola.

Our Thoughts

I grew up watching Full House so I was already a huge fan but this season of Fuller House seems even funnier and heart warming than ever. I was given the opportunity to watch the first two episodes in season three and couldn’t wait to watch it with my niece who is a HUGE Fuller House fan.

The very first episode had me going from laughing out loud to getting a bit teary eyed. The opening of the first episode was priceless and even had my youngest laughing and copying the song. What I love the most about this show is the real life portrayal of family life – it is honest and full of the ups and downs of life. Life and family can be ugly and beautiful at the same time. We have our moments of losing our minds and then other hilarious moments that make everything worth it. This is what Fuller House captures – the love, the sadness, the frustration and the humour.

Season Three of Fuller House is definitely going to be a must watch season! Get ready to catch the new season starting September 22nd, 2017.

Fuller House Trailer

Who is your favourite Fuller House character?

Disclosure: I am a #StreamTeam member and receive perks with this affiliation. All opinions expressed are my own.

August 28, 2017

Road Less Traveled DVD and Giveaway

Shout! Factory walks down the Road Less Traveled with country star Lauren Alaina, when her first feature film hits DVD on September 19, 2017, in collaboration with MarVista Entertainment. Alaina shines in the leading role as a country singer dealing with family and career issues as she prepares to get married.

About Road Less Traveled

In Road Less Traveled, country music artist Charlotte comes back home to Tennessee a week before she’s set to get married, hoping to borrow her late mother’s wedding dress from her grandmother. But when she runs into her high school sweetheart, Ray, sparks begin to fly. As emotions with Ray get complicated and her record label continues to pressure her to write a new hit song, Charlotte questions if she ever should have left Tennessee in the first place and if she’s even marrying the right man.

The film is directed by Blair Hayes (Bubble Boy; Great Plains), and produced by Stacia Crawford (Sheltered; Forsaken), the film also stars Charlene Tilton (Dallas; The Love Boat), Jason Burkey (Coffee Shop; October Baby; Chloe), and Donny Boaz (Dallas; My All-American; Forsaken).

About Lauren Alaina

Alaina is fresh off of hitting the #1 spot on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart with her single “Road Less Traveled,” the film’s title track, which she co-wrote with hit makers Meghan Trainor and Jesse Frasure. The track was released on her hit album of the same name in early 2017. An empowering and autobiographical song, “Road Less Traveled” celebrates authenticity and marching to the beat of a different drum. Alaina, an iHeartRadio “On the Verge” artist, who finished as the runner-up to Scotty McCreery on the 2011 season of American Idol, has a second original song in Road Less Traveled, an inspirational love song titled “Holding the Other.”

Our Thoughts

The Road Less Traveled is an amazing movie about the amazing gifts and experiences we find when we force ourselves out of our comfort zones and shoot for the stars. It was a beautiful story of hope, love, faith and perseverance. Not to mention full of humour and some bad (but very funny) choices – including a horse ride with a lit up carriage!

I fell in love with the plot – we have Charlotte, a lovely young woman who wanted nothing more than to be a star. After a bad break up, she moved to the city aiming to be a song writer and singer. Through hard work and sacrifice she broke through and made a huge name for herself. When we meet her, she is about to be married to her new love. She would do anything to be married in her late Mother’s dress but fate (and family) are against her. Charlotte goes on a trip with her girlfriends in an effort to re-claim the dress. This is when it starts getting both serious and funny! We meet Charlotte’s family who range from serious to eccentric, how can you not fall in love with the Aunt who brews her own alcohol at home, that many refer to as poison! The girls start off creating a disaster but end up learning so many important lessons about life and love. I loved that while the movie centres around Charlotte, we also have the backdrop of her friends who are also struggling with relationships and confidence in themselves.

I loved Road Less Traveled. It is just a feel good, happy movie that you can watch with your girlfriends over a glass of wine or cuddled up with your spouse on a Friday night. It is a story of inspiration, hope, love and finding yourself.

The acting and music was fantastic – Alaina has an amazing voice and I loved her music through out the movie, especially the title track, Road Less Traveled.

You can pre-order a copy of this movie on Amazon and ShoutFactory.

Movie Trailer

The Giveaway!

My Canadian and American readers can now enter to win their own DVD copy of Road Less Traveled via the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a copy of this DVD in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

August 28, 2017

P. King Duckling: Seize the Day DVD Giveaway

The adorable P. King Duckling is coming to DVD in a new title called Seize the Day! Get ready to explore, learn and challenge yourself when the DVD hit stores on September 12th, 2017 in the US and Canada.

About P. King Duckling: Seize the Day

P. King is a duck with a dream. Actually, he’s got a lot of dreams and his dreams change every day. One day he might see himself as an astronaut, a magician or a super hero! P. King encourages children to keep dreaming, imagining, and doing. From home-made race cars, to building robots, to re-designing the Eiffel Tower: P. King Duckling is all about arts, crafts, creativity and construction (something all young children love and can relate to!).

P. King is a slightly hapless young duck, and stars in the DVD with his two best friends, Chumpkins (a sarcastic pig) and Wombat (who helps P. King with his schemes even though she knows better)! Together, they work to “seize the day” – which always leads them to wild adventures and hilarious consequences!

Created by the award-winning Josh Selig (Sesame Street, Wonder Pets!) in collaboration with James Chen Gu, General Manager of UYoung Animation, P. King Duckling is a family experience that engages children in problem-solving and creative thinking.

The new preschool comedy series has a learning-focused curriculum created by media specialist, Dr. Christine Ricci (Dora the Explorer), that centers on overcoming challenges.

P. King Duckling: Seize the Day features seven episodes from Season One as well as an activity book. You can pre-order the DVD on Amazon and Shout Factory.

P. King Duckling is more than just an adorable animated show. This special duck teaches children to follow their dream, to never give up and to use their imagination. Creativity, self-expression and overcoming challenges are important yet sometimes difficult skills for children to learn. By using animal characters, humour and adventures, your child will be learning while having fun.

Ready to win a copy of P. King Duckling: Seize the Day!

My Canadian and American readers can now enter to win their own copy via the Rafflecopter form below – good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a copy of this DVD, all opinions expressed are my own.

August 25, 2017

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Fluttershy DVD Giveaway

“Sometimes, you have to do things, even though you might fail.” Fluttershy

Friendships are so important for young children and in this special movie, we learn all about the magic and power of friendships.

About My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Fluttershy

Not every Pegasus pony in Equestria is the same.

Just ask Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. While Rainbow Dash is bold and daring, Fluttershy is quite reserved and caring. But that’s what makes her such a wonderful friend to everyone around her, whether they’re her pony friends, like Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and, yes, even Rainbow Dash , or her non-equestrian friends, like Angel the bunny.

Join in for five adventures that feature everypony’s lovably quiet Pegasus!

Episodes Include:

Green Isn’t Your Colour
Flutter Brutter
Buckball Season
Viva Las Pegasus
Fluttershy Leans In

Bonus Feature: Sing along!

This DVD is set to release on September 12th and is available for pre-order on Amazon, Amazon Canada and Shout Kids.

Video Clip of Viva Las Pegasus

Do you have a Fluttershy in your house? A quiet, calm but loving and always willing to go the extra mile child? They will fall in love with the relatable pony who is always there for her friends whether they be a pony or not. She is the ultimate friend who stays to true to herself which is a great lesson for all children.

My Canadian and American readers can now enter to win their own DVD copy! Enter now via the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a copy of this DVD in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

August 24, 2017

Monkey See, Monkey Do #SmokeFreeMovies

I grew up in a household where my Dad smoked both in the house and outside. To me this was normal, it was part of my every day and it was socially acceptable. One day, my Dad took all three of us kids to the Doctor’s office. As he struggled to get my younger sister out of the car, he asked me to hold his cigarette while he pulled her out – be forgiving with this action, this was the 80s!! Not realizing what I was doing, I started to put the cigarette to my mouth and smoke, thinking how cool I looked and that I was just like Dad. It was the first and only time my Dad got mad at me! He smacked the cigarette out of my mouth, yelling at me about how bad smoking was for my health and that I was still a child. But to me, as a child, I had a hard time understanding: if it was so bad, why did the people who I loved and looked up to smoke? Wasn’t this normal? And it seemed odd coming from my Dad’s mouth that smoking was bad for me, but okay for him. The signals that I was receiving were confusing and contradictory.

Our behaviour is learned from watching others – we learn about norms, how to model correct (and incorrect) behaviour, and what is accepted socially, all from watching our family members, our peers, and those whom we admire and respect. Children and young adults are susceptible to these learnings and may have a harder time deciphering what is healthy and normal and what may be viewed as “cool” and “admirable” is actually unhealthy and detrimental to their health. As a parent, I have learned that it is my job to help guide them as they mature and begin to learn what is normal, what is right and how to make good decisions for their own health and well-being. For my youngest, this may mean restricting what he hears and sees, while for my eldest talking about the ‘why’s’ behind the decisions we are making.

Seeing a person smoking everyday or even casually in a movie or advertisement normalizes smoking. Our most vulnerable population, children and teens, see their idols and celebrities smoking, want to copy their behaviour, to be just like them. They don’t have the skills or the maturity to understand the consequences of smoking and starting so young. My husband started smoking when he was fourteen and struggled to quit at the age of 30 (he has now been smoke free for six years!). One of his greatest regrets, is that he had started so young.

Smoking in movies is now shockingly widespread; and some of the statistics surprised me! 86% of movies with smoking were rated for kids and teens in Ontario. That’s 37% of Ontario youth smokers begin to smoke due to seeing smoking in movies. Scary right? Even scarier is the fact that smoking has become so normal despite the high number of health campaigns showing the risks of smoking. I bet many of you like me, haven’t even noticed this happening during movies.

So how do parents help protect their children when movies aren’t rated to let us know that smoking is in the movie? Public Health Units across Ontario are encouraging parents to sign a petition that will influence movies to be rated as 18A if they feature tobacco at any point throughout the movie This small step helps us to wisely choose our movies for family time, as well as encouraging movie producers to just not include smoking at all in the film.

As parents, we know first-hand how quickly our children pick up habits (how many of you have said one bad word in the car and that’s it, they are like parrots repeating it everywhere) and we would do anything in our ability and power to protect them and keep them healthy. Signing the petition is one small, but positive step that we as parents can take to help ensure our children are not exposed to unhealthy life choices.

If you are curious about movies titles that may or do contain tobacco, visit the Smoke Free Movies page or the Thumbs Up Thumbs Down page for a complete listing of both tobacco free and tobacco containing movies. To keep up-to-date with all the latest information and status of the petition, make sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclosure: I have partnered with YMC and The Smoke-Free Movies Campaign and have received compensation for this post. All opinions in the post are my own.