Warts, yellow teeth and a boy who feels unloved by his father (Nanny McPhee (DVD))

Member Name: angiebabyqueen

Product:	Nanny McPhee (DVD)
Date:	17/02/06 (562 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a good family film, with a good plot

Disadvantages: isn't the most briliant film in the world

Walking down my local Woolworth store, I see that nanny Mcphee has just been released, and having not had the chance to got to t he cinema and watch it recently, I decide to buy this new DVD. So I hope that my standards of this film are met.

*A paragraph on the back of the DVD case explaining the film*

‘in this dark and witty fable, Emma Thompson portrays a person of unsettling appearance and magical powers who enters the household of recently widowed Mr brown (Colin firth) and attempts to tame his seven exceedingly ill behaved children. The children have managed to drive away 17 previous nannies, but as nanny mcphee takes control, they begin to notice that their vile behaviour now leads swiftly and magically to rather startling consequences.’

Now I don’t know about you out there, but doesn’t this sound a little like Mary Poppins? Nasty children, ill behaved, and needs a new nanny that might just stay….yes, certainly sounds like Mary Poppins, but this time, it has more up to date actors and actresses in. especially Colin firth – an ice cream fest all round.

*The story itself*

The story starts with the children driving their last nanny away, and Mr Brown having had enough, and saying no to any more nannies. The children are misunderstood, especially after just losing their mother, and explains this to one of the servants in the kitchen. All the children think is that their dad doesn’t care about them, always making them looked after by nannies and not looking after his own children himself. They just want a little love from their father. But Mr Brown doesn’t see this and later on, nanny mcphee steps in.

The cook already hates the children, and hates them being anywhere near her like the in her space, the kitchen. One day, Mr Brown finds an advertisement in the paper, stating that nanny mcphee can help to tame little children. So naturally, he phones ups and asks her to help. That night, thunder and lightning, with rain pouring down is an ideal setting for nanny mcphee turning up. As the children are messing about and winding the cook up in the kitchen, a figure arrives at the door, and when Mr Brown answers the door, she startles him with her appearance. She goes to the kitchen after having a chat with Mr Brown and finds the children making a mess of the kitchen, with the cook tied up. She tells the children to clean up, but they decide to carry on playing. Nanny Mcphee tries another tactic. Magic. She puts a spell on the children with a tapping of her stick, which makes the children tidy up and exhausts them she only stops the spell when Simon, the eldest boy and eldest out of the children says stop please nanny mcphee. This is only the start of nanny Mcphee’s tactics and powers to tame the children.

The cook is set free, and we see later that she amazed by what nanny mcphee has done to the children, while having a good old chat with the other servant. The children are ready to go to bed, and so Simon decides to tell nanny mcphee his ‘name’ Oliver FARTworthy. The children are trying every trick in the book, as they have used against their other nannies, with nanny mcphee but find it backfiring upon them. Nanny Mcphee tells them straight that if the children themselves don’t work with her, then she will never leave.

The next morning, the children are told that they must be out of bed by nine and dressed ready for lessons at nine that she will teach the children. She wakes the children up at half past eight, giving them thirty minutes to be up and dressed. Simon decides that the children will not be up, and we see once again that Simon is the ring leader of his siblings. The children all paint spots on their face, faking that they have measles, and the baby has a thermometer in its hand, indicating that they have temperatures. Nanny Mcphee comes up, sees that they have been faking it, and so hits her stick on the ground telling the children that they will be in bed for the rest of the day. The spell this time is that the children are unable to get out of bed and become ill themselves for real. Nanny Mcphee brings up some nasty looking measles medicine, and gives a spoonful to Simon first of all. He doesn’t want to swallow it to start with but cannot spit it out. In the end he has to swallow it. The cook, fed up of the children taking advantage of her, is given orders to make the children an army broth, something that the children won’t like, but due to being ill; they will have to eat it anyway. The children start using their manners that evening, saying please and thank you to the servant, and to their father, which makes one of nanny Mcphee’s moles disappear. Could nanny mcphee be getting nicer as well as prettier now? Do the children becoming less boisterous and more polite be having an effect on nanny mcphee as well as the children and the adults around them?

Disaster soon strikes though, when the children’s rich aunt tells Mr Brown that he has to re-marry for the children’s sakes, or she will not fund them again, and that’s all the money that they have been living off. The children’s aunt also takes one of the children with her, but doesn’t realise that due to all the girl’s being too young to be taught by her, Evangeline, the servant girl, as from before, takes the girl’s place instead, to save the children from the aunt’s wickedness. Mr Brown has to re-marry by a certain date, or else the children’s sakes are in danger. Will he re-marry a wicked step-mother, or will he re-marry the love of his life? Will the children ever learn how to be polite and pleasant?

The children require five different lessons in order for her to be happy to leave. Will nanny mcphee be able to tame these children, or will the children tame her?

This was a brilliant film, and I certainly recommend it for families. For older people, it isn’t as fun but it will have you laughing in areas. I think children between the ages of five and ten would thoroughly enjoy this, although a few scenes may have them a little scared in places. Nanny Mcphee is certainly a spooky character and may have really young children having a few nightmares in places. My younger sister, aged almost four, enjoyed this film, and thought it was silly, but in other places, it left her a little jumpy. Overall, I, myself did enjoy the plot of the whole film. It wasn’t the best film I’ve ever seen, but it was still good to watch with a brilliant ending, but I won’t go into any more detail about the film as it might spoil it for you.

*The DVD extra’s*

With the DVD, many extra’s come with the DVD itself. Unfortunately, I don’t usually watch the extra’s, as I don’t find this as exciting as the film, but I will just give you a quick list of what is on the DVD extra side.

-casting the children
-village life
-nanny mcphee makeover – with this one, I will watch it later this evening seeing as it sounds interesting, learning how they made over Emma Thompson
-deleted scenes
-gag reels
-how nanny mcphee came to be
-plus two audio commentaries
*conclusion*

Overall, this film is a good watch and I did enjoy it. it wasn’t the best of films to watch, but when you are around your family, it is a good family film to watch, there isn’t any, or if there is and I haven’t noticed, any foul language within the film, the scenes are appropriate for the whole family, and there was a good plot to the whole film. The acting was good, and I was surprised as to the acting of the younger actors and actresses, as many of them were under the age of ten, and I thought they were brilliant actors and actresses. overall, a eight out of ten for the movie.

Rated: U universal – suitable for all
DVD Video

Available at: Woolworth’s, Tesco, Asda, for around the price of £12- £14, also available at places like HMV or Blockbusters for around the same price.
Or online at places like Amazon from £5.99 used and new, or Amazon price of £12.99

Angiexxx copyright 2006

Summary: A good family film, and suitable for younger children.