From February 2-10, 2024, Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum proudly hosts their 19th Annual Children’s Film Festival. Featuring 190 films in total, consisting of five features, and dozens of short films from around the world and representing a variety of movie genres, the festival also has activities and events lined up to thrill attendees of all ages.

WALL-E

Should I See It had a chance to preview the five features being shown during the festival, including a chance to revisit the Disney/Pixar 2008 Oscar-winning classic WALL-E. Opening the festival with a breathtaking IMAX presentation at the Pacific Science Center on Friday, February 2, WALL-E plays just as effectively now in 2024, as it did back in 2008.

Andrew Stanton’s film (★★★★★) is a visual masterpiece, an eerily prescient look at a future world we move closer to each and every day. The titular main character, a waste-collecting robot works on the remains of 29th century Earth, gathering treasures and cleaning up a planet left destroyed by mankind’s disregard for taking care of their home.

Bits of nostalgia punctuate WALL-E’s treasures he collects. The arrival of EVE, a visiting robot whose appearance comes as a surprise to WALL-E, sparks a connection that our kindly robot was not properly programmed for. Undeniably charming, sweet-tempered, and also very honest, blunt and direct in its views on a world consuming itself with instant gratification, laziness, and reliance on others, WALL-E rubbed some people the wrong way when it was first released. I remember hearing how people found it smug and arrogant. One person even went on a rant to me about how anti-American the film was.

Some 16 years later, the movie is unnervingly on track. And yet, even if the messages fly over the heads of younger viewers, we have two main characters of depth, caught up in computer-generated emotional entanglement, both longing for something more. Even through the perspective of robots, those themes speak to everyone watching. As part of an incredible run of success Pixar was having in 2008, the sound, vivid colors, and the expansive scope of the animation is stunning in this IMAX presentation.

HEADSPACE

That’s what makes Headspace (★★1/2) a movie that you feel somewhat sorry for. This animated feature from South Africa, culled together with a reported $2 million budget, was definitely a labor of love for directors Paul Meyer and Gerhard Painter. This science-fiction comedy/adventure follows micro-sized aliens who accidentally embed themselves within the brain of 16-year-old Norman.

As Norman comes to terms with his “guests,” an evil alien, Zolthard, seeks to eliminate the good aliens and execute a plan of world domination. Set in high school, there are plenty of sophomoric jokes which creep into the film and will make younger viewers laugh, while older viewers might grow weary. The film’s animated style looks not quite ready for the big screen, no doubt constrained by the budget. Yet, even if the film didn’t quite hold together for me personally, you have to acknowledge there is a lot of energy within the storytelling and engaging voiceover work by young actor Bonko Kohza as Norman. Witty back-and-forth dialogue with his friends eventually gives way to sci-fi action. And that’s where Headspace, originally called I Swallowed an Alien, loses its luster.

HOMESCHOOLED

As Headspace falters the longer it goes, the opposite is true for Homeschooled (★★★1/2), a winning documentary that shares its conceit right up front… the film’s production crew are arranging to throw a prom for homeschooled high school students.

Director Niki Koss focuses on six specific students - a pair of sisters, a pair of brothers, and two individuals, one who dates one of the sisters and another student of color. Initially, the movie seems to be a super bubbly, light-hearted youthful romp with peppy music and a modern, teen-friendly vibe. If you hang with Homeschooled, you start to see something different emerge. As we learn more about the students, we meet parents and begin to develop deeper understanding as to their respective stories.

Cheyanne, for examples, shares stories of being bullied as early as the second grade, and explains the racism she has experienced as a Black student prior to becoming homeschooled. Seamus and Sean are brothers, with Sean diagnosed with autism and Seamus, described as happy-go-lucky and an advocate for vulnerable and bullied students, tells a story that one day, he snapped, found a gun in his mother’s room, loaded the magazine and shot himself in the chest. 

That he survived is a blessing. And to hear the stories from the parents which led to the decision to homeschool their children, it becomes hard to argue against that decision being best for them.

What Homeschooled vividly shows us is that you truly never know what someone is going through. And Koss not only builds trust with us as viewers, she builds trust with her subjects. Strengthening in emotion and power the longer it goes, I wish the film was longer than its scant 71 minute running time. There is so much more left to explore and I didn’t want the film to end.

MOUNTAIN BOY

Adapted from the 2017 book, “The Boy Who Knew Mountains,” Zainab Sheehan’s Mountain Boy (★★★★) is an impressive and moving adventure from the United Arab Emirates. Suhail, a young boy, is autistic and cast out by his father because of his neurodivergence. With his dog Barakah, he decides to venture to Abu Dhabi in the hopes of finding his deceased mother’s family and finding people who will truly love him for who he is.    

The dramatic beats of Mountain Boy are affecting and Sheehan’s film is beautifully shot by cinematographer Denson Baker. A powerful score by Suad Bushnaq brings appropriate emotion, as does a tender, raw, and authentic performance by Naser Saleh as Suhail. He is a true discovery. 

While the film may seem like something you have seen before, Mountain Boy continues to find ways to surprise and enthrall and make you smile, as tears begin to fall from your eyes. Here’s hoping Sheehan’s film finds distribution and an audience - it deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.

THE INVENTOR

The Closing Night film for the festival this year is 2023’s The Inventor (★★★), a film taking us into a stop-motion animation environment where Leonardo da Vinci (Stephen Fry) continues to find inspiration in the world around him as he reaches an advanced age. Grappling with the reality that he is in the final years of his life, the themes explored by writer/director Jim Capobianco are ambitious for a children’s movie. Life after death, scientific theory versus theological beliefs, and lots of references to the famous artist’s work may feel impressive and substantial to some, but they exist within a movie that has a kid-friendly score and visual appeal, similar to the beloved Rankin and Bass holiday specials we watch year after year.

Though it is hard to find an appropriate age for The Inventor, the artistry it exhibits and the curiosity it creates make it worth a look. Themes may fly over your child’s heads, or the film may open up a line of question-and-answer you may not quite be ready for, but The Inventor is first and foremost a film of substance, meticulously crafted and painstakingly brought to life.

The 19th Annual Northwest Film Forum Children’s Film Festival also has more than 190 short films screening over the course of the festival’s eight days. For more information on the festival, dates and times, how to purchase tickets to in-person screenings, including WALL-E in IMAX, and the ways you can view a large number of the short films and features in this year’s program, at home and on a device of your choosing, visit the homepage for the festival here:

https://nwfilmforum.org/festivals/childrens-film-festival-seattle-2024-hybrid/.

All images provided courtesy of Northwest Film Forum and their film studio partners.