Movie Review: Arthur and the Invisibles.

Arthur and the Invisibles.

A movie review by Boy, age 11.

Arthur was the name of the main character and he was staying with his Grandmother in her big old country house and land in the country. One day some angry city people came to the house, said the Grandmother had to sign the documents to pay her house loan in full or the house would go and the land used to build apartments. Grandma was poor because Grandpa had disappeared and there was no one to work and pay bills. So, Arthur set out to find the Invisibles that had been mentioned in his Grandpa’s old journals. The Invisibles are tiny little people who are the size of a tooth and live in the earth beneath Arthur’s grandparent’s house and land.

When Arthur found the Invisibles they asked him on a mission to help them to find the evil “M” and get rid of him. Arthur wanted to help the Invisibles but what Arthur was really wanting was to find his lost Grandpa and a pile of hidden rubies that Grandpa had set out to find before he disappeared. The rubies belonged to Grandpa. They were given to him by an African tribe of tall people, friends of the Invisibles. Grandpa had hidden them by burying them on his land, but could not remember where. Three years ago Grandpa had gone looking for the rubies so that he could pay for the house and stop the bank from making trouble all the time. Grandpa never came back.

Arthur found the Rubies and his Grandpa and tried to get Grandpa, Rubies and a Princess and Prince of the Invisible tribe back to the safe and good seven Kingdoms. They got back to the Invisibles land with savage water chasing them because the evil “M” knew that the Invisibles were afraid of water, could not swim and would drown. Evil “M’s: plan was to drown them all.

Arthur made it to the safe city before the water got in. The Invisibles, Arthur and Grandpa closed the solid protection gates just in time. Then it was time for Arthur and Grandpa to go back to real life. When Arthur got back above ground with his Grandpa, he knew where to dig in the garden to find the bowl of hidden rubies. He flooded the rubies to the surface and Grandpa paid the man from the bank that was there to repossess the house. One single ruby stopped their house and land being repossessed and turned into apartment blocks.

This movie is suitable for kids. It is a family movie. There is not really any violence in it. The music was good. The movie starts and ends with real actors but the Invisibles and all scenes of Grandpa and Arthur under the ground are animated.

I would go and see this movie again. I rate this movie five out of ten.

Starfish are Echinoderms

In response to his Grandmother's questions about starfish, Boy has prepared the following interesting facts about starfish:

* Sea Stars, Sea urchins, Sea Cucumbers and Crinoids (feathering looking creatures with many more than 5 arms) are called Echinoderms (scientific name).

* Sea stars (starfish) don’t send their food to their stomachs. They send their stomachs to their food. Their insides come out and cover over their food to digest it.

* Starfish come in all sorts of bright and pale colours: red, blue, yellow, orange and pink. Some starfish are just the one colour and some have spots and blobs of different colours.

* If a starfish gets a broken arm, its arm will grow back. The broken off piece of arm can also grow into a starfish.

* Starfish are known as the vacuum cleaners of the ocean. They live on the bottom of the ocean floor and vacuum it clean. Many starfish means a good clean carpet. I asked the man at the Aquarium if I could have two to keep in my bedroom.

* A Starfish mouth is on their under belly and they have an eye on the end of each of their fingers.

* Sea Cucumbers are cool. If you cut a Sea Cucumber in halves, you would see the shape of a star. Some people eat Sea Cucumbers. In Asia the people love them.

* Sea Cucumbers filter the food from the sand. They suck sand and food in one end and they squirt clean sand out the other.

Related article that started us on our current marine life learning:

2007 Year of the Home School Adventure

Some very interesting Boy information about Turtles: Turtle Facts.

Turtle Facts.

What I learnt about Turtles

during my recent visit to Reef HQ Aquarium.
By Boy, age 11

Turtles can grow to be very big and live for approximately 150 years.

There are seven different types of Turtle species. The Green Turtle is the largest turtle species and baby green Turtles are white. The Great Barrier Reef houses six species of Turtles and all of them are threatened.

Turtles do not lay eggs until they are between 30 and 50 years old and you do not know if a Turtle is male or female until it lays eggs.

Turtles lay their eggs on land and the hatched Turtles have to find their own way to the ocean (Pic 2 and 3 are of a suspected Turtle nest spot on the Strand at Townsville). Birds and other animals eat most of the hatched Turtles and only one out of a thousand survive.

Turtles breathe air and have to surface to take breaths. They can hold their breath for up to approximately 90 minutes if they are sleeping or resting.

Turtles are protected. There are many Turtles on the Great Barrier Reef but there used to be many more. Their numbers are getting smaller every year. Destroying the reef by throwing rubbish into the water or not looking after the environment is killing our Turtle population.

Because our environment is changing, we do not know what the future effect on Turtles is going to be. Their long life span has made it hard to do long studies on Turtles.

Note from Boy’s mother. The Reef HQ Aquarium web site has a range of teaching units that home schoolers can down load. Although the units are designed specifically for Reef HQ programs run at the Aquarium, the information, activity suggestions, curriculum links and outcomes are an invaluable help for those doing a unit on marine life study.

Related blog about our trip to the Aquarium: 2007 Year of the Home School Adventure.