I’ve made a promise to myself that I don’t do toys when I visit my nieces and nephews, I do experiences. So on my visit to see some family last week, I took my seven-year-old nephew to see The Last Mimzy. To be honest, I didn’t do much research other than notice how both our eyes grew after seeing the trailer on TV. We were both captivated by the science fiction feel to the film and I envisioned something along the lines of my favorite Narnia flick from two years ago. What came through the reel was much different.

I was immediately taken by the premise that unfolded early on in the film, which to quote a song from my own youth, that “the children are the future.” The Last Mimzy sets this tone early on with its two main characters, big brother, Noah Wilder, and little sister, Emma. While Dad (Timothy Hutton) slaves away at the office and Mom (Joely Richardson) pleads with him to come home early from work while she crisscrosses their modern Queen Anne neighborhood home on her Bluetooth, big brother Noah boards the Seattle public bus while the camera focuses in on the fact that every person on the bus is either on their PDA, cell phone, laptop, or listening to their iPod. It’s exactly how I feel when I walk into a modern-day coffeehouse and wonder where the conversation went. So much so that after watching this movie, I took it upon myself to talk to a man in a wheelchair the whole way home on the bus last night. Big brother Noah complains about his disinterest in school; the next day, we find out that the future (in the form of a bunny rabbit with living cells and other magical toys) is in his (and his little sister’s) hands.

With the popularity of concepts that come from movies like The Secret, I was impressed to find that New Line was ready to broach this idea with children. The environment, global warming, and technology will be the hot topic issues for our children as they continue to grow. The Last Mimzy was an introduction into those topics for my seven-year-old nephew to explore, and while I had hoped the movie would have explored the science fiction and fantasy themes more, I appreciated the focus of the film to help educate our future generations. I could have done without the Homeland Insecurity angle, as it just took away from the inspiration that we were beginning to feel as we ran around with the kids, but maybe that’s what happens when you leave the adults behind the camera instead of putting the camera into the kids’ hands.