to see Disney's Moana

On Saturday I saw a movie called Moana thanks to Auntie Kerry and Uncle Zach who bought my ticket for my 6th birthday (they also bought me the novel and the CD). I went with Auntie Kerry, Uncle Zach, Mommy, Daddy and Margot. Moana is the new Disney movie from the creators of Zootopia and Frozen with music by Lin Manuel Miranda (who wrote my favorite musical Hamilton), Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina.

The story is about a girl named Moana (Auli'i Cravahlho) who lives on her island taking care of her people, and she really loves the water, but her father, Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison), who is the king of the island, would not let her go out on the water because it is not safe and no one goes beyond the reef. And then her friend the water, wanted her to go because the water chose Moana to go out and find Maui (Dwayne Johnson).

Maui is the semi mini demi-god who pulled up the islands from the sea so the water wouldn't rush it away but he also stole the heart of Moana's island. It was Gramma Tala (Rachel House) who showed Moana the boats that were hidden that told Moana that her people were voyagers. And gramma Tala begged Moana to go find Maui and bring him to the island to restore the heart.  And then she journeys out on her own and when she finds Maui they go try to fight the monsters from stealing the heart and keeping it forever but they face the monsters and stop them from taking the heart of Moana's island. The first monster they have to defeat is Kakamora, the coconut monsters and then the second monster is Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement), the giant crab monster who is a scorpion, and the third monster is Ta-kā, the queen of earth and fire.

I read the book all by myself before I saw the movie and listened to the music on the CD before I saw the movie.  When I read the book my imagination pictured the evil character Ta-kā as much smaller who could transform into a bigger human size but in the movie she was so so so much bigger than I could have imagined. I also didn't imagine a big mountain at the entrance to the realm of monsters, I was just picturing just a cave door with a hole in the bottom.

The background music was pretty scary. And the songs were amazing. My favorite songs were "Where You Are" (sung by Christopher Jackson who played George Washington in Hamilton), "How far I'll go",  "We know the Way", "How far I'll go (reprise)", "You're Welcome", "Shiny", "I am Moana",  "Know who you are" and "We know the way (Finale).

 I love the songs with drums in them because the drum is one of my favorite musical instruments. I think the most powerful song was called "Know who you are" because when she talks to Ta-Kā she wasn't afraid because she realized that Ta-kā was really her island hurting because she saw the spiral of her island on Ta-kā's heart.

The story teaches us to be brave and to not be afraid of bad things (evil) because there is no such thing as bad people only people who are hurting who need help. Moana sees through the evil of Ta-kā and she decides to bravely go through the water to show Ta-kā who she really is and to find her goodness. Instead of just finding Maui she chooses to face her fear and find goodness and get her island back on her own.

My favorite part was when Moana finds HeiHei (Moana's silly pet chicken) on her boat with a coconut on his head and she takes the coconut off and he looks around and all he sees is water and he screams every time. And my other favorite part was when HeiHei sticks one blow dart in Maui's butt cheeks and Maui says "Seriously? Blow dart in my butt cheek." That was sooo funny. I also loved the part where the Kakamora blew a blow dart in their chief's arm and he fell down.

Everybody in this whole wide world should see this movie because it would make them now know how to not be afraid of anything.

I give this movie 200 points because it shows powerfulness on people who are afraid of things.

Love,
Gunnar

THE END.

to see "That's Weird Grandma"

Yesterday me and mommy and auntie Kerry went to see a play called "That's Weird Grandma" by the Barrel of Monkeys. This was my second time seeing the show but it was different because it didn't have the same stories, that's because the show is different every week. Barrel of Monkeys is a theatre company that does classes with kids and helps them write their own plays and stories and then the grown-ups (Barrel of Monkeys actors) perform some of the plays every week.

The stories this week were: Once Upon a Princess, The Game, My Holiday (Ice Cream Candy Sugar rush day!!!!!) the best Holiday Event, The Dumb Chicken, The Crazy Old People,  Love in Heaven, Where do People Come from?, The Day I drive a car, The Kid with the Donut Suite, UNTITLED (Cross the border), Running in the Snow, The Worst Zoo, The Football Player, Zyra, Day in the Life of Bacon, Buffalo Joe's Argument, and A Dinosaur that Came to Life.

My favorite stories were "The Worst Zoo" and "Where do People Come From?" I loved "Where do People Come From?" because the story was about a girl who didn't know where people came from so she asked her mom and her mom was giving her silly answers because she didn't know either so she said things like..."They come from cats hairballs, They come from chocolate and vanilla, The people come from Money, and People come from flowers" Every time the mom said a different reason where people came from a baby came out but he was a grown-up wearing a bib hat and a diaper and he'd say "MAMA! MAMA!" and it was soooooo funny!!!  "The Worst Zoo" was so funny because there was a girl who didn't like the zoo because there was hay everywhere and the animals are out of their cages which is so silly because every zoo has hay, that's what animals eat and if the animals were in cages you couldn't see them! I also liked the Dumb Chicken because the chicken died but he didn't fall down he was drowning in the toilet and praying in the toilet then he died, died, died! And it was so silly because they put a halo on his head and he looked silly. I also liked the game one because the dog was like "Hide! Hide! Hide! Flora! Hide" and Flora couldn't hide because she was a flower stuck in the ground!!

I think this play was good because it had funny stories. People who like funny things would like this show, if you like laughing this is the show for you. I think my friend Jo likes this show because I saw it with her before, but she should come back because the stories are different. I also think Jordan would like it.

I give this play 12 points because I liked it the Most!

Love,
Gunnar

The End.

Gunnar's Point System:
12 points: I LOVED IT THE MOST!
10 points: I loved it a LOT
  3 points: I liked some and didn't like some
  1 point:   I only liked a little
  0 points: I didn't like it at all

To Dragons Love Tacos at Emerald City Theatre

10 POINTS!!!

Today I went with Mommy, Daddy, Margot, Auntie Kerry, Uncle Zach, Wesley, Jordan and Jo to see a play called "Dragons Love Tacos" at Emerald City Theatre, Co-directed with Chicago Repertory Ballet (there was lots of dancing) Adapted by Ernie Nolan, and directed by Morgan Ashley Madison. We went there with everybody because it was my birthday party, because I turned 5 years old on Sunday! I wanted to see this play because I have the book by Adam Rubin and Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri and I really like it.

When I walked in the theatre I saw a little house. The roof was red it was made out of bricks. The curtain behind the house was purple. The curtains covering the windows were blue. The bench was red. The chimney was red. There was a big tv in the middle that was black. There was a fence next to the house that was brown. And under a window there were pink flowers in a box.

The play didn't start the way I expected. When it started the boy (Liam Dahlborn) and his dog (Erik Streibig) were doing homework. And then the boys mom left and they were sad, they tried to play fetch but then there was lightening so it was raining so they couldn't go outside. They came back inside to play fetch. They did that for a while but they got bored so they watched tv. They watched silly things like when the man was trying to kiss the girl she was like "no! no!" But then a man (Andrew Goetten) was on tv and he was telling them about dragons and then suddenly he came out of the tv to tell them all about what dragons could do.

And the dragons came to the house by coming out of the hallway. There were four dragons, the Red Dragon (Christina Chen), the Yellow Dragon (Lucy Zukaitis), the Blue Dragon (Jon Martinez) and the White Dragon (Michelle Reid). The Dragons don't know how to talk but they did know how to dance and they did a LLLLLLL-AAAAAHHHHHHT (a lot) of dancing! The Red dragon was my favorite because Red is my favorite color, she had little wings. The yellow dragon had a tail and no wings, the blue dragon had claws and the white dragon had spikes. When the tacos came out they had a taco party, because dragons like parties and they like tacos.

My favorite part was when they were breathing fire and the white dragon took off a piece of the house! The one part I didn't like was the Thunder because it was too loud.

I liked the show a lot, 10 points. My friends like this show. I think Jaspar should see this show because he never saw it before. Girls and Boys who like dancing would like this show because there is lots of dancing.

The END.  

Love, Gunnar. 

To see "The Nutcracker" at the House Theatre of Chicago

Last night I went to a play called "The Nutcracker." My ticket looked like a bell and it was an ornament for our Christmas tree.  In the theatre it looked like a Christmas tree. When I walked in the theatre Hugo (Andrew Lund) was talking to me and told me and mommy to sit in the black seats because they were the best seats in the theatre.  The stage had a Christmas tree in the middle of the theater. There were presents under the tree and five white window doors and I saw pictures hanging on the walls. The pictures were of the whole family: Mom and Dad, Clara and her brother Fritz.

At the beginning of the play the officer came and told everyone that Fritz had died. And everyone was very sad because when they saw the flag and the sword they took it and then they were crying and they took the Christmas tree away. And I saw them put the Christmas tree behind me off the stage.  Then I think it was another year when Drosselmyer (James Houton) came back for the party but they didn't have a Christmas party. The mommy  (Marika Mashburn) and daddy (Abu Ansari) didn't want to have a party because they were still sad because Fritz died. But Clara (Jaclyn Hennell) was sad that there wasn't a party.  And then Drosselmyer gave Clara the nutcracker that looked like Fritz.  And then Fritz (Desmond Gray) came ALIVE to help Clara and her family celebrate Christmas and get the RATS!

I really loved the part when Chris Matthews played the monkey and they were in line and he was screaming and going "Ahh Ahh Ahh Ahh!!!!!" and everyone else was saying "Shhhh! Shhhh! Shhhh! Shhh!" That part was really funny! And  when the rats were done singing their song The Really Quite Scary Rat (Houton) screamed HI!!!! And that was funny. And I really loved playing in snow on the stage after the first act.

There was one really scary part with really really really big Rats and when they looked at mommy and me I thought I might be scared but then I thought "you don't want to eat me because I'm not in the play!" And then it was good. When the Rat king was coming the doors and the pictures and the walls broke apart and I don't know why they were still like that at the very end of the play. I wanted them to get fixed again.

I think kids like my friend Jo should go see this play because its fun to see scary things sometimes. I think Jordan and Jaspar might like this play because they are excited about Christmas just like me, and this play has a lot of Christmas in it.  Don't go to this show if you get scared of things because there are scary parts.

-Love Gunnar

To See "New Kid"

Last night I went to a play called "New Kid" it was at a theatre in Chicago at mommy's school (North Park University).  It was about a New Kid named Nick (Seanna Wong), she came from a land called Homeland to the United States and she brought her favorite bowl.

When she moved she went to school. She met some girls at school. One girl was not nice (Mog- played by Annemarie Giordano). One girl was nice (Mencha- played by Christiane Schaldemose). One girl was not nice because Nick told one of the girls to take a little bite of her food and when she didn't like it, she fell down. And then the not nice girl played zombie after she fell down and she took Nick's bowl and she dropped it down the stairs and it broke. And that was a school fight. And Nick was sad.

Then a little later the not nice girl came and wrote on the window. It said "Sgak" which is a mean word. And then the not nice girl brought her bat to school there was another school fight later. And the bad girl hurt Mencha but Mencha didn't let the bad girl play or hurt Nick. Mencha kept throwing the ball to Nick.

And then Nick and Mencha (the nice girl) played ball. And at the end of the play they played ball again.

I liked when the bad girl wrote on the window because you're not supposed to write on the windows, sometimes that's silly. I liked it when they wore Superman and Green Lantern shirts. I also liked the part when Mencha ate the pudding because she at it way too fast and it was SOOO Green!

This play is saying you should be nice to everybody.

I think my friends Jordan, Jo and Jaspar would like "The New Kid" And that's all. That's all I have to say. The End.

-Love Gunnar