Links We Love

Adorable family's Christmas video goes viral and more links we love right now

Editor's note: There's so much that's beautiful, funny, smart and informative on the Internet. Problem is, there's also a bunch of garbage. Here's the best of the web right now:

1. Merry Christmas from the Holderness Family. #XMASJammies is the latest viral video to sweep the nation. It's racked up nearly 1 million views in less than a week, so your card has a lot to live up to this year. To be fair, it is also a shameless plug for family's new video production business — the Green Room. But like any successful viral marketing campaign, the content is so badass that we don't even realize we're watching a commercial.

2. Woman learns invaluable lesson about not picking fights with stray cats. Picking a fight with a small defenseless animal who's stuck out in the cold to begin with is morally repugnant. Good thing this stray cat wasn't defenseless. A festively dressed woman gets more than she bargained for after kicking snow at a kitty.

3. The Colbert Report kicks off its Week of Christmas Carols. We're so accustomed to Stephen Colbert playing the parody card that this rendition of Silver Bells caught us by surprise. There's no messing around here, just an awe-inspiring performance by the National and Gregg Allman.

4. Chicago Bulls player hits half-court buzzer-beater, team still loses by a point. We here in Dallas know a thing or two about watching games slip out of our hands as time expires. Mike Dunleavy of the Chicago Bulls nearly pulled off a last-second win but came up short. Dunleavy was so excited about sinking the improbable bucket that he forgot half-court shots aren't worth four points.

5. President Obama wishes Washington really was like House of Cards. At a meeting with technology leaders, President Barack Obama asked if Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had brought an advance copy of House of Cards. “I wish things were that ruthlessly efficient,” Obama said. “It’s true. It’s like Kevin Spacey, man this guy’s getting a lot of stuff done.” All the season two episodes of the political drama will be released February 14.

The Holderness family somehow made Christmas cards look cool while wearing matching pajamas.

Movie Review

The Magic Faraway Tree is a whimsical family lark that fails to take root

Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Claire Foy, Phoenix Laroche, and Billie Gadson in The Magic Faraway Tree

Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Claire Foy, Phoenix Laroche, and Billie Gadson in The Magic Faraway Tree.

With kids and families always on the hunt for entertainment, it’s typically a safe bet for a movie studio to offer up something new, even if it is a film based on an old property. The Magic Faraway Tree, based on a series of books that started in the 1930s, is a very old property, one that its filmmakers have tried to liven up with a few stars, a lot of whimsy, and a boatload of CGI.

The Thompson family, led by stay-at-home dad Tim (Andrew Garfield) and breadwinner mom Polly (Claire Foy), are forced to move to a rundown country home when Polly gets laid off. The kids - Joe (Phoenix Laroche), Fran (Billie Gadson), and Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) - are used to the perks of city life like wifi and electricity, and each of them rebels in their own way to their new lot in life.

Fran, enticed by a fairy named Silky (Nicola Coughlan), is the first to venture out of the house, making her way to a magic tree that transports her to a world full of strange characters like Moonface (Nonso Anozie), Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), Dame Washalot (Jessica Gunning), and more. Her adventures there not only broaden the world she thought she knew, but may be the key to helping her ailing family.

Directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2, Wonka), the film is a pleasant enough lark, but it fails to fully capture the imagination. The five-member family has a lot going on, from an initially-mute Fran to a domestic situation that raises more questions than it answers. The film tries to incorporate an anti-technology message through Tim’s hatred of a smart refrigerator (voiced by Judi Dench!) and the kids' addictions to devices, but it’s quickly shed in favor of other options.

Once Fran makes it to the Magic Faraway Tree, there’s a nice shift in the storytelling, but it’s unclear what the ultimate goal is. It’s a good idea to have Fran, the youngest of the children, convince her older, more cynical siblings about the virtues of the magic world, but the conflict in the real world doesn’t seem to rise to the level needed for the escape the tree provides.

There also seems to be a missing link in the storytelling for viewers to understand the importance of the fantastical characters. The visuals of seeing Moonface and his crescent moon-shaped hair, a man with a suit full of banging pots, and more are fun for a while, but not enough to carry the whole film. A last-minute revelation feels like it was something that should have been disclosed much earlier to help strengthen the emotions of the story.

A two-time Oscar nominee, Garfield is making his first foray into family movies (if you don’t count playing Spider-Man), and while he does a good job, he doesn’t make the best fit for the semi-goofy role. The same goes for the Emmy-winning Foy, who isn’t given much of anything to do. The movie puts the story on the shoulders of the three child actors, and while each of them acquit themselves well, none of them are so outstanding as to be noteworthy.

With nearly 90-year-old source material, The Magic Faraway Tree needed to be something truly special to stand out in the 21st century movie world. Unfortunately, it features a mostly forgettable story that features some fun visuals, a couple of cute kids, and not much else.

---

The Magic Faraway Tree is now playing in theaters.

Loading...