The capsule review from the kid-size movie critic gave thumbs up to ”the movie where the girl looked like she was drowning, but her brother just laughed at those worried adults, and said `Oh, that`s just my sister.` ”
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Such authentic notes on sibling sentiments won praise from the 10-year-old for ”Tadpole and the Whale,” one of the stellar offerings for kids of all ages at the 1988 edition of the Chicago International Festival of Children`s Films, sponsored by Facets Multimedia, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave.
The fifth annual festival opened Friday with a reception and the showing of ”The Children of Bullerby Village,” directed by Swede Lasse Hallstrom
(better known to adults for his award-winning ”My Life As A Dog”) and based on the stories of Astrid Lindgren, author of ”Pippi Longstocking.”
Hallstrom is fast becoming a hot Hollywood property, according to Susan Delson, the New York filmmaker who is coordinator of the Chicago festival, but the kids attending the features at will care not at all.
They will be more concerned with seeing some of their favorite story characters like the irascible mouse in ”Runaway Ralph,” from the Beverly Cleary book, as well as ”Frog and Toad” and a special sneak preview of a new series based on Cleary`s enormously popular ”Ramona” series.
Selected by a panel of adults and 11 child judges, the festival offers a delightful array of features, full-length and short, from around the globe. For dunderheaded adults who have never retained the principals of such machinery as locomotives and automobiles, for example, the entertaining 9-minute ”Step by Step” from Czechoslovakia is thoroughly educational (but don`t tell the kids!).
Oh, about the floating body in ”Tadpole”: As is so often true in real life, and so plainly evident to the average kid though not to hopelessly ignorant adults, the sister is not drowning but is only having fun in the water.
The runs through next Sunday. Weekend matinees are scheduled for 10 a.m., noon and 2 and 4 p.m. Admission is $2.50 for children and adults. Schedules are available at schools, libraries and stores around Chicago, or by calling 281-9075.