I'm livid!

As my adoring Facebook followers know, my sons and I have been reading the book "The Borrowers."

For the last two months we have read a few chapters each week. We've had nights where they beg and beg for the next chapter and morning drives to school where we all ponder and suggest what might happen in the next chapter. The characters in the book have felt like a part of our family.

This week we finally finished the book (it has quite the dramatic ending!) and I carefully read the reviews and inquired with friends about the movie that had just come out, "The Mysterious World of Arrietty" that was based on the book "The Borrowers."

Reviewers raved. It was beautiful and masterful. Families that had started reading the book or read the book when they were young noted how it was a great representation. My sister in Montana said it was slow moving. Overall it seemed worth our time and money to check it out. I even read the behind the scenes guide about how it was made, I was more than a little excited and yes my expectations were huge.

Today was the big day.

We spent the afternoon discussing the scenes we were most excited to see and my boys were giddy. This was their first experience of reading a book and then seeing it turned into a movie.

It was awful.

I hate it! I hate it! I hate it! (feel free to picture me jumping up and down screaming as I say this, that's how I felt when I thought it)

I spent the movie skulking lower and lower in my chair wishing for the monstrosity to be over. I muttered under my breath about my hatred and disdain. I was audibly shocked about how outrageously off the entire storyline was from the original. I cringed at the inconsistencies and I barely managed to stay awake.

1 hour and 35 minutes felt like at least 3 hours.

We left and I asked my boys what they thought. Each one responded, "good." I then said I hated it and asked what they liked. They couldnt think of anything. They kept pointing out how it was all so different. My five year old explained that it was hard to keep his eyes open. My 7 year olds just didnt understand why they didnt know the right names for the characters or the order the story was supposed to follow. As we talked they got more and more mad and I could tell they felt cheated.

As well they should.

This movie took the lively spirit and fascinating fairy tale that is the borrowers and turned it into a morose look at a young boys mortality and the fatality of a group like the borrowers. The energetic flow of the story was replaced with elevator music that was stuck on repeat and a lot of scenes with no talking.

In it's own way the movie had a few memorable moments. But it was nothing like the book. AT ALL.

To top it all off, the movie was obviously scratched and it looked like it was raining in every single scene of the movie. In the one scene where there was actual rain we couldnt see it due to our distorted view. My sons wanted to see this movie so much, and I was so sure that it would get better, that I didnt complain until afterwards. Apparently that was my mistake.

I waited 10 minutes until they could find the manager for me and explained that I feel they should post a notice if they are going to show a movie that is that badly damaged. It is a movie noted for cinematic beauty and japanese anime artwork and expected to win awards based on this. I'll never know since the movie I saw was just filled with rain.

The manager then explained to me that the movie came to them previewed and there was nothing he could do because Disney is the hardest company to get a reprint from (indicating he knew there was a problem).

I then reiterated that in the past I have known them to post signs noting if a film has a scratch etc... so that a film goer can make in informed decision on whether they want to spend their money on a film of lower quality.

He then explained to me that if people dont like a movie they usually walk out and that he didnt know it was scratched because he hadnt had any complaints (indicating he didnt know there was a problem).

I explained that this was why I was complaining so that he could fix it in case no one else had complained.

He then stared at me blankly.

I finally got tired of the staring contest and turned heel and left with my 3 sons in tow.

When we got to the car my oldest said, "you should have asked for your money back." He is sooooooooo right.

We all vented about how frustrating the whole situation was on the way home (meaning I ranted and raved and my boys agreed with me, possibly out of fear.) Once we got home my middle child said, "we should write a letter to disney in case they dont know that its written wrong and not really about the borrowers book."

So tomorrow that's what we're doing.

We'll be up early working on the art of the complaint letter and googling where to send it to. Then we might just go by the theatre to make sure they put up a sign warning other patrons of the damaged film.

If I dont see that sign I may go loco on whatever theatre employee I find.

I'm not sure why it matters so much, but it does. Thank you Queen Kaahumanu Theatres and Disney, you managed to ruin an awesome day. We'll get you back tomorrow (I am saying this out loud with my nastiest face possible.)

On a side note: Today was awesome, we spent the morning at a great choir practice singing disney songs that my sons were awesome at and then came home and sang some more and I started the most amazing book. Plus we had cinnamon rolls.

See? Awesome. Until "the movie" happened :(