Paper Planes - Träumen Emus vom Fliegen?

Watching a typical "Afternoon Session" in "Afternoon Session", holidays, very cute and friendly, and there really are paper airplane competitions (sponsored by Red Bull, which "gives you wings"), although here it is merely a fiction, it's very captivating and attractive...

Paper Planes is a great movie for all ages really. I as an adult really liked it. The cast is quite great and the children in the movie are completely not obnoxious. The lead of the movie (Ed Oxenbould, who happened to be at the movie's premier at TIFF along with other cast members) was terrific.

The story moves at a very good pace so you don't zone out. The story itself is not very complex which is a bonus point. Western Australia is captured nicely here, you really get a feel for what life there is like.

This movie could have been a major tearjerker but I'm glad there are strong elements of humour and lightheartedness. It feels 'real' despite being a movie about incredible paper planes! I definitely recommend this movie.

Paper planes, Australian landscapes and a cheeky grandpa, sounds like fun.

Popcorn and a large drink... roll the film... An Australian film about a paper planes contest? Cool, an original concept, but will the story get any lift or will it take a nose dive?

Kid's Korner rating: 3 stars Parent's Rating: 3.5 stars

One of the biggest challenges of teaching 12 year old students is keeping them interested and engaged. A similar challenge for the director of a children's film targeted at a modern audience. Dylan (Ed Oxenbould) comes into a class that is full of classmates who are focused on the latest technology and do not interact with one another. When his teacher asks for all of their phones and devices, then introduces a student teacher who challenges the class to fly paper planes. There is a tenuous moment of consideration by the class, but they take up the challenge with enthusiasm and a competitive spirit. After winning the class challenge, Dylan gets ready for the next levels of competition in the region and around the country. He is encouraged by his friends and teacher to learn about effective flying of paper planes and how to win the future competitions. Dylan must work through the recent loss of his mother and the inevitable mourning of his father (Sam Worthington). As the multiple layers of this statonary aviation tale unfold, the competitions are merely a backdrop to this unique and heartfelt film.

It may seem like an odd premise for a big budget film, but Paper Planes is a wonderful, laugh-out-loud film directed by Australian Robert Connolly. The Australian cast is a who's who of modern cinema, but the film was masterfully carried by Oxenbould. The light-hearted story has its share of plot holes, but the family centric adventure was a joy to experience. The strength of the story makes up for some of the less than believable components. Connolly puts forward a seemingly breezy theme that opens the door to an unexpectedly mature backstory of life and death. He fortunately manages to skirt past the after school special story line. Even though there is the stereotypical bully, the chubby friend and the cool grandpa, the slow unfolding of the story allows for an unexpected depth to the film. Connolly's film is a joy for the younger and the older audience members.

Dad asked the question on the ride home, 'What did we think of the film?' Simple story, but it was fun to the end. The bittersweet father/son relationship unfolds in a timely manner and does not get boring. It made us want to go out and buy a paper plane book and travel out to the country side of our beautiful homeland. Australia is beautiful and the film was pretty good, too.

Reel Dialogue: What are the bigger questions to consider from this film? 1. What does the Bible say about death of a loved one? (Psalm 34:18, Revelation 21:4) 2. Why is family important? (Nehemiah 4:14, Ephesians 5:25)

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Kid's Korner are shorter reviews written by Russell Matthews' kid's perspective and based on a five star rating system @ Russelling Reviews #russellingreviews

This is a sweet, simple little film, but with some interesting and thoughtful themes to get your kids thinking a little more about things they see sometimes, but may not really understand.

The biggest of those themes is loss, and the reviewers who don't 'get' Sam Worthingtons character have completely missed this. You don't just 'get over' the loss of your wife five months after her sudden death, everyone has their own way of coming back, and Worthington's character hasn't found that way back when we meet him in the film. He's still lost. And it's his son's understanding of his dads grief that underpins the entire film. It's subtle, but it's the whole driving force of this story. The actual competition that seems to drive the film is actually secondary... but ultimately becomes the catalyst to get the father through his grief and back to 'life'.

My 8yo son picked up on this about halfway through the film, when the father refused to sell the piano - he said 'I know why he can't sell it'. The storyline didn't flesh it out until later, when Dylan told Kimi that his mum had been a piano teacher - and this is another thing the film does; it reveals its layers slowly, and for the most part lets its audience figure things out for themselves.

The messages and lessons for the target audience start almost from the beginning of the film - it will get kids thinking about sportsmanship, peer pressure, role models, friendship, and loss... and it does so with a good dose of laughter and a sublime sense of the ridiculous - always a winner with kids.

Worthington's character didn't really hit his stride until mid film, which was a shame - it left the door open for the less cerebral members of the audience to assume he was just a deadbeat dad, and when those types make that assumption, they'll drop dead before they'll admit to themselves that they were wrong. Not Worthington's fault; the script should have introduced the bereavement earlier than it did.

I also think the connection between Dylan's father and grandfather should have been explored a little more. Ultimately we end up knowing nothing about his father other than that he's shattered by the loss of his wife - that's a given, so why didn't we get a little more about the man himself? I slept on my lounge plenty of times myself in the months following my separation from my wife, but if I were a movie character I'd want my audience to know a bit more about me than that fact.

Tip - have a decent supply of A4 paper on hand for the morning after watching this movie with your kids :)

Just your average cheesy kids film with second-rate humour and mediocre acting. I kind of enjoyed it, but there are better movies for kids.