That’s a line uttered in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo that is necessary foreshadowing. Necessary because the film’s premise is kind of a bummer:  Hugo is a 10-year-old boy whose father died suddenly, and who now lives in the walls of train station to escape living in a 1930s-era Paris orphanage.

 

For a time of the year as optimistic and upbeat as the Holiday Season, some of this year’s family films have quite a grim outlook. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, a franchise with a tween fanbase, is so tragic it should be titled “Breaking Down”:  its 18-year old heroine slowly dies from the vampire baby she’s carrying – and that’s not even the bleakest part of the film. KidsPickFlicks.com’s 17-year-old Cole the Kid Critic, who has reviewed more than 300 films, called the animated dancing and singing penguin movie Happy Feet Two “the darkest animated movie I’ve ever seen.” Think about THAT.

 

These certainly weren’t the only doom and gloom family films in 2011. Mars Needs Moms has mothers taken to an alien planet where their maternal instincts are zapped out of them before they’re killed. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is the most ominous film of the franchise to the point where several of the key characters die. Even this round of Pirates of the Caribbean depicted a man being burned alive and mermaids being murdered for their tears.

 

Should parents be concerned?  Kids don’t seem to mind:  all the films I mentioned (well, except Mars Needs Moms) were PICKS according to the kid critics at KidsPickFlicks.com.  Maybe it’s because the statement in Hugo says it all: a movie can dig deep in the pit of despair as long as it has a happy ending. In doing so, the depressing elements ultimately create optimism in our youth: life may get rough, even seemingly impossible – but it will get better.

 

On the other hand, families looking for a film that has a happy beginning, middle and end have a very cheery option: The Muppets. But there’s even a down side to two hours with the beloved felt characters: the pain in your cheeks from smiling so wide.

 

To read what kids think about Hugo, The Muppets, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Happy Feet Two and other films, go to www.KidsPickFlicks.com