When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (1 Cor 13:11)

I went to the drive-in, seriously one of the few in the country still open, to see Bee Movie. Let me tell you, in my circle of friends one of the best ways to get to see a movie in its theatrical release is to go to the drive-in. We have children, so when a kids' movie comes out we head straight for the drive-in to see it and whatever is playing after it. We put up with the childish movie so we can see the grown-up movie so to speak.

This time the movie was Stardust, which I hadn't even heard of until I saw it on the listing with Bee Movie. I asked a few people, including my wife, what Stardust was about because I started thinking of Las Vegas. What I kept hearing was, "It's the fairy tale for adults." I thought, "Huh, sounds like an oxymoron." But I was interested... and eventually the fairy tale for adults aspect of the movie is what MovedMe about this tale.

See, I believe most fairy tales have a great message, something that speaks to the heart and tells us about life. Kinda like Jesus' parables that gave us deep, meaningful lessons through story without being preachy. This fairy tale is no different; it speaks of growing up and putting away childish things: through a fairy tale, no less, which makes it even better!

Last thing I'll say before we get into the review is that this adult fairy tale tells the story without being jaded... which in my book is always a plus. Jesus told his disciples that the kingdom of heaven belonged to little children (Matt 19:14). I think Jesus partly meant that a child's innocence, maybe even naivete, gives it the ability to still hear the message within his parables and teaching. Maybe we need some of that innocence and naivete to hear the message within this "adult fairy tale."

Putting away childish things
The first and biggest thing about this movie is that it is about a boy, Tristan, who through the tale becomes a man. You see it physically as the story starts: he is rather dumpy, just kind of plain, and hasn't taken on the physical nature of being a man. He is even called a "shop boy." Then later he takes on the physical appearance of a man, clothes hair and all... even his facial expression changes.

We see him changing from boy to man in his relationship to women. He goes on the quest to win the heart of Victoria, who has no interest in him whatsoever; she seems to be toying with him, really. He doesn't know anything about her, just the idea of her, kind of like a young boy's crush on a girl.

He comes to realize this in a scene with Yvaine, where they are tied up in the pirate ship. He has been blabbering on about how he is going to do this great feat to win Victoria's heart. Yvaine asks him to describe Victoria and he can't. Yvaine then asks if Victoria is doing anything to win his heart, and of course he cannot answer that either.

At the beginning of the movie we see that Tristan cannot fight. He is bested by a pretty boy that Victoria will eventually marry. Through his adventures with Yvaine, Tristan learns to fight and fight well, besting Captain Shakespeare and earning his respect.

Continue: 1 2