Going to the Movies / Ins Kino gehen

Nikolas is a big fan of the movie Madagascar. Peter bought a copy that he found on sale at the post office shortly after we arrived here to add to his stock of German language films. Nikolas found it shortly after that (he's very good at finding things) and has watched all or part of it many times over. Because of this, he has been urging us to 'watch' Madagascar 2 ever since he saw an advertising poster out by the bus stop a few weeks ago. While it's been in the US for a while, it only opened in Austria last week.

It was a cold and dreary day here, and so we decided we'd have an outing to see the movie - Nikolas' first feature film experience. There are a couple large, modern movie complexes in Salzburg, but we decided to go to Mozart Kino, a small theater on a side street just on the edge of the Altstadt. It's in a historical building, and just being in the theater was worth the trip: lots of gold and gilt and scenic paintings on the walls.

Nikolas was captivated from the moment we walked in, settling on the edge of his seat, a bag of popcorn in his lap, amazed at the size of the screen and surround sound stereo. About half an hour into the movie he leaned over to me and whispered, "Mommy, why are the lights out?" You forget how much you take for granted once you've been to a movie before and know what to expect. You also forget how big the big screen is until you're sitting next to a three-year-old and feeling squeamish because, for example, the Old Lady character turns up again in this movie and is just as prone to beating lions as before. Nikolas didn't blink an eye at any of it, but I did wonder a few times what we were thinking in bringing him to this movie as his first movie - why not something like Teletubbies or Sesame Street? I suppose if it had been something less exciting, then Nikolas wouldn't have sat through the whole 90 minutes so happily.

When it was over and we were outside heading home, Nikolas said, "That movie was made just for me. Did you see the sign? It said, 'Nikolas Chase's movie'. It is my lieblings (favorite) movie." I guess it was a good introduction to movie theaters after all.