The Odd Squad: Cineplex's Family Favourites Program

My daughters are avid TVO Kids fans. It helps that we don't have cable, so the choices are limited based on what our antenna can pick up!

Several weeks ago while watching Saturday morning cartoons, my daughter ran upstairs yelling, "The Odd Squad movie is coming! The Odd Squad movie is coming!!" She had seen the promotion for the release of a full-length Odd Squad movie, based on the super popular show about kid agents who solve math-related problems CSI-style.

So I went online to check it out, and discovered the movie was being shown as part of Cineplex's Family Favourites Program - a weekly Saturday morning (11 a.m.) movie for only $2.99 - with a portion of the sales being donated to Free the Children. I bought the tickets immediately and we counted down the days.

I've taken my kids to a couple of movies in the past, but at 6 and 3, there haven't been too many. I was a little worried about how my youngest would handle the length, but was glad to see that the movie ran only 1 hour and 5 minutes. She happily clutched her bag of popcorn, and sat through the whole thing, with only one or two loud questions!

You may imagine a "family movie" to be loud and annoying, with little ankle biters kicking the back of your chair, babies crying or children talking loudly. I was pretty surprised that it was anything but! The theatre was packed, and despite a few questions, we were mainly all sharing the fun of watching a hilarious movie. There were many adult laughs too :)

It helped that the Odd Squad movie was brilliant - a racially diverse cast, with a strong girl ("Ms. O") in the "chief" role. Fun math problems are snuck into the story about creatures who can multiply themselves, and the hilarious "Weird Tom" adds some zany adult humour to the mix. Many of the lead characters are female, which is a great because it encourages girls to experience math and science as fun activities!  

The Odd Squad movie continues to play at select theatres around the city, but I've been informed that you can catch the movie on Monday, August 1st on TVO Kids! Don't miss it!

Have you been to see a movie at Cineplex's Family Favourites? Did you enjoy yourself?