Best Kept Secret: Carmike Beverly Cinemas Kidtoons Flicks

by Laura Weisskopf Bleill

We’re pretty lucky that our area movie theaters have plenty to offer kids and families. In the summer, both the Carmike Beverly Cinemas and Goodrich Savoy 16 offer $1 previously-released feature flicks for families. In the past, Savoy 16 also has shown free films for a series of weekends in the spring and fall.

But you might not know about the films that Carmike Beverly Cinemas offers every weekend, every week of the year, on Saturdays and Sundays at 10 a.m. These movies are usually not feature-length films in the sense of Toy Story 3 or the Princess and the Frog; the show changes monthly.

We went to our first Kidtoons “movie” recently with both of our kids, ages 4 and 1.5. We weren’t sure what to expect – perhaps because it was Sunday, or it was summer, or maybe for no reason at all – the theater (in fact the whole complex) was empty. Eventually a man walked in with his son, but for all practical purposes we had our own private showing.

This month’s “movie” is called Sesame Workshop: Summer Beach Party. It featured cartoon segments from Dragon Tales and Pinky Dinky Doo; a few shorts of Abby Cadabby and Elmo; and a few music videos from Steve Songs. The show ran longer than an hour, and at one point we finally left, so we didn’t make it to the end, but I can’t imagine it was longer than an hour and 15 minutes.

My kids really enjoyed the experience and got a big kick out of watching these shows on the big screen (OK, so my toddler ran around the whole time. It was an experiment!). This would be a great way to introduce a child to the concept of going to the movies — the dark room, the loudness, the big screen.

A few key takeaways:

• Just because it’s a kid movie at 10 a.m. doesn’t mean they still don’t play 20 minutes of previews for upcoming feature-length films. I counted five — or was it six? Next time, we will arrive “late.”
• As my husband commented, we could have DVRed some of those shows and watched them at home. But I don’t think that’s always the case; then again, the whole point of going is for the experience (and if you ask my kids, the popcorn). Other past movies have featured characters/shows such as Strawberry Shortcake, Arthur, SuperWhy and more.
• The August feature is “Strawberry Shortcake: The Glimmerberry Ball Movie.”
• Tickets for Kidtoons are $5 for adults, $3 for kids.
• The Kidtoons website has information on where these movies are shown as well as sometimes offers reviews.

Do you know of a Best Kept Secret we should feature on chambanamoms.com? Help us pass the word!

No related posts.