Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Celebrating the Mars Encounter with a DVD?

Posted by Cliff on from the meeting-the-Red-planet dept.

Berend de Boer asks: "To celebrate the upcoming encounter of The Mars Kind, I like to watch a DVD about Mars with my kids. Is there something worthwhile people can recommend? It should be suitable for younger kids (max 10), so Total Recall 2070 is out the question. It does not necessarily have to be an action film...something educational will be fine as well."

1 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Try this instead by ralphclark · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I adore watching good movies on DVD with my kids too. It's my favourite pastime.

    Unfortunately, there simply aren't any good movies about Mars. I've seen them all, and Hollywood apparently just isn't interested in what the planet is really like.

    Having said that, there is one very, very good novel though. Why don't you try reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars to them instead. The whole book is very much to the point as far as Mars itself goes. It also depicts well what real science and real scientists are like. I guarantee you will all be spellbound by the characters, their stories, and most of all by the planet itself. And by the end, all of you will know just about everything that is known as about Mars today.

    Yes, it's not a children's book - but then neither is the latest Harry Potter book really, which my two kids (8 and 9) are desparate for me to finish reading to them - so they can read it again by themselves :o) Heck, this is a good idea - I think I'm gonna read Red Mars to them next.