Kung Fu Panda meets Napoleon Dynamite

For the past year, if we wanted to see a current movie in English, we needed to drive all the way in to Frankfurt where there is a theatre that shows foreign movies in their original versions. Germans love American and British movies, but prefer them dubbed. It's a bit of a drive to get to that particular cinema, parking can be an issue and the screens can be tiny (maybe 8' x 3'). The kids have only gone there a few times and I have never been. But, we recently found out that the movie theatre close to us will have showings for one movie a week in the original language. This week it was Kung Fu Panda. Micaela, James, Emilie and I piled into the car for the 8-minute drive to the Kinopolis.

Only when we got there did I realize that this was the first time I had been to a movie theatre since we moved here. And yes, things can be different. While purchasing our tickets for the OV showing, we were asked where we wanted to sit. At the puzzled look I gave him, our cashier smiled and said, "I'll give you the seats in the top row. They're the best." What??? He printed our tickets and then I got it. We had assigned seats. Assigned seats in a movie theater. What if everyone wanted the best possible seats? Would we all be cramped together? But, really, with one showing in English and eight in German that day, how many people would be coming to the English one?

We needed popcorn. This was a special occasion. I ordered the popcorn-drink combo and was asked, "Do you want that salted or sweet?" Oh.. that's right. Europeans often like their popcorn sweetened, but we're not that assimilated. There was no butter, but salt would do.

We entered the theatre and were the first people there. Our seats were all the way at the top in the middle and we were sure to sit in the correct ones. So, we sat there a while, munching on popcorn and tapping out the beat to the disco music playing from the speakers. Down below us was the screen, covered by a curtain with lights shining up from the floor (there was no raised stage). Well, between the music and the setting down below, James was inspired.

He bounded down the aisle and then posed in front of the curtain, head bowed, hands in his pockets, all illuminated by the lights. On the beat be began doing the Napoleon Dynamite dance. He did several of the steps and then stopped and ran back up to us as Micaela, Emilie and I howled in our seats. James ran back down to do it again and this time added in some of the funnier dance moves.

We were chuckling when the unthinkable happened. In walked an older couple. We called out "James!" to get him to stop, but he couldn't hear us above the beat of the disco music. He just continued his dancing, oblivious to the additional audience members. When we could catch our breath from laughing so hard, we would call out his name, "James!". It was not out of the realm of possibilities for this older couple to reprimand us for James' inappropriate impromptu recital. They did glance around to see what we were yelling at and seemed surprised to see James in front of the curtain gyrating a bit, but they didn't crack a smile nor glare at us and seemed more focused on finding their seat assignments. He finally heard us and scampered sheepishly up the aisle to our seats where we giggled some more, but at a lower volume.

There ended up being maybe 25 other people in the theatre, and we were not on top of each other. A short drive, an amusing dance by my son, a funny movie in English,...not a bad way to spend an evening.