The Last Mimzy

Plot synopsis:
Presented as a story by a group of students and their teacher Lena that takes place in the distant future, The Last Mimzy is the story of the attempt by humans in the distant future to avert a catastrophic ecological disaster that has destroyed their world. High tech devices disguised as toys are sent back in time and are found by Noah and Emma Wilder, children living in early 21st century Seattle. The "toys" are incomprehensible to Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) and Noah (Chris O'Neil), except for what appears to be a stuffed rabbit. Sensing the paranormal strangeness of the devices, the children initially keep their discovery secret from their parents.
Emma becomes telepathically connected to the stuffed rabbit, named Mimzy, and learns how to operate the devices. Interaction with the devices causes the children to develop advanced knowledge, genius-level intelligence and psionic abilities. Due to her psychic connection with Mimzy, Emma's development of her abilities is much stronger than her older brother's; she is the only one to display empathy, telepathy, levitation, and telekinesis (though Noah can also communicate with her once she has telepathically contacted him). Emma is also the only one who can use the Spinners, strange spinning, telekinetically floating rocks that produce a force-field. Noah's strong psionic/physic abilities are developed through a card and a seashell. He gains increased intelligence, knowledge, telepathy, empathic communication and control over arthropods. He can also use the card to telekinetically teleport objects through a small dimensional rift after staring at it and observing his surroundings. At one point, Noah becomes somewhat envious of his sister's psionic prowess, but she reveals to him that even though she is the Chosen One, he is her Chosen Engineer and she cannot "build the bridge to the future" without him.
The children's unusual psionic and mental abilities and Emma's attachment to Mimzy alert their parents, especially their mother, and Larry White, Noah's science schoolteacher, to the devices. Later, Noah accidentally fuses the card with a blue blob, turning it into a Generator that causes a power black-out over half the state of Washington, alerting the FBI to their activities. The family is held for questioning by Special Agent Nathaniel Broadman (Michael Clarke Duncan), and it is revealed that Mimzy is actually a highly advanced form of artificial life utilizing nanotechnology created by Intel. Emma tells everyone that Mimzy has a message from humanity's distant future. She explains that pollution has corrupted humanity's DNA, and many rabbits like Mimzy have been sent to the past, since no natural life forms can survive time travel, but none have successfully returned. Mimzy is the last one remaining, but is now dying. The reason for the other Mimzys' deaths is that the Chosen Ones before Emma had no Engineers (like Noah) to help build the bridge across time. Mimzy explains to Emma that she and Noah must use the toys as a time machine to return it to the future with uncorrupted 21st century human DNA, which the people of the future can use to correct the damage to their DNA caused by ecological problems.
Despite attempts by the unbelieving FBI to prevent them, Noah and Emma use their psionic abilities to escape so they can activate a time portal. Before leaving, Mimzy absorbs a tear from Emma, thus providing the DNA required to restore humanity's corrupted DNA. Emma is almost sucked into the future with Mimzy, but Noah grabs Emma and pulls her out of the portal just as Mimzy is sent back to its own time. Following the transport, Noah's science teacher, who was present at the event, claims he saw "numbers", a reference to a previous dream he had with numbers in it, which turned out to be the winning lottery numbers, but missed out because he never bought a ticket - thus exciting his fiancée about this second opportunity. Back in the future setting, Mimzy returns to the future, and humans are finally able to restore their DNA, and more importantly, the "mental corruption" that stripped most of them of their feelings toward each other. The teacher ends the story time and the children levitate and fly home. The world in their time has become a beautiful place, where humanity has integrated into the constructed ecosystems.
The story ends in the current time, with Emma's teacher (Julia Arkos) asking if anyone did anything exciting over the weekend break. No one volunteers, so she calls on Emma at random. Emma smiles.

Tags: thought-provoking, fantasy, storytelling, flashback

Review:
I don't know how much it is like the book, but I liked the ideas the film was based on, the graphics were nice, and it was a new twist on an old storyline (the kids did a really good job acting too).
It definitely has a "new age" touch, it's mysterious, and with a nice bit of surreal/sci-fi - if you liked movies the same pace and style as K-Pax (though this one is a bit more geared towards kids), then you'll probably like Mimzy.
I wouldn't suggest really young kids for this one, they might not understand a lot of it - 10 and up would probably enjoy it more.Also, the less you know about the movie, the more you'll like it.
The people of the future still understand this too.I didn't find Mimzy's "New Agey" feel overdone and it worked cleverly for its intended premise.One thing that was very wrong about the movie was the overt product placement of Intel in a particular scene Though I suspect Intel rarely gets a chance where product placement even makes sense in a movie it was really inappropriate.
Pink Floyd shirts and Roger Waters aside, this may even have a secret appeal to stoners just as much as your little boy or girl at the movie theater, who will obviously see it in a different life, that of light, efficient irreverence and lots of neat special effects.'Mimzy' tells the story of a boy and a girl, Noah and Emma, both at least under the age of 10 but old enough to be articulate enough as well as appropriately secretive in the fantasy they hold paramount, who come upon a strange rock from the ocean.
That's the basic story, anyway, as there are little ins and outs as the story goes on, including a great product placement for Sprite, and a montage-free example of each child's new abilities.Some of this may be a little preposterous, even goofy, but Bob Shaye and his team bypass the obvious but still perilous pit-falls for filmmakers investing themselves into children's movies.
The two kids are also very good at playing their parts, with Wryn as Emma very adept at being vulnerable and smart, and O'Neil being almost too close to looking like the boy Elliot in ET, however not without his own strengths.
I have never read the book, which this movie is based upon, so I have no point-of-reference for comparison.All in all I thought this movie was perfectly appropriate for families, although from reading reviewers comments on another website, you'd think 'The Last Mimzy' had some kind of subversive plot.
'The Last Mimzy' was by no means 'liberal doctrine' unless you think showing a different perspective as a threat.Personally, the weakest parts of the movie for me was the uneven direction and the point where I asked "Why is Michael Clark Duncan in this film?" He didn't really add much to it.
The siblings Noah (Chris O'Neal) and Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) travel with their mother Jo (Joely Richardson) from Seattle to the family cottage in Whidbey Island to spend a couple of days while their workaholic father David Wilder (Timothy Hutton) is working.
They find a box of toys from the future in the water and bring it home, and Emma finds a stuffed rabbit called Mimzy, and stones and a weird object, but they hide their findings from their parents.
"Mimsy Were the Borogroves", Kuttner & Moore's terrifying parable about the loss of innocence and the ending of childhood, is chopped up, its dark meat bleached until, like a chicken leg, it is converted into a breaded chicken nugget, suitable for a children's audience which holds that the only thing wrong with the world is that kids aren't in charge.
Stir in Nepalese mysticism and CGI to taste and garnish with a paranoid government that locks up four-year-olds under the Patriot Act and you have this mandala-shaped piece of mystery meat.Director Robert Shaye does show a dab hand at directing children, and I suppose I shouldn't have expected more than this, but I am terribly disappointed.
It is a future without bone-crunching comic book super heroes or malevolent movie bad guys or self-absorbed parents - a film that respects a child's intelligence, not to mention a kid's need to dream like a kid.
I suggest Mimzy for anyone who has children, is fond of children, knows of children, or wants to simply feel really, really good about a film without being pandered to or suffer that condescending 'tude from Hollywood filmmakers who think they can sneak into your brain without you noticing.There's an honest, earnest dreamlike quality to the film, a low-key, homespun feel to these two normal kids with two normal parents, who stumble upon a strange box-like artifact bobbing in the Seattle surf.Ten year old Noah (Chris O'Neil) and his younger sister, Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) bring the box home.
It's all just poo.There were literally only two good things about this films: 1) The special effects were fantastic.2) The 2 child leads were convincing actors, and were pretty much let down by the adults in the film.Some people have compared this to E.T...NO NOO don't do that.
Children might find this film okay, sure, but honestly there are a THOUSAND other better family movies.
Rent the Lion King or Toy Story which are simply a thousand times better than this.(I mean for God's sake the little alien thing is called a Mimzy....wtf!!
And those over thirty like my wife were thrilled to get some nap time; Forty minutes worth.When you look at the last five years of the writers and director, it's not too hard to find the thought process or lack there of, behind this disappointing film.
This is quite an entertaining film, and I liked the way it incorporated Lewis Carroll's evergreen Alice in Wonderland tale into its story of extra-terrestrial visitors, but it falters very badly in the last reel and ends up looking like just another inferior copy of ET.Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn play siblings who stumble across a mysterious box on the beach which happens to contain a cuddly rabbit transported from a dying planet in a desperate quest for the elixir it needs to revive its people.
I'm no screenwriter but, to me, the obvious idea would have been to follow the Lewis Carroll/Alice Liddell theme and see where it took me: the options would seem to be far greater in number than simply regurgitating the childlike-alien-relying-on-earthling-children-for-survival storyline from Spielberg's eighties flick.The child male lead looks like the youngest incarnation of Harry Potter until advanced intelligence courtesy of the alien rabbit's bric-a-brac means he no longer needs the specs.
It isn't coincidence that this is actually an intellectually interesting children's movie, taken from a famous science fiction story 'Mimsy were the Borogoves' written by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore).
Many films aimed at kids today seem determined to focus on bland, repetitive topics such as school and romance so it makes a pleasant change to find a rather intelligent children's sci-fi film, especially since most sci-fi films aimed at the family/children date back to the Seventies and Eighties ('DARYL', 'ET', 'The Witch Mountain' films, 'Flight of the Navigator', etc as examples).This film centres on siblings, six-year-old Emma and ten-year-old Noah, who find a strange box of toys on a beach.
But the children soon draw the attention of both the adults around them and the FBI, who threaten to destroy their plans to send Mimzy back to where it belongs.This is a film where most definitely the child actors, Chris O'Neil as Noah and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn as Emma, carry the story almost on their own and they certainly rise to the occasion.
The adult actors, including Joely Richardson and Timothy Hutton as the children's parents and Timothy Hutton as Noah's teacher, give good supporting depictions.This plot is involving and exciting, if perhaps a bit too complicated for the under eights, and- through the eyes of children-- explores topics such as the importance of caring for the planet, why not everything different is a threat and that sometimes children are far more intuitive than adults.
While I see some people like to look for political agendas in 'The Last Mimzy' (these are probably the kind of paranoid folk who seem politics in everything), the story is told in an honest, well-paced manner without being preachy or blatant.'The Last Mimzy' is one for the family who is sick of films dumbing down to kids and re-hashing repetitive, predictable plots.
Robert Shaye's The Last Mimzy, however, treats children like the caring, intelligent beings that they are, showing an appreciation of interesting and beautiful things that are available beyond iPods, computer games, and other forms of commercialized entertainment.Based on a short story from 1943 by Lewis Padgett, a scientist from the future looks to children from the past to save his dying world.
As 10-year old Noah Wilder (Chris O'Neil) and his 6-year old sister Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) discover an odd looking box that washes up on the beach near their family's summer home in the Seattle area, the door is opened to a non-linear reality that they could have scarcely imagined.In this reality, small rocks can spin on their own and provide the opening to a different dimension, a glowing crystal allows Noah to teleport objects, a sea shell emits strange noises, and a stuffed rabbit communicates telepathically and tells Emma that she represents future humanity's last chance.
However, while The Last Mimzy lacks the imagination and stylistic vision to be a fully satisfying experience, it is nonetheless a timely and entertaining film that children can appreciate and identify with and adults may find thought provoking.
The film is relatively small and comes across as low budget and the story as written for the screen is weak and full of holes but oddly enough it comes across as a good movie.
It stars Timothy Hutton, Joely Richardson, Rainn Wilson, Michael Clark Duncan, Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn.The story concerns a brother and sister who find a box in the ocean that contains toys with magical powers.
Rainn Wilson, as the boy's science teacher, had the showiest role, and he brought a lot to it.I can't say too much about it except that it's a decent story with nice effects that kids should enjoy.
The Last Mimzy stands out as a kids' film, as it's interesting, imaginative and non-patronizing, for a kids' film, and it can surely be enjoyed by adults as well, especially those who like (literary) science fiction (the movie is an adaptation of a story by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore).There are very many good things about this movie, but a word of caution is due at first: although this movie CAN be fun for adults to watch (like many other films that kids can enjoy too, like the animated My Neighbor Totoro), it is NOT a mature film with children and fairly-tale themes in it (like, for instance, Pan's Labyrinth).
Somewhere half-way through the movie I noticed the seamless performance by Rhiannon Leigh Wryn - having not been aware of it before for the simple reason that it is so good that you are just watching a kid responding naturally to the situation she's in (and then you realize she's actually acting and delivering lines).I would have given this move a much higher rating if not for the looser writing and editing in the last 10-20 minutes.
My dissatisfaction with some of the plot-holes at the very end diminished somehow when I realized that this was not supposed to be a hard SF movie, but a kids' film, so a lot of what happens does not have to be explicitly justified, and can be considered metaphor or something seen from a kid's point of view.Anyhow, I seriously recommend this movie for people who like good sci-fi movies, as well as for people who have kids and would like to watch a movie together.
As you may have guessed, having this many characters any real character development and focusing on fewer characters with better dialog would have improved this film.If you took Phenomenon and crossed it with E.T., that would give you some idea what to expect here, but without a tighter script it is not worth renting unless one of your kids is holding the box and looking at you like the waterworks are about to start.
And they all point to one source, Mimzy the rabbit, that only Emma can relate.The Last Mimzy is a movie loosely adapted from the acclaimed science fiction short story, Mimsy Were the Borogoves, written in 1943 by Lewis Padgett (the pseudonym of husband and wife team Henry Kuttner and C.
Being a family film, the movie speaks to remind parents and adults to pay more careful attention to the children and their development.
I went to see The Last Mimzy with serious prejudices because I thought it was going to be a typical childish fantasy with all the typical clichés.Luckily,the result was not like that and the film,in spite of having some important fails,resulted to be a very nice family movie which takes seriously to kids and adults.The Last Mimzy has unusual subjects for a family film and I'm not only talking about the sci-fi but also for the politic posture the film has.And,on this movie both aspects flow very naturally.But the film is still a nice childish fantasy,so we do not have to expect the level of sophistication that films like Pan's Labyrinth achieved on that aspect.Rhiannon Leigh Wryn has an excellent and totally credible performance.I hope to see this young actress on more films because she shows a lot of talent.Rainn Wilson also surprised me on his performance and he shows his talent goes much more beyond than the slapstick he does in the North American version of The Office.Now,I have to mention negative elements:I felt Robert Shaye's direction on this film was pretty controlled.I think a less rigid director would have worked better.Also,some parts of the film were a little boring.In spite of having some boring moments and without being a great film,I have to say I liked The Last Mimzy..
Directed by the current CEO of New Line Cinema, The Last Mimzy is a children's fantasy movie which goes along the grains of having its children protagonists developing special powers, communicating with one another and with an alien object that no adult (or anyone else for that matter) can, and to help save some futuristic civilization.
Sounds like a typical walk in the park for any children's movie you might add.The Wilder siblings Noah (Chris O'Neil) and Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) find a mysterious box with strange markings, containing some weird toys, amongst which includes a harmless looking soft toy bunny christened Mimzy.
And the authorities are hunting for them, just as they would, as targets of a resulting city wide blackout.If anything, the chemistry between the child actors playing the siblings is believable enough, and you would agree with me that Rhiannon Leigh Wryn is adorable as the kid sister whose innocence and love play a crucial role in the movie's plot.
But what's nice is that the film doesn't shove this into your face, it just leaves this element out there to be noticed, especially by older audiences.Overall, it was a great movie, and I think people of any age can relate to it.
The dialog was concise, but a little flat between the parents and children and even between the children; it could have been on purpose to reflect the short-story element.The movie focuses on the children, rightfully so, but it seemed the parents were written in just to say 'oh-yeah, the characters are children and have to have parents.' The father didn't know how to be a father and I swear the mother was bi-polar; the parent actors just didn't seem interested in creating the look of a family - or the actors just needed the cash (Timothy Hutton, why are you in here?).
For those less inclined to have a movie make you or your child think you can have your kids learn to draw Nemo for the thousandth time just so you're not bothered by having a conversation about some of the issues this movie has in it.I rated the movie as an 8 since the overall themes, story, action, and plot overruled the lacking parents.
High marks for the two child actors, particularly Rhiannon Leigh Wryn as Emma Wilder, who with Chris O'Neil as her brother Noah, never seem to be acting, but come across as just two normal kids.
So I really wish I could say this was as good as "ET" or "The Wizard Of Oz" or any other great movie that appealed to both kids and adults...but nothing about it really fits.The story has promise -- Toys from the future are sent back to the past.
There are moments of pure magic -- like when Noah, the ten-year-old boy, learns sounds can affect how a spider builds its webs, and when Emma, his five-year-old sister, sets the "spinners" going the first time.But nothing about this movie quite works.
Oh, the kids -- Chris O'Neal and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn -- do a good enough job of acting, especially considering how young they are and it's the first time they've been in front of a film camera.
The special effects involving the strange object and what it does are usually pretty good.The children's characters are written realistically enough (given the premise of the movie), but some other characters are not.
Good family movie for kids and adults.
I went with my nine year old son to see this film and we both loved it.The story flows nicely and the kids do an amazing job as their characters.
The film has no heart, no character and the scenes seemed to be cut together randomly with very little flow between reels.All the actors look like they are trying to squeeze some movie magic out of the very skimpy, unoriginal script based on the short story by Lewis Padgett.