cholland-30660

This movie is actually a lesson I use in 6th grade music class. The essays our students write after this movie show that young people today (in small-town midwest communities) get the message in Perfect Harmony. I use great care and preparation in showing this movie, but the music and culture expressed throughout are worth it. Students appreciate this film, and love the ending. Disney does a good job with the trope, "can music bring people together?".

I'm also careful with the offensive word (volume button). But these hard topics create teachable moments. I'm glad to see in other IMDb reviews that this film sticks with young people for years. In fact, my 8th graders ask if they can see it again. It may be my most important lesson in the semester.

Love the line where Frankie has to get "a second job even in her second job!". "Four of whom lived!"

And the character of Sarah Moody Cochran (is there a better name for a 1816 Hoosier?) is a ringer for all those pioneer villages! In fact, there's several of those places right here in Indiana. And The Middle "gets" Indiana so accurately, I look around my town almost every episode looking for hidden writers!

"The single best hour of television" someone said. This is the only episode where one truly feels what Jean-Luc feels, especially as he returns to the Enterprise.

This film is geared towards middle-school aged kids. Bizet's Dream grabs your attention as Michelle becomes more enlightened and simultaneously distraught about her father who is away in Seville. The soundtracks in these productions are always high-quality selections of the composer himself. That's a tremendous exposure to some great music in a fun visual way. The age group also loves Rossini's Ghost, and older kids appreciate Liszt's Rhapsody and Bach's Fight for Freedom. The producers obviously go to great pains to film accurately; in this case, Paris 1875. Costumes, sets, props, language, etc. There's scenes that address the period's preoccupation with fortune-telling and superstition. Bizet's Dream also has beautiful outdoor scenes of parks, bridges, and streets. One should be spurred to look into the French painters' scene of the same period. Some of this movie's shots look positively Monet-like.