Well this week has another classic facing a new challenge and plenty of variety with live music events and a ballet on the event cinema line up.

For booking details, visit wtwcinemas.co.uk

The Little Mermaid

Disney have been rebooting most of their animated back catalogue in one way or another and it is fair to say with a varying amount of success.

The better ones are certainly the films that have had less tinkering, when they stay true to the original fundamentals and embrace the original music and charm of the characters. Sometimes with the live action adventures the fun little supporting roles can be dismissed or made too realistic.

Luckily with the premise here we are taken under the sea to a magical and enchanting world with mermaids and various other talking sea creatures both good and bad. Ariel is fascinated with the world above water and the human race; however, she is forbidden by her father Kink Triton to venture to the outer reaches for her own safety.

But an encounter during a storm which leads Ariel to save the life of a young man who she falls in love with leads her own dark path towards the dark sorceress Ursula who can grant Ariel her wish for a small price. Ariel is now without her voice and must win the heart of Eric if she is also to save her soul.

The imagery, graphics and wonderful colour palette really give this film a luscious and beautiful look. A great cast has been assembled with Halle Bailey taking on the title role and Javier Bardem and Melissa McCarthy making up supporting roles.

The Sleeping Beauty

The Royal Ballet’s penultimate 2022/23 season production is tonight (Wednesday, 7:15pm).

It is Princess Aurora’s 16th birthday and four princes come to vie for her hand in marriage. An old woman gives Aurora a spindle. She pricks her finger and falls asleep. The Lilac Fairy casts a spell of sleep over everyone and causes a thick forest to grow over the palace.

A hundred years later, Prince Florimund is hunting in the forest with members of his court. The Lilac Fairy appears and shows him a vision of Princess Aurora. Florimund implores her to take him to where she sleeps.

At last Prince Florimund awakens Princess Aurora with a kiss – the spell is broken and Carabosse is finally vanquished.

Roger Waters - This is not a Drill Live from Prague

For one night only, Roger Waters, the creative force behind the golden years of Pink Floyd, presents his first Farewell Tour, “This Is Not A Drill”, Live from Prague, in cinemas around the world.

This cinematic extravaganza is a stunning indictment of the corporate dystopia in which we all struggle to survive and will include 20 Pink Floyd and Roger Waters classic songs, including: “Us & Them”, “Comfortably Numb”, “Wish You Were Here”, and “Is This The Life We Really Want?”. Waters will also debut his new song, “The Bar”.

Waters will be joined on stage by Jonathan Wilson, Dave Kilminster, Jon Carin, Gus Seyffert, Robert Walter, Joey Waronker, Shanay Johnson, Amanda Belair and Seamus Blake to deliver an unforgettable performance with a call to action to love, protect, and share our precious planet home.

Screening on Thursday 25th May at 7.45pm.

The Old Man Movie: Lactopalypse

Pat’s Film Club is going European and bringing an Estonian animation to the big screen, to be fair I thoroughly enjoyed the Estonian Eurovision entrant this year and the magic piano so there may be some more movie magic to unearth here in The Old Man Movie: Lactopalypse on Sunday May 28.

In a remote Estonian village, three children from the city are forced to spend the summer on their grandfather’s farm. Determined to make them see the simple beauty of country living, he sets them to work, only to have the little scumbags accidentally set loose his prized and thoroughly mistreated cow.

Now they have only 24 hours to find and milk the rogue bovine before its exponentially expanding udders explode and unleash the Lactopalypse.

Book Club Chapter 2

The last Silver Screen of the season is Book Club Chapter 2 showing tomorrow (Thursday May 25 at 11.00am).

Silver Screen seats are £4.30 each and includes a hot drink and a biscuit. The highly anticipated sequel follows our four best friends as they take their book club to Italy for the fun girls trip they never had.

When things go off the rails and secrets are revealed, their relaxing vacation turns into a once-in-a-lifetime cross-country adventure.

The Silver Screen will return in the Autumn.

This week we have a return to cinema memories and another staff interview with Debbie who has been with us at White River since we opened starting off on the cleaning team and some ushering with a full move to floor staff a few years back.

Will - Hi Debbie, thank you for agreeing to be the latest victim on the memories interview.

Debbie - No problem, but just to warn you I can’t always remember what happened five minutes ago let alone fifteen years.

Will - I know the feeling, now can you remember the first film you worked on?

Debbie - I started on the floor a little later but one of the first films that I recall was The Proposal with Sandra Bullock.

Will - Oh yes, that was a proper rom-com, a great cast in that one. You have been with us through thick and thin but what is your most memorable moment in the cinema?

Debbie - There are a few but the Poldark premiere will always be a particular highlight.

Will - Is that because you got up close and personal to Aiden Turner?

Debbie - No-one was allowed to get close to any of the stars, I did used to have a lot of fun cleaning to with Bry.

Will - Yes sadly Bryan Rowe who is no longer with us, but many readers will remember him from being front of house in the Filmcentre and his butchering days, yes, we had a lot of fun with Bryan, actually I will dedicate a future edition to memories and fun times with Mr Rowe. Now you would have seen a few films during your time which have stood out for you?

Debbie - Well plenty have stood out for many bad reasons. There have been some good films and also some real bad ones. But the last Harry Potter film was a big event and the first Avatar. That was special with the 3D and all sorts of people wanting to watch it. There are the occasional films that cross all age brackets and Avatar was one.

Will - Absolutely, I always think of Jurassic Park or World as one of those mutli generational films when you get four generations form a family visiting together. What would you say has been the biggest changes in cinema going in the last decade?

Debbie - Covid was a very difficult time. It had many repercussions and I think we are still feeling the effects of it. To go from being really busy to single figure audiences was tough but luckily, we are firing again with Super Mario and Guardians recently being sell out films.

Will - It was tough and a very tricky time for our morale but yes things are buzzing again. Finally, the big question to finish on and what is your cinema snack of choice?

Debbie - It has to be the Krax, apart from having to clean the machine.

To celebrate the release of The Little Mermaid this week’s quiz topic is looking at Disney live action remakes.

Which actor played the Genie in Guy Ritchie’s adaptation in 2019? 

Which much delayed 2020 pandemic film starred Liu Yiffei as the title character?

Who recently took on the eponymous villainess in the 2021 movie Cruella?

2018 had an older title character return to the 100-acre wood, but which actor played the title character Christopher Robin in this film?

Which actor voices Mufasa in both the animated and live action remake of The Lion King?

A) Laurence Fishburne

B) James Earl Jones

C) Morgan Freeman

Who played the lead characters of Belle and Beast in the 2017 live action Beauty and the Beast?

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland featured which of his regular collaborators as The Mad Hatter and The Red Queen?

The 2019 Dumbo movie features two Batman Returns co-stars as V.A. Vandevere and Max Medici can you name these two actors?

Kenneth Branagh was at the helm of the 2015 version of Cinderella but who played the title character plus the actors that played the Stepmother and also the Prince?

The 2016 live action version of The Jungle Book features an all-star voice cast but who voiced the following five characters, Baloo, Bagheera, Shere Khan, Kaa and King Louie?