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    take me to the river(s)

    Houston's newest amusement park thunders back in time for spring break

    Steven Devadanam
    Feb 4, 2022 | 2:00 pm
    Big Rivers Water Park
    Big Rivers is back from spring break.
    Big Rivers Water Park/Facebook

    Current weather conditions may make it hard to envision diving into a water park, but as locals with kids know, it’s never too early to start planning for spring break. With that in mind, Big Rivers Waterpark & Adventures has announced that it will reopen on Saturday, March 12.

    The park and grounds will be open for spring break: March 12 through March 20. The Big Rivers water park will open on April 30. Season passes are available on the website and include spring break admission at no additional charge, a press release notes.

    Admission to the venue is$19.99, plus tax when tickets are purchased online. Attractions included in admission are Cougar Climb, one of the tallest climbing walls in Texas; Wild Isle, a floating water park and challenge course on a lake; axe throwing, archery, gemstone mining, the petting zoo, Big Al’s Fishing Hole, and the Mystic Forest Maze.

    Other attractions open include zip lines and rope courses, as well as an assortment of food options for an additional fee. As CultureMap previously reported, Big Rivers now also features Big Rivers Fairgrounds: 11 amusement park rides — from kiddie rides to thrill rides. Rides include:

    • Rolling Thunder – a spinning rollercoaster
    • SPINdletop – a pendulum that swings riders a full 360 degrees
    • Lafitte’s Fury – a rocking pirate ship
    • Screaming Eagles – a family attraction where the rider controls the flight path
    • Seven more rides, from kiddie to thrill rides

    “We are excited about opening our gates on March 12 and starting our 2022 season,” said Carl Foy, marketing director of Big Rivers Waterpark & Adventures, in a statement. “Big Rivers has a longer season, open March 12 through December, and will be introducing our new amusement park area, The Fairgrounds, which will be included with 2022 season passes.”

    ---

    Big Rivers Waterpark and Adventures; 23101 TX 242 in New Caney; open daily for spring break, from March 13 – March 21 from 11 am to 5 pm. For more information, ticket pricing and purchasing, and full schedule, visit the official site.

    vacationparkskidsfamilies
    news/entertainment

    Movie Review

    Live action Lilo & Stitch remake offers up frenzied fun and nostalgia

    Alex Bentley
    May 23, 2025 | 2:30 pm
    Lilo & Stitch
    Courtesy of Disney
    Lilo & Stitch returns to theaters this weekend.

    The project to turn every single Disney animated movie into a “live action” film has rarely seemed like anything but a money grab by the movie studio. Most of the films have failed to update the original in any meaningful way, and in many of the cases, they’re almost shot-for-shot remakes, making the reason for the new film’s existence even more confusing.

    Having almost exhausted the supply of their 20th century movies, Disney has now remade 2002’s Lilo & Stitch. The film follows an alien experiment, originally known as 626 (voiced by Chris Sanders), created by Jumba ( Zach Galifianakis) for the benefit of an alien race led by the Grand Councilwoman (Hannah Waddingham). Unfortunately, 626 is too uncontrollable for them, and is banished to the faraway planet known as Earth.

    Landing in Hawaii, the creature soon to be known as Stitch gloms on to a young girl named Lilo (Maia Kealoha), who mistakes it for a dog while looking for companionship following the death of her parents. Tracked by Jumba and fellow alien Pleakley (Billy Magnussen), now in human form, Stitch leaves a trail of destruction wherever he goes, much to the chagrin of Lilo’s older sister, Nani (Sydney Agudong).

    Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp and written by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes, the film will surely be a blast of nostalgia for anyone who was a kid when the original came out. The now-3D Stitch is just as chaotic as ever, and they even included cast members from the first film like Tia Carrere (now playing a social worker for the orphaned sisters) and Amy Hill as a kindly neighbor.

    But for all of the frenzied fun that Stitch offers, there’s very little else that holds the story together. For one, the Lilo character as a real person doesn’t work as well as she does in animated form, as there’s something fluid that happens in animation that feels stilted when it’s an actual little girl. Perhaps sensing this fault, the film is loaded to the hilt with bite-sized moments that try to make the audience laugh, but do little to give the story any meaning.

    The difference between animation and live action is never more evident than with Jumba, Pleakley, and CIA agent Cobra Bubbles (Courtney B. Vance). Characters that are goofy and enjoyable in animated form come off as weird and off-putting in human form. They’re supposed to bring a sense of fun and even suspense to the film, but instead they feel like characters who are getting in the way of a better story.

    Kealoha, making her professional debut, is definitely cute and offers up some interesting moments opposite Stitch and Nani, but her lack of experience shows. Agudong turns in the best performance, giving a bit of emotional weight to a film that needed more. Galifianakis and Magnussen would have been better served as voice-only roles; neither comes off well when their characters turn into humans. Hill is like a warm hug every time she comes on screen, and the story could have used more of her.

    The new Lilo & Stitch is not an abomination, but like most of the Disney live action remakes before it, it fails to stand on its own merits. Never given a chance to be its own thing and featuring storytelling too disjointed to be effective, the film is another so-so effort from a studio that knows how to make much better movies.

    ---

    Lilo & Stitch is now playing in theaters.

    moviesfilm
    news/entertainment
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