Journey to the Center of the Earth!

As most of you know, Tom is a screener for The Heartland Film Festival. We get email from them all the time. One particular email caught my eye when it said win "free" passes to a premiere of "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Actually, it was the next day before I responded, but I hadn't deleted it yet. You had to answer a trivia question about the younger actor in "Journey to the Center of the Earth". What other Truly Moving Picture was Josh Hutcherson in? Answer: Bridge to Terribithia. We got it right and won the passes. www.trulymovingpictures.org

We (me, Tom, Hannah, and her friend, Sam, from Quebec) went Monday night to see it in 3D at the IMAX in Southern Plaza. It really was a good movie with all of the special effects. But the best part was that we got to meet the kid who is in it, Josh Hutcherson. We knew he was going to be there, but didn't know if we would be able to meet him. He was supposed to be there before the movie ended, but his plane was delayed in New York and he hadn't made it yet. We were just going to go home, but one of the Heartland Volunteers saw Tom and said "there is a VIP gathering in the back with food". Well, you didn't have to tell us twice. We went back to a part of the theater that most people don't even know is there. We had some dessert and spoke to Jeff Sparks, the man who started the whole Heartland Film Festival. He told us that Josh could still come and he would let everyone know when he heard something. We waited around and had some really good cookies.

Uuhhh Hannah, "there are people watching, could you not be so goofy"?

"Sorry Sam", she has come out of her shell a little bit since you were babies.

Finally, at around 8:45, Josh arrived in a big limo from the airport. By this time there were not but maybe 20 people total waiting for him, so we got to get his autograph and we actually had a conversation with him. He seemed like a very gracious, polite, boy (actually teenager). Tom asked him what the “goop” was that drips on his face in the movie and he said “some kind of stuff they use for sunburns” (he couldn’t think of the name) I said “Aloe Vera”, “Yeh, thats it”, he said. It was Aloe Vera and tree pulp and something else. Tom had just watched one of his movies, “Little Manhattan”, and he was talking to Tom about riding a scooter around New York in that movie. He just seemed like a nice guy.

Hannah and Sam were thrilled, but you can’t tell it by their faces. Maybe they were starstruck.
He asked how to spell Hannah's name. He is telling her here that he signed an autograph for a girl last week that spelled her name, Hannah, Hana.

Tom had to get in on the action too, being the movie buff that he is. I'm sure he will have some jealous little girls in his class next year when they see this picture. ;-)

And last, but not least this is a picture of Josh's

a.) Body guard

b.) Dad

c.) Teacher

If you guessed C, you were right. We asked him if he was his dad or body guard, he said "no I'm his teacher". We told him that Tom is a teacher too. I asked if we could take his picture and in the picture he is saying "why not". I don't think he gets his picture taken often.

So, if you like adventure, go and see "Journey to the Center of the Earth", in 3D if possible.