I have written before on my love for spelling bees. When I was in elementary school I would always sit at home the week before the bee, reading the dictionary, in an attempt to gain some sort of advantage over the other children in my class and advance to the next round in the bee. Unfortunately for me, all the dictionary reading did me little or no good. I was almost always eliminated during our classroom competition every year. One year I managed to advance to the school level only to be defeated by a child in an opposing class. I was an enthusiastic competitor however and was very sad when middle school came, and the spelling bee was no more.
The movie “Spellbound” is a fantastic portrayal of the spelling bee world. While I never made it to the spelling bee on the national level, I imagine this is exactly what it looks like. The movie follows the lives of eight children who won the spelling bee on the regional level and now are in Washington D.C for the nationals. The children all come from different backgrounds in spelling and in life. Neil has a spelling bee tutor and Angela comes from a family that does not speak English.
This true story from the 1999 spelling bee for me is more about the children in it and how they related to their families and the world around them than it I about spelling. You can see how different children can be from their parents, and how different parents treat their children when they are entered in a competition. Some of the parents in the movie are obviously happy that their child has gotten that far, other parents obviously will be unhappy if their child doesn’t walk away with the top prize.
This is a great movie for families to watch together, everyone will be able to see a little of themselves in the characters in the movie and undoubtedly by the end of the movie you will view the world and the people in it a little differently. The movie may be a little over the heads of younger children but is appropriate for all ages..
Spellbound is rated G and is available where DVDs are sold as well as online at Amazon.com