A buzzy interactive experience is cropping up in San Antonio this summer as local festival grounds bloom to life with acres upon acres of sunflowers.
Through Sunday, July 18, Traders Village, located at 9333 Southwest Loop 410, will welcome visitors for the first time to its 10-acre Sunflower Field, complete with an abundance of various types of sunflowers, walking paths that saunter through the meadows, and even a winding sunflower maze for bloom buddies to romp through.
Open on Saturdays 10 am-6 pm and Sundays 10 am-5 pm, the Sunflower Field experience also promises acres of photo ops — as well as a professional photographer who can print photos onsite — and plenty of sightings of Buzz, the official “spokesbee” of the Sunflower Field.
Tickets for the Sunflower Field run just $7.99 for adults and kids age 3 and older, and include a wristband good for all-day visits to the flower fields. Kids 2 and younger get in free.
But amusement fans wanting to make hay while the sun shines should opt for the $14.99 combo tickets, which gain holders all-day access to the Sunflower Field plus all-day access to Traders Village’s family-friendly carnival rides — including the 128-foot-high Fleafall drop, the Pharaoh’s Fury swinging boat ride, and the antique carousel.
Parking is an additional $5 per car.
All ticket holders will also be able to check out Traders Village’s petting zoo and inflatable slide attractions. And for a few extra bucks, visitors can take a few shots with the absurdly entertaining apple cannon.
The Sunflower Field includes a winding maze flower lovers will be happy to get lost in.
Traders Village/Instagram
The Sunflower Field includes a winding maze flower lovers will be happy to get lost in.
Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Claire Foy, Phoenix Laroche, and Billie Gadson in The Magic Faraway Tree.
With kids and families always on the hunt for entertainment, it’s typically a safe bet for a movie studio to offer up something new, even if it is a film based on an old property. The Magic Faraway Tree, based on a series of books that started in the 1930s, is a very old property, one that its filmmakers have tried to liven up with a few stars, a lot of whimsy, and a boatload of CGI.
The Thompson family, led by stay-at-home dad Tim (Andrew Garfield) and breadwinner mom Polly (Claire Foy), are forced to move to a rundown country home when Polly gets laid off. The kids —Joe (Phoenix Laroche), Fran (Billie Gadson), and Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) — are used to the perks of city life like wifi and electricity, and each of them rebels in their own way to their new lot in life.
Fran, enticed by a fairy named Silky (Nicola Coughlan), is the first to venture out of the house, making her way to a magic tree that transports her to a world full of strange characters like Moonface (Nonso Anozie), Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), Dame Washalot (Jessica Gunning), and more. Her adventures there not only broaden the world she thought she knew, but may be the key to helping her ailing family.
Directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2, Wonka), the film is a pleasant enough lark, but it fails to fully capture the imagination. The five-member family has a lot going on, from an initially mute Fran to a domestic situation that raises more questions than it answers. The film tries to incorporate an anti-technology message through Tim’s hatred of a smart refrigerator (voiced by Judi Dench!) and the kids' addictions to devices, but it’s quickly shed in favor of other options.
Once Fran makes it to the Magic Faraway Tree, there’s a nice shift in the storytelling, but it’s unclear what the ultimate goal is. It’s a good idea to have Fran, the youngest of the children, convince her older, more cynical siblings about the virtues of the magic world, but the conflict in the real world doesn’t seem to rise to the level needed for the escape the tree provides.
There also seems to be a missing link in the storytelling for viewers to understand the importance of the fantastical characters. The visuals of seeing Moonface and his crescent moon-shaped hair, a man with a suit full of banging pots, and more are fun for a while, but not enough to carry the whole film. A last-minute revelation feels like it was something that should have been disclosed much earlier to help strengthen the emotions of the story.
A two-time Oscar nominee, Garfield is making his first foray into family movies (if you don’t count playing Spider-Man), and while he does a good job, he doesn’t make the best fit for the semi-goofy role. The same goes for the Emmy-winning Foy, who isn’t given much of anything to do. The movie puts the story on the shoulders of the three child actors, and while each of them acquits themselves well, none of them are so outstanding as to be noteworthy.
With nearly 90-year-old source material, The Magic Faraway Tree needed to be something truly special to stand out in the 21st-century movie world. Unfortunately, it features a mostly forgettable story that features some fun visuals, a couple of cute kids, and not much else.
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The Magic Faraway Tree is now playing in theaters.
