We Bought A Zoo

Plot: Benjamin's (Matt Damon) wife just died, and he and his two kids move to the country and buy a private zoo. The zoo has a staff of eight including zookeeper Kelly (Scarlett Johansson.) Soon Kelly's daughter Lilly (Elle Fanning) is flirting with Benjamin's son Dylan (Colin Ford), and Benjamin's excessively cute daughter Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones) is smiling and saying cute things.  The Zoo needs a lot of money and work to reopen it, and Benjamin climb hurdles to do that.  imdb   Photos

Review: We Bought a Zoo is a cute movie with several interesting and well-developed characters played by competent actors. The story is very simple and the poor performances by the child actors plus poor editing made some of the movie unnatural and saccharin sweet. 

There are some good scenes like the lock scene with the lion or the drawing scenes with Dylan. 

Cast: Matt Damon, Scarlett Johnasson 

Directed by: Cameron Crowe based on the autobiography by Benjamin Mee

Rating:   2.0 stars:  Some kids might like this move, but some may be bored by the dialog. 

More: The real zoo is called Dartmoor Zoo, and it is in England not California. They specialize in large cats. Before Mees bought the zoo it had been shut down for illegally breeding tigers and for poor conditions. 

The real and fictional Benjamin Mee.

.