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10-Year-Old Movie Critic Becomes A Star Himself

Ten-year-old Perry Chen of San Diego is making a name for himself as a film critic with his Web site, PerrysPreviews.com.

The precocious youngster recently gave DreamWorks' new animated film, How to Train Your Dragon, 4.5 starfish out of 5, calling it "perrific" — a word he coined by combining his name with "terrific."

Perry tells NPR's Liane Hansen he uses starfish to rate movies instead of stars to be more "kid-friendly."

"Because I'm a kid, actually."

When reviewing a movie, Perry says he looks for strong characters, interesting story lines and "stunning" visuals. But the most important aspect of all for him is that a movie has a powerful moral, like Dragon did.

Perry says the film taught that "friends are more powerful than foes, and being different empowers you to see what others cannot."

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.