7 Things To Expect When You Watch A Movie At Shaw Theatres Jewel's Kid-Friendly Dreamers Theatre

It should be obvious but I'll say it anyway: If you don't have a kid or are not accompanying kids, do not buy a ticket for Shaw Theatres Jewel's Dreamers hall. Unless it's the 1.30am screening, then okay. Maybe 11pm also okay, though there may still be some insomniac mini-mes out and about with their insomniac parents. Yes, the beanbag seats are pretty tempting, and it's definitely fun and novel to lie on a beanbag to watch a movie on the big screen, but it's not worth it if there are 10 children running across your line of vision, plus you might get hit by a stray ball from the ball pit.

I braved the under-90cm crowd (and their parents) one Sunday morning to catch Pokémon Detective Pikachu at Dreamers, and brought my own two rugrats to contribute to the chaos. After 105 minutes in Singapore’s first movie theatre designed with family in mind, I can tell you a few things to expect.

Yes, expect kids, duh. There are only two kids in this pic, as the Shaw Theatre folks closed the hall for our shoot, but it was full house in the screening that we attended right after, on a weekend morning. So take these kids and multiply by 10, and then put in their parents too, and you basically have a cacophony. Fortunately, there are only 39 seats in the Dreamers hall, so no many how full it is, you'll never have that many kids running around. Like I said, no one would opt to watch a movie in this hall unless they were with kids, because you can expect, among other things, children crying or wailing or talking at tense/sad/important moments in the film, kids running in front of you, tossing popcorn or balls around and generally behaving like kids. This is where parents come to watch movies with their mini-mes without repercussion or fear of being judged by kid-free movie-goers, 'cos all the other patrons here are similarly exhausted parents and their own noisy offspring.

Expect to pay about a dollar more for a seat in the Dreamers theatre than in normal theatres. So that's $9 for adults during off-peak hours and $14 for peak hours. Kids (below 13 years old) pay $5 and $8 for non-peak and peak, unless they are below 90cm, in which case they can get in free, although they don't get a cinema seat. If the kid doesn't pay for a seat, he or she can sit in a parent's lap, or come early and chope a space on a bean bag. Or sit on the floor, in the ball pit or on the mat. Anywhere lah. Oh, and each parent or guardian can bring along a maximum of only one toddler below 90cm. So no, you can't pay for one seat for yourself and bring your four kids in for free, lol.

In order to create a more comfortable experience for littles and their more sensitive eardrums, the sound level here is softer than in normal theatres. This is good. But imagine if there are kids talking or playing during your movie, and it's softer than usual... Let's just say we couldn't quite hear Ryan Reynolds' wisecracks in Pokémon Detective Pikachu all that clearly, and probably missed quite a few quips. The screen also seems to be less bright, to make it more comfy for kids. And for a few moments, I was afraid they weren't going to dim the lights, as that happened only after the movie had played for a few minutes. So yeah, it's not quite the full theatre experience, but that's the price to pay for enjoying a film with your spawn, right?

When I watched the movie here with my kids, the three of us squeezed onto two beanbag seats (me in the middle, falling through the gap). Most of the other parents sat in the proper seats (how wise). But it was fun to lie back with my mini-mes to watch Pikachu doing his thang. The only thing is that that there was a constant stream of little ones running in front of my field of vision, with one kiddo standing up on a slide right in front of me for a good part of the movie (no, you're not allowed to ask the kids to sit down, I think).

My son did. He was also conducting some kind of business dispensing coloured balls to the other kids, and only stopped when there were explosions on screen or something cool/loud happening in the movie. And that's alright. (FYI they disinfect the toys regularly.)

This is as a precaution so that kids are assured of safety. There are also more CCTV cameras in this theatre than usual. But two adults without kids can buy tickets. Why would anyone want to do that? See next point.

Yes, there are 1.30am screenings, and we assume there won't be kids up this late, so couples or friends can book tickets in the Dreamers hall to enjoy the beanbags (or, um, the ball pit) without worrying about rugrats marring their movie-going experience. You'll have to deal with the higher ticket prices and softer screen and sound, though. Worth it? Last I checked, two family-friendly movies were screening here: Pokémon Detective Pikachu and Avengers: Endgame.

Dreamers is at Shaw Theatres Jewel, https://www.shaw.sg/dreamers.


Photos: Celine Tan ( @celine_tan_ on IG)