Planet B-Boy

Title: Planet B-Boy
Format: DVD
Director: Benson Lee
Year: 2007

Summary/Review: The documentary "Planet B-Boy" begins with a brief history of b-boying, or breakdancing, around the world. It follows with interviews of B-Boy pioneers and current b-boys, and ends with footage from 2007's Battle of the Year. The bulk of the documentary focuses on a handful of International b-boy crews as they practice for, and compete in, the Battle of the Year in Germany.

I'm very white and very Midwestern (if labels mean anything), so my boyfriend thought it was odd when he came home to find me watching Planet B-Boy. But, regardless of culture/etc., how can someone not be fascinated by these dancers? Their stories are interesting and their moves are amazing. The muscles on these people! And their ability to spin, jump, flip around! Beyond that, too--the way all these people relate to breakdancing despite their very different backgrounds and lifestyles. The team from South Korea was made up of teenagers from the country who lived pretty impoverished lives. The team from France used breakdance to reach out to youth in a community center. And the team from the USA competed with full support from their parents--something pretty unimaginable to the Korean and Japanese teams.

Planet B-Boy could be an excellent documentary choice for tweens. I'd recommend it to viewers on the older end of the tween spectrum, simply for the subtitles, some of the subject matter, and the language (they're b-boys; don't expect them to have super-clean vocabularies!). But anyone 13 and up should be able to read the subtitles fast enough, enjoy the subject matter, and be entranced by the crazy moves.