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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."

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