‘Dive-in’ movies make a splash

Dressed in a pink-rose-colored body suit, 2-year-old Emily Suh approached the edge of the swimming pool, wiggling her toes against the cold, wet concrete as she tried to muster up the courage to jump into the arms of her father.

After brushing off a few straggling hairs blown across her face by the breeze, she leapt.

This wasn’t the kind of swimming lesson that Emily was used to. In fact, it wasn’t a swimming lesson at all. About 40 other children were in the same pool, splashing water, screaming with excitement and waiting to board the 45-foot multicolored inflatable Water Play Fun Run as part of the second-annual Splash Bash, a dive-in-movie event presented by the City of Newport Beach Recreation and Senior Services Department.

“The program has grown from last summer to this summer,” said Adam Liu, assistant recreation coordinator of aquatics.

“We wanted to provide something for the community to do during the summer other than going to the beach.”

The event, held at Newport Harbor High School’s swimming pool, combines swimming with movie watching.

“It sounded like fun. I like movies, and I like to swim; so it’s pretty cool I can do both at once,” said 11-year-old Emilee of Costa Mesa.

Anchored at the north end of the pool was a 19-foot jumbo screen that remained deflated until dusk neared.

“Are they still going to play ‘Happy Feet’?” asked 5-year-old Austin of Newport Beach.

As the sky whirled into a puffy blur of fuchsia and sapphire, the children splashed their way to the front of the pool, hanging on to whatever flotation device was near as the opening sequence to the 2006 Disney movie “Happy Feet” rolled.

“My kids were very excited when they saw the flier,” said Monique Lacher of Newport Beach. “On our way over here, they said, ‘We’re the luckiest kids in the world!’ ”

On July 27, the Splash Bash feature is Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller “Jaws” — a movie that made many fear what lurked beneath the ocean water.

“We thought, ‘what movie can we show to get an older crowd?’ ” Liu said. “It’s a great summer movie that teens will enjoy. We even plan to have shark piñatas. It’ll be lots of fun.”

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IF YOU GO

WHAT: Splash Bash dive-in movie night featuring “Jaws”

WHERE: Newport Beach Harbor High School, 600 Irvine Ave., Newport Beach

WHEN: 6 to 9 p.m.

ADVICE: Bring your own flotation device