Something Worth Thinking About

An old classic

     Do you remember all the movies you used to watch as a kid, or books that you read? Have you ever gone back to watch them again and see either how terribly bad they were or how heavy on adult themes they were and were surprised? If you haven’t yet you should, it’s quiet an experience. 

Great movie though, very funny

 

    This is not news for anyone really, take a recent movie, I say recent loosely here, “Bee Movie”. This is a great kids movie, heavy with laughs, cute animations and good themes, but on the outskirts of the movie there are tons of adult themes all throughout it. From jokes on religion, to racism, to oppression, to love, and so forth. This is a common theme among children’s movies, there are many theories as to why this happens. The prevailing theory is the movie producers creating something that the child and the parent will find funny and enjoy….but it begs the question, is this a good thing?

Oh Awesomeness

    When I was young the big movie for our time was “The Goonies” which I thought was epic, love it then and still do now, it’s a classic among classics. Though I was surprised when I re-watched it the other day how heavy it is with adult themes, racial profiling, and just simply full of mature situations that my 5 year old brain could not comprehend when I first saw it.

or is it?

    The question here is one of morality, and of when is it ok to introduce this type of content to children. I do not have any kids of my own, so it’s not like I’m the best person to speak on the subject, but it is something to ponder, something to think about and wonder how much of a subliminal influence those movies we saw as children affected us now that we are adults, or young adults. 

     This even applies to books, specially books really, which rely on your imagination. I saw a young girl waking out of a Barnes and Noble with a copy of Twilight the other day, and it made me laugh, the first thing I thought was “Man that conversation with the parents is going to be ackward, specially when she gets to the forth book”. We’re talking a 10 year old girl at most, being introduced to well, quiet graphic material. It’s a strange world we are living in these days.

     Now I’m not being critical or anything, I merely think that this is something that should be thought out and carefully by parents, and surely by us that suffered through the influence of these movies. Where did we learn about bullying, about social norms, about what’s cool and what sucks, television and movies of course, thus further enforcing the point that we ought to consider this topic more closely.

           

    Fun Fact: Dolphin's Tale is the only movie that is specifically coming out in the market that is directed towards children, in the next 4 months, crazy right? I think it’s important that we consider the future generations, it doesn’t matter how young you are, it’s important to consider the impact you are making on those around you and the impact they are making on you. We should strive to create a better world, and seek to provide all new generations with the best possible world for them to grow up in. Thus the nature of this post, a call for us to consider what we watch and what we let others watch, is there any harm, why or why not? And if there is then how may we go about fixing it?

We’ll never know unless we ponder these matters and strive to create a better future.

        Let me know what you think,

   Love from your humble blogger,