Monday, November 26, 2007

I'd Like To Slap Seinfeld

I'm not shocked to find the concept of death in children's entertainment. I'm not shocked at the violence. Disney does try to subdue it from the original Grimm's fairy tales, but it is there. Yet when I walk away from a Disney flick, I still have that sugary feeling. I don't know if I've been brainwashed by the Menken musical scores that sing out "Kill the Beast," but somehow the backstabbing Gaston falling to his death is acceptable. The pierced-electrified Ursula is a relief. I think they get away with the violence and death, because it is the comeuppance for the villain.

Seinfeld should have taken a cue. There I am in the dark theatre with my little one watching The Bee Movie. When our hero, suggests "How about a suicide pack?" to our heroine. I'm not kidding! He actually said that! This is a children's movie. It didn't add to the plot. It wasn't funny. And the man has small children of his own! What the hell? My mother and I looked at each other shocked over the head of my little child. Both of us hoping she didn't pipe up with "What's that?" I just don't understand how such a stupid joke did NOT get edited out of a children's movie. And to think, we saw the stupid Bee Movie, because we were afraid Enchanted would be too dark.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anon#1..since my little one is still too young and wiggly to sit through a movie I'm sitting back taking it all in.... but I realize all the lamenting about no family entertainment is not without merit. I'm saddened to hear suicide mentioned in a kids movie. I guess Disney does soften the blow but the beginning of FINDING NEMO still is a horror to me and I'm forever scared by the way BAMBI loses his mother.

alicewonderland said...

I know what you mean about Nemo. We had to start that movie with scene select, because the first time we saw it she kept asking "Where's Coral?" "Where's Coral?" She hasn't seen the end of Bambi or Charlotte's Web. But mention of suicide pacts as a way out of a dillema seems the ultimate in disturbing to me.

John J. said...

Isaac did the same thing with Nemo; it was his favorite movie for a long time, but he would make us sit and snuggle with him through the beginning. He still hasn't made it through a theater movie yet though. When we took him to see Ratatouille he said "It's too much TV." and couldn't be coaxed into going back in. Now he is saying he wants to see the Magic Emporium. We'll see how that goes...