[Vision2020] Narnia

[Chasuk]

On 12/18/05, Shelly <CJs at turbonet.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the clarification Chasuk. So the movie is just now coming out? After 50 years? Did it start as books?

I will have to admit that I am flabbergasted.  Narnia is one of the
most popular series of books in the English language.  Maybe the most
popular series of children's books ever, possibly excepting Harry
Potter.  As famous and well-loved as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
and Charlotte's Web.  They were such an important part of my own
childhood that I guess I thought they were equally important to
everybody.  It grieves me in an odd way to realize that I was wrong.

> Let me know if I can take my 4 and 6 year old Grandsons to King Kong.

That depends on your grandsons.  When my daughters were 4 and 6, I
would have taken them.  In fact, I did take them (to similar films). 
As a result, the depth and breadth of films they an enjoy is
unhindered.  The requirement of quality is the only limitation, not
genre.     I believe firmly that parents/grandparents manufacture the
type of film goers that their children/grandchildren will become by
what they exclude more than by what they include.  That, and their
reactions.  If the accompanying adult is clapping their hands over the
"innocent's" eyes, and shrieking "Oh my God!  Are you traumatized? 
You will have nightmares forever!" than the poor child will certainly
be traumatized and have nightmares forever.

My mother-in-law did it to her children, and as a consequence my
lovely wife finds Raiders of the Lost Ark a terrifying movie.  My
wife's sister used to find the Klingons on Star Trek terrifying.  For
years, if the movie was not called "Thumbelina and the Care Bear's
Happy Valentine's Surprise" she couldn't watch it.  She used to get up
and leave the room during the "scary" moments of Lassie, Flipper, and
the Buck Rogers TV series.  No, I'm not joking!

Do your grandsons a favor.  Take them to see King Kong.  Let it scare
the shit out of them, but give them a cuddle and tell them it's all
right.  They'll thank you for it later.