[Vision2020] Narnia

[keely emerinemix]

Chas raises some good points, and I know I've been criticized for letting my 
kids see some of the movies they saw when they were younger.  Neither has 
problems with nightmares and  their literary and film tastes are fairly 
sophisticated for their ages.  Still, I think Kong is a bit much for the 
preschool age group.  On the other hand, parents and grandparents know their 
kids best.

The guidelines in our household is that we avoid sexually degrading, 
gratuitously violent, overly scatological and stupid movies.  All 
subjective, of course -- there are some "R" rated movies that I have let my 
kids see ("Waiting For Guffman" is one of our favorites), and some PG-13s I 
would and have put my foot down on.  Anything that focuses on drunken 
teenage boys bedding as many cute blonde girls as possible while making 
parents look stupid is a no-go, and movies that show violence as sport and 
without consequence are, too, no matter how "cool" the effects.

Anything from the LaHaye "Left Behind" franchise is also prohibited, we 
didn't see "The Passion of the Christ," and the only version of "A Christmas 
Carol" worth watching is the 1952 one with Alistair
Sim ... on that, I'm pretty dogmatic!

keely

From: Chasuk <chasuk at gmail.com>
To: Shelly <CJs at turbonet.com>
CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Narnia
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 12:25:47 -0800

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.

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