I’ve had a big problem with “kiddie” movies ever since I realized Maile was getting scared when she was watching them. I think she was around two years old and she was watching a movie where Elmo’s blanket gets stolen and he goes on an adventure to get it back from the bad guy.
Maile has an attachment to her own blanket so it only make sense that it would bother her to see Elmo going through blanket withdrawals. She used to cover her eyes with her hands during the scary parts and before long I just got rid of all those movies. No sense in causing fear in my little girl for no reason.
Ever since then I’ve paid a little closer attention to what the kids are watching and I can’t begin to tell you how irritated I am with these movies…particularly Disney, but they’re not the only ones. Why is it necessary to introduce young children to violence and separation anxiety at such young ages? Or am I an irresponsible parent for allowing my two to five year old’s to watch Dumbo?
This weekend I took the girls to see Madagascar Two…super cute, but I have a complaint. At the beginning of the movie they show how Alex the Lion was taken from his original home in Africa and eventually transported to New York.
It was horrible. Baby lion Alex is SOOOO cute. He’s playing with his Dad who is soon distracted by another lion in the pride. When he turns back Alex is gone. Alex had wandered off and was nabbed by poachers and tossed into a crate. Alex’s Dad goes running after him screaming his name while Alex cries out in his super cute baby lion voice “Daddy!! Daddy!!”. The music and the sound effects and the screaming after one another was just too much as my daughter’s looked on with jaws dropped.
Alex’s Dad was clawing at the crates, nearly freeing his son, before he was SHOT in the ear and falls to the ground. The baby’s crate gets loose and goes tumbling down into the river and by the time the Dad recovered he went chasing BACK after the truck. I wanted to stand up and scream “NOOO!!! HE’S IN THE RIVER!!!!! HE’S. RIGHT. THERE!” It was awful. And really. Was it necessary?
Couldn’t they have had a little girl playing at a campsite when Baby Alex went waddling in, and oops, unbeknownst to her parents she had stuffed this little lion into her suitcase and no one was the wiser until they landed home in New York? None of this horrible separation and screaming of each others names stuff. I mean that’s just heart wrenching…for ANY kid…at ANY age…HELL struggled with it.
Do you realize how many movies DO this??
Dumbo’s mother is viciously whipped and roped up as she tries to protect her baby from a mean boy. After she is jailed Dumbo is forced to turn to a mouse for support as his entire family of elephants shuns him.
In The Land Before Time, Little Foot’s mom dies in a fight with Sharp Tooth while trying to protect him. He sees her image in a cloud that has come back to advise his and as it is being whisked away he runs after it crying “MOTHER! MOTHER!”
In The Lion King, Simba’s Dad rushes to help save his baby when a heard of wildebeests come stampeding through the valley. After securing Simba in a safe place there is a horrible scene where the Dad is barely hanging on to the edge of a cliff before his brother pushes him over the side, leaving Simba as the only witness to his father’s death.
In Finding Nemo, not only is his mother attacked and killed by sharks within the first two minutes of opening, but his Dad spends the rest of the movie desperately searching the ocean looking for Nemo after he is kidnapped.
In Cinderella we are spared the gruesome details of her parents’ deaths, but indeed they are both dead. Cinderella is alone and with, again, mice to console her as she works as a servant for her hateful step-mother.
In An American Tale, Fivel is separated from his family and spends many a heart wrenching scene trying to find them and reconnect.
Pinocchio is coaxed away and kidnapped from his Grandfather.
And we all remember Bambi’s mothers sweet departure as Bambi goes yelping “Mother! Mother” through the forest all alone on a particularly cold winter’s day.
I don’t get it. Why is it necessary to kill off parents? What age range are these movies targeting? Why is it necessary to separate kids from their families? Family is the most secure and safe part of most kids lives. Why rattle that by planting the idea that that security could be destroyed?
Why do I have to leave a movie theater explaining to my four year old that I’m not going anywhere? Why does Disney get to determine when I have the death talk with my kids? It doesn’t help that I am extremely sensitive on the issue of losing a parent. Losing my Dad as young as I was definitely puts me in a place, now as a mother, where I want to protect my kids from those thoughts. I don’t want them learning or thinking about death for as long as humanly possible. Why push these confusing and painful concepts?? Why not let kids be kids and allow them to avoid thinking about death, and separation, and violence for violence sake, if they don’t have to?
I say boo. Boo to you kiddie movies.
Lindsey says
I have to agree with you on this one. I have long had a problem with Disney’s portrayal of loss in its movies. My son has watched many Disney movies, but I cringe when I see these scenes on screen. I guess I’m as guilty as many parents of falling into the “magic” of the rest of the movie while glazing over the bad parts.
heather says
Wow! You are right! Don’t forget The Rescuers, that was a fave when I was little. But it’s downright scary. And mean.
hellyamber says
Man you are right, I hated Dumbo and Bambi as a little kid because of what happened to their mothers. I’m going to think twice before letting my separation anxiety ridden little man watch Disney (not that he’s allowed yet anyway – too many scary beasts and concepts for a 16 month old).
Cranky Sarah says
It is hard, and some movies are OUT for us, but they’re still in our lives. Mostly at the hand of my parents, who showed them to us when we were kids and we came out OK so…?
My MIL passed away recently, but we haven’t told our kids. Her age, condition, and 2 day drive meant that she wasn’t really in our lives. But I fight wanting to protect them from that and guilt for not being 100% honest.
boo to you says
i watch alot of kids movies. i see nothing wrong with them. the ones that are bad for kids are movies with blood, guts, foul mouths, stuff that adults do behind closed doors. wich is aired on T.V every day starting at or around 1pm with soap’s. so before you blame kids movies blame the junk on t.v first
JustMom420zaks says
I love you guys, but for the first time am driven to disagree. These movies are part of our childhood. They help kids conceptualize the bad things that sometimes happen in life, in a way that is understandable to them.
I think by shielding our kids from everything negative, we are disabling their ability to deal with bad things when they finally come their way (and they always do.)
Always remember, in all of these movies, the star always looks inside his or her self and in the loyalty of wonderful friends to overcome these terrible things that happen to them. I think that’s the best message of all… if Bambi or Simba or Ariel have the inner strength to make it through this, what can I do?
Jennifer says
Eeeew!So,ya want Disney movies to be all freakin happy?!That would just ruin them!I`ve always watched Disney movies and NEVER had a problem with them.It`s called emotional!…….sissies can`t handle it.
Jodi T. says
This is so true. I have to admit, I LOVE Disney/ Pixar movies. I don’t know why….. I cry STILL when I watch Dumbo and Bambi and heck, even Toy Story 3 had me in tears… At the movie theater. PLEASE don’t get me started on UP. Your statement about “what age do these movies target?” is a good GOOD question… They seem more appropriate for an older audience, but yet are sold to the kiddies.
Marissa Moreno says
I think that yes some disney movies are had to watch but most children do not really understand or get as deeply into it as you do, at 3 or 4 they enjoy the colors and the pictures, more. I watched all of the disney movies when I was younger and I agree there are many with upsetting plot lines, but speaking from personal experience, it’s better to face your anxiety’s and know what they are, if I wasn’t so over-protected and sheltered everytime there was an upsetting scene, when I got Seperation Anxiety at 13 years old (VERY SSTRANGE & RARE) I would’ve understood better what was happening and might’ve dealt with it a lot better then by hiding from the world. If you protect your child to much, they don’t always recognize what’s bad because you’ve sheltered them from it. Dirty words, drugs, they don’t know the consequences and what it is when someone’s doing it right in there face. Think about it.