Lately it seems like movie after movie designed or portrayed as "kid" movies have been nothing but cute characters with mature language and a heavy story line. This isn't new news, after all, Bambi was a movie for children and his mother was killed by a hunter. Plenty of protagonists have been portrayed as victims of a lost parent and other realities in life I find myself explaining much earlier than I would have liked to my young preschooler as I try to balance them in their movie theater seat. For me, it's one thing to have to explain what happened to Bambi's mother or why Cinderella has a "step family", but it's something entirely different when crude humor is weaved throughout the entire film.
One of the worst movies has been "The Cat in the Hat." It's such a fun (okay, not really) little story to read by Dr. Seuss that has nothing in it that would make the reader whince as they trip over their tongue reading through the rhyming, sometimes senseless pages. So when the movie premiered on Thanksgiving when Jay was 2 years old, we thought it would be a perfect family outing before enjoying the holiday. Boy were we wrong. Okay, so Babe was thoroughly amused by the Cat's antics and wild ways, but I expected to be entertained by the fact that my child was entertained. I don't pay to see kid movies so I can get caught up in the story line or the characters that use adult humor to pull me in. I pay so my kid can enjoy a kid movie! So what are the writers of these movies thinking?
I was even further agitated with the genre while watching "Happy Feet". Why on earth would Warner Brothers use cute, fluffy little penguins to get moviegoers to sit through an hour and a half of dancing and singing and a plot that would soar over the heads of the audience it looks like they were targeting?? And the reason the smaller penguins had a 'Mexican' accent? The whole movie just kind of baffled me. Cute? Definitely. Appropriate for kids? Definitely not.
So my son is just 2 years old and doesn't follow story lines anyway, but at 6, Jay is capable of following along...she didn't get into "Happy Feet" at all because it was over her head. And why was Lovelace a "loverboy" of sorts that encouraged one penguin to continue the moaning noise she was making as he and several other female penguins head over the snow mound to...what? It's a kid movie, why should it even LOOK like they are going to...whatever? Again, baffled.
Don't even get me started on "Shrek", which I love, but don't really want my kids watching. Nas started calling his sister a jackass after watching the movie a few times. See what I mean? Oh, and I love LOVE "Cars the Movie", but why does Lightning McQueen have to say he's in hillbilly hell? Uh, what?!
I know that studios just want to make money, it is the American way. But they don't have to go all out, pull all the punches to entertain ME. I go to movies with me, a woman, as the target audience. Going alone to see "Shrek 3" or any other movie whose previews make it seem very kid-friendly is not my cup of tea. I pay the $7 a ticket for the kids...I love the kids, when will studios love them too?
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