Thursday, November 30, 2006

Crappy Happy Feet?

Media Matters has a couple of posts on conservative criticism of the children's movie Happy Feet.

"The idea that anyone would make such comments against a children's movie about a tap-dancing penguin shows just how low the bar has dropped for what the media consider real news," Media Matters spokesman Karl Frisch said. "Conservatives seem to have abandoned their traditional coverage of the supposed 'War on Christmas' for a 'War on Penguins.' "

Maybe Frisch didn't watch the same movie I did. I took my kidlets to see Happy Feet last Wednesday, despite having heard Medved's movie review describing the film as "darkest, most disturbing feature length animated film ever offered by a major studio." And while I'm not sure I would say it was the darkest, it was certainly anti-human with thinly-veiled anti-religion themes.

It's not that there was anything wrong with the story on the surface. Who wouldn't love a cute lil' penguin who just happens to be different figuring out how he fits in the world? Mumble is adorable, sweet, happy, and cheerful despite the shunning he receives throughout his life. He's the picture of optimism and, like second marriages, the triumph of hope over experience.

The problem I had with Happy Feet was the preachiness of it. How many more children's films need to lecture the audience on the virtues of environmentalism and tolerance of differences? I see the books that come home every day. Kids get those messages loud and clear. And the anti-religious theme was both distasteful and unnecessary. As Mark Pfeiffer at Reel Times says:
HAPPY FEET is a didactic movie that takes on religious fundamentalism and addresses environmental concerns. There's nothing saying that entertainment for kids can't be substantive, but the film's hard sell against belief in the supernatural and for ecological care are simple-minded and preachy. Perhaps it's reading too much into HAPPY FEET, but is Mumble's difference from the pack simply a way of encouraging kids to be comfortable with who they are or suggestive of a lesson in accepting those with racial or sexual identities outside the majority? These thematic elements are bold choices for a movie about singing and dancing emperor penguins, but they don't mesh very well.

In essence, I took the kids to a cute penguin movie and sat through an 87-minute anti-civilization, anti-religion rant. Fortunately, two of my kiddoes are too young to notice the heavy-handed eco-religious bent of such films.

Given Media Matters' leftwing bent, it is understandable that they would complain about conservative gripes about a kids' movie that is filled with "messages." While I wouldn't go as far as Medved did in condemning Happy Feet, I wouldn't recommend it, either. It just takes too long deprogramming the kiddoes after the propaganda ends.