gothere
Posts 39
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3/19/2006 2:10 PM
posted awhile ago
Animation vs Photography
Having young children and starting this group, I find myself having a bit of a bias for films with photography over animated features for my kids. I'm not sure why. I like animation and grew up with Disney and Bugs Bunny and the like, but for some reason I feel better about my son watching March of the Penguins or Bears than Finding Nemo. Maybe it's that I want them grounded in reality, to love and see magic in the world around them (in addition to video games). Or something. Thoughts? Should I just stick with Nemo (which is easier) and take them camping?
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pariba_tourmali ne
Posts 20
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1/8/2007 3:34 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Animation vs Photography
My response to this is a simple question:
What does it have to be "vs"? That is to say, why is there the
implication that a choice should be made, or that one is bad and one is
good? I would argue that to really round out your children, expose them
to both! Why limit imagination to just images of reality? Should it be March of
the Penguins vs Happy Feet? I think there is room enough in art and mind
for both.
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gothere
Posts 39
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1/8/2007 10:13 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Animation vs Photography
I think you're right - and I'm a fan of animation!
I guess I show a little bias here, however, because of the branded characters in kid's animated films. Knowing a little about the value equation for kid's films - that they're primarily vehicles to sell you things like t-shirts and happy meals - makes me want my kids to first see "dinosaur", then perhaps "Barney."
Several years ago I visited a friend from college whose wife was working at one of the big studios in Hollywood. Hearing how the main character of this kids-oriented animated feature was changed so that it was more easily made into a doll just left a bad taste in my mouth about the whole process. How can this be good for kids, when it's not much more than a big advertisement?
But, does my son want a Buzz Lightyear doll? Yes. Will I get it for him? Probably.
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pariba_tourmali ne
Posts 20
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1/9/2007 5:05 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Animation vs Photography
It's true. Even the cute characters of Sesame Street are marketable and while I agree that large movie houses most assuradly take into account the marketability of their characters (cute and fluffy vs not so much cute and fluffy) I can't be all that mad at them.
As a child I was (and still am) a huge fan of Ninja Turtles. Before I had the toys, (and between my younger brother and I we had quite the collection) I would pretend my green friends were right there with me and I too was privy to their dark sewer lair. In fact, at the age of 8 I had a 450 page screen play written for TMNT 4 - if Peter Laird is reading this - I wouldn't mind discussing ideas for uncoming seasons of the show...
When my brother was younger he would dress up in costume for entire summers. One summer he was Robin Hood, another summer he was Peter Pan. The next summer he was Batman, then Spiderman, then Captin Hook and back to Robin Hood. For two summers in a row he and three friends were black ninjas.
I think there is an innate part of us, when we connect to something we want to take it with us. We suspend our disbeilef but sometimes we want to bridge the two minds. As children we want to cling to our new fuzzy friends before we fall alseep on our pillows. Even as an adult, my brother bought me a stuffed Stitch plushie (from Lilo and Stitch). Well, actually, truth be told, he bought it for himself but I stole it and then he later gave it to me because he saw how much I liked it.
Is it wrong that companies capatalize on our desire in this way? I don't know. Is this any different from say, the cellphone industry? What else are they going to cram into my phone? Maybe I don't want my music to be on my phone! (Mind you, I just read about the unveiling of the new iphone...and as a side topic...I'm really excited about the technology leaps - yay! And it's pretty!)
But to bring it back to cute characters and fuzzy friends, I think a parent knows their kids and so long as they're not prohibating imagionation or allowing their kids to get stuck in an alternaitve reality - I don't think cute characters and fuzzy friends are a bad thing. Some of the nicest friends I had as a child were my plushies. They were always happy to act in my home movies and never complained about bathroom breaks!
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gothere
Posts 39
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1/10/2007 11:39 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Animation vs Photography
And there you go.
I too have fond memories of brand name toys and media as a kid, and who cares? It probably led to my parents buying stuff for me, but is that so bad? I'm sure I run the risk of overthinking this. My son doesn't care if he's being marketed to, and perhaps it's a warmup for the hypermarketed environment in which he will live. It's like that book, Everything Bad is Good for You.
When I was a kid, I remember thinking that more media is good. But then I have friend who pushed his TV set into the closet, ET-style, when he had kids. I can relate to that, too.
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