Redstate

Hollywood just always finds new lows to reach.  Disgusting.

...violent lawlessness perpeterated against Evil Capitalist Businessmen, in the name of the Sacred Ecco-Conscience of the Universe, Mother Nature.

But... to square such behavior, and contrast it with the harassment (picketing) of abortion mills and the Doctors who make them possible.

One group is Heroic and Heart-Warming, while the other is Sinister and Evil.

Baby Owls vs. Baby Humans

Hmmm... the math seems wrong here.

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.. happened when my buddy's girlfriend, who was a diehard liberal, threw out the old wage gap between men and women b.s. When I called her on it, she admitted she knew it was false, but that since the cause was just, it was OK to lie. When I asked her who decided what things it was OK to lie about, she said she was because she was right. Not too arrogant heh?

... and don't pollute your kid's brains with this propaganda film.

...and rent 'Ghostbusters' so that they can learn who the real eco-terrorists are.

--furious

...and rent 'Ghostbusters' so that they can learn who the real eco-terrorists are.

--furious

this book to my fifth graders during library time.  We have been reading a chapter a week since January and we are two chapters away from completion.  

The book is quite good and addressses many issues other than the owls.  It deals with bullies quite well.

While the theme of the book definitely has a liberal, pro-environment stance, it has some good messages as well.

Habitat destruction is an issue that we should all be concerned with.  Not just in the US, but worldwide.  We have to find a balance between economic interests and ecological interests.  We owe our kids nothing less.

You all disappoint me in this respect.  Go read the book and then see the movie.  Then make your judgements.  But don't ignore the reality that we only have a finite amount of space on this planet and we need to ensure we continue to pursue an appropriate balance between man and animal.

I have not seen the movie, but I have spoken to several who have seen it (with no particular political leanings) and they basically said it's a cute kids movie.  It's not something anyone over the age of 15 is really going to get into, but it's prefectly fine.  And as far as law breaking goes, the context is the developer is breaking the law first with help from some corrupt officials and the kids react, it's just a cute david and goliath thing, I wouldn't get all bent out of shape about it.

...but I think that what many people here may be reacting to is not the message so much as the way that said message is presented.  Which, judging from the review and the trailer, will probably be via the rhetorical equivalent of a jackhammer.

But we could probably stand to be a little less reflexive; and as you may be the only person here who actually read the book, well... :)

makes perfect sense, and should be well
taught to upcoming generations.  

But... the old theme from Hollywood, that businessmen (greedy profit mongers like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney) are always out to rape the land and fillet the wildlife, to satsify their demonic drive for more profit and power, has been driven like a wooden stake into the hearts of children these past few decades.

In fact, I may go so far as to suggest that the current disrespect in the public arena for Republicans, and the upstanding members of the current administration, is a result of that message being played over, and over, and over again.

Thoughts?

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Should have had the bulldozer clearing a way for a Hollywood movie set. Or to be building a huge 24 screen theater with 15 acre parking lot.

...a cute movie, but the point is that it's all so poltically correct. What if it were a movie about kids who decided to take up hunting? Can you say, "National boycott?"

Kinda wish it had focused on some of the other themes of the book.

What's worse is that this was by Walden Media which conservatives and Christians celebrated as a counter to regular Hollywood fare with its family friendly, wholesome and traditional values mission (Narnia).

If a supposedly socially conservative production company can't keep itself from going leftwing in Hollywood with tripe like this, what hope is there?

book.

She said it was a good book (I admit I didn't read it and haven't read it, but she is a voracious reader) and she wants to see the movie (doubtful it will fit into our softball, baseball, track, work schedule).

I am bothered by the "ends justify the means" behaviors, but this would be a good jump to discussing that topic, and whether the kids were behaving acceptably.

Tilda Swinton: The 2006 San Francisco International Film Festival "State of Cinema" Address (May 4, 2006)

Transcript:

At the press conference in London for Disney's film, I was asked to chilling frisson in response, if I were still a member of the Communist Party. A friendly Spanish journalist reassured me later, sotto voce and with apology for her (American) colleague, that in Spain things are more clearly understood. The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.

The fact is, as I clarified that day, I never stopped being a communist. The fact IS that the Communist Party of Great Britain no longer exists as such. That the party was morphed into the democratic left over ten years ago. That my membership of the party was an act of faith born out of an alliance with ideals of fairness and a commitment to a welfare state that it was clear to me then was in the process of being deserted by the parliamentary left.

But I love the idea of goose-stepping old Walt D. making over $700 million dollars with the help of a Red Witch. He is more than welcome. At least we made her whiter than white, the ultimate white supremacist, and we managed to railroad the kneejerk attempt to make her look like an Arab. And maybe, just maybe, on top of all that, Disney might have ended up underwriting the most expensive advertisement teaser for Derek Jarman's and Lynn Hershman's back catalogue that any of us could ever have imagined. Besides, I always was a believer in the essential message of the Narnia film -- in my universe, beavers CAN talk. The rampant old church that cinema is. You never can tell who's gonna jump up into the pulpit.

...she didn't have any say in the script.

Is one word of the description given here untrue?

But there is nothing cute about criminal behavior, no matter who is doing it. And the twin morals of "two wrongs make a right" and "the ends justifies the means" are a horrible lesson to be teaching anyone. There is no way I would take a kid to see this movie.

one of the few they got right, wouldn't it?

was well cast as a witch--she was VERY NASTY!

If what has been described here is true, I don't need to read the book or see the movie to know I would never have allowed my children to be exposed to any book or movie in which sabotage, felony vandalism, kidnapping, and endangering people's lives with deadly reptiles is equated with justice, or raised to the level of role model. It doesn't matter what their cause is. It teaches wickedness on every level from morals to civics, and turns capitalism into a blanket villian. That will do nothing but confuse and shape a child at an age in which they are unable to distinguish right from wrong at those levels. There are a lot of other ways to teach a child good environmental concepts without exposing them to this.

Aren't already deluged with environmentalist and anti-capitalist propaganda on a daily basis as it is. Even if someone was eager to indoctrinate their kids in this stuff, there's plenty of relatively harmless alternatives out there that don't teach horrible lessons that are found here.

in the book wrt bullies, following the law, etc...

I almost abandoned the book a couple of times because it started out pretty slow and I teach at a pretty conservative Christian school, but I felt the message was worth presenting.  So, we stuck with it through the slow parts.  The kids have really enjoyed it and it has allowed for lots of neat discussion.

I'm not big on censoring what our kids read just because the message might not fit in a neat little box.

My girls are begging to see it, so I'll probably take them next weekend, between softball, basketball, and t-ball.  :)

"But we could probably stand to be a little less reflexive....."

casting.  When I first saw Narnia, she made my skin crawl.  I just could not describe her to my husband.  He finally got to see the DVD with the kids last weekend and his reaction was the same.  She is one evil witch.

Oscars this year-she should have gotten a best actress nomination-she was very evil in the film (as she was supposed to be).

rather than just saying no, sometimes it is a good way to bring up the issues and discuss them.

I do admit outside of absolutely inappropriate material for the age (and I haven't seen anything to indicate it isn't appropriate for the agegroup), I am not too controlling of books-we are a reading family, and we love to talk about books, what happens in them, if they were good, bad or whatever.  I sometimes think this is better anyway, when it comes to teaching the reasons why behind moral beliefs, than trying to censor it entirely-which in this day and age, is difficult to do.

That doesn't make a movie good or worthy of being seen. Any piece of propaganda can qualify as a "teachable moment." This one is not one I would take kids to... any more than Fahrenheit 9/11 or this movie.

I'm careful not to have a knee jerk reaction that this films' message (and environmental consideration in general) is "anti-business" or "anti capitalist".  It's merely saying a pancake-house restaurant doesn't belong here.

Too often people assume that if someone opposes some development, they oppose ALL developmennt as some kind of matter of fact.  Much development is cheap crap - endless fast food franchises that few people like and justly try to contain. There's no reason that business has to be cheap and shortsighted, but it often is, as are, of course, knee jerk environmentalists.

I would rather have this movie end in away that the business people, say, redesign the restaurant in a way that dosn't harm the owls, rather than being outright slapped, but c'est la vie.

on this one.

Books provide a great teaching tool regarding the lessons of life.

I am also pretty sensitive to the whole idea of censorship as well.

At our school a group of my colleagues are reviewing the novels we read with our kids.  Maniac Magee, the 1991 Newberry Award winner written by Jerry Spinneli is probably going to be banned from our curriculum beginning next year.  It passed a review committee several years ago and has been a part of the 4th grade reading program ever since.

This year I used an excerpt of the book in an assembly kicking off our annual reading program and two first grade teachers raised a flag on my choice of literature.  I explained that it was part of the curriculum and they were horrified.  Long before they ever read the book.  They dubbed it racist and felt that it depicted Catholics in a negative way.  They have since read the book, without an open mind and have deemed it unsuitable for our school, yet the fourth grade teachers still used it this spring.

Sadly, my principal will probably side with them and our kids will miss out on one of the best books written for kids that age that deal with the tough issue of racism, bullying, etc...

So, I welcome books, even controversial ones.  :)

FTR-Hoot won a Newbery Honor Award in 2003 and  spent over a year on the NYT Bestseller list.  That being said, I'm sure the book is much better than the movie.  That is almost always the case.    

other movie would not be deemed "age appropriate" by most.  Myself included.

If we put such a narrow standard on works of literature, there wouldn't be much we could let our kids read.  And they would miss out on some good lessons in life.

Of books and movies aimed at kids that do not have the protagonists responsible for a long string of very serious criminal activity? Where the same do not face any consequences for this behavior? I find that hard to believe.

I don't see this as a narrow standard. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that movies that glorify criminal activity, show that it is free of consequences and just a great way to get involved in a cause are not worthy of being seen.

I would put this movie in the same category as a hypothetical kid movie where the protagonists did drugs and had a great time and suffered zero consequences. Not appropriate for kids. Even when accompanied by instruction IMO. I don't see the great lesson in life in that kind of material.

You would know that if you read the book.  I can't speak for the movie as I haven't seen it yet.

And, honestly, what you are deeming as serious criminal activity is quite minor when compared to the crap kids watch on TV and engage in as they play their video games.  Most of what goes on in the book would have been listed as "pranks" in my days.  YMMV

If we were to expand "prank" to cover everything shown in this movie, certainly other things like theft would qualify. Hey, nobody got hurt. I guess that's all that matters.

I don't see vandalism and destruction of other people's property as a prank. I don't see kidnapping as a prank. Even trespassing on a construction site is not something to be shown as acceptable. Not only is it very dangerous, it is illegal (and enough to get you a free ride home in a police car). None of this stuff they did were "victimless crimes." Having the kids doing drugs would actually be an improvement, since in that case, they wouldn't be out victimizing people.

As for consequences, if they won in the end and didn't end up in jail or dead at the end of the book, I would say they were not serious enough. I'm not going to run out and buy the book or see the movie just so I know how it ends. What's been said here (and not refuted) is enough.

"I'm not going to run out and buy the book or see the movie just so I know how it ends."

I can not speak for the movie, but the book does end well.  And there is even some redemption for one of the main characters.

Believe me, there is far, far, worse out there being fed to our kids everyday.  Even at taxpayers' expense.  In the big scheme of things, this book is quite harmless.

And it has been recognized for it's contribution to children's literature by being a Newbery Award Honor book in 2003.

have resulted in kids going to jail.  When I worked Juvenile probation, about the only thing that got you sent off were serious felonies.

The majority of this stuff would have gone straight to a diversion program, or resulted in a fairly short probation.

at least in my opinion.

I do think books used for class should be carefully chosen, but I also think that if people look hard enough at any book they are going to find something that offends them or bothers them.  I would much rather work through the whats and whys on these issues, than toss out a good book-provided the book being used is age appropriate.

I reread Johnny Tremain (Newberry 1944) last year. What a great book. Still holds up and the language is suitably challenging.

Recent award winners have tended toward sensitive explorations of the downtrodden. Bah. I blame, It's Like This Cat (Newberry 1962).