Hope, Fear, Adventure
Yesterday I explained my objections are to kids and kid movies, particularly ones that celebrate childhood as something sacred and wondrous where wild things run free. The best line of the piece: “The wake-up call of the Great Recession means that the age of the ‘infantilization of movies’ — a term coined by Pauline Kael, as I recall, in an attempt to describe the influence that Spielberg and Lucas began to exert in the mid ’70s — is coming to a blessed and merciful end.”
I should acknowledge that HE reader “Cde.” pointed out the following: “I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I’ll just say that [Where The Wild Things Are director] Spike Jonze seems to have a similar view to your own, which is exactly the reason that the studio freaked out and got into the huge battle with him that lasted eighteen months. They wanted reassuring, obvious bullshit that celebrates childhood and he made a film about the necessity of facing reality.
“A better way of putting all of that would be to say that Jonze wanted to make a film that was true to Maurice Sendak‘s feelings that, while children certainly have compassion, they are often unconsciously cruel or insensitive because of their lack of understanding of the world and those around them.”
The trailer for Where the WIld Things Are is one of the best trailers I’ve ever seen.
That looks good, but I don’t think it looks amazing. Maybe it’s because of my Deafness, but people claim that the music makes the trailer even better. For me, it’s just blah.
The only problem I have with what you’re talking about Jeff is that kids are finding this out too soon and becoming adults (in dress and vernacular) much more sooner than before.
You guys hear about this kid who became a father at 10 with a 13 yr old girl?
wtf…?!
How do you keep reinforce certain stereotypes for kids and tell them it’s going to be ok too?
Amazing coincidence: DNA test proves that Alfie is not the father:
http://jezebel.com/5185323/alfie-patten-is-not-a-13+year+old-dad
DeafBrown — it’s the imagery in the trailer that grabs me the most.
Heh. I’m almost halfway to “called it” i.e. Jeff liking the movie (“because I divine that Spike actually agrees with me!”) and then hating it once it makes money and the damn thing isn’t even OUT yet
Also, it occurs to me that MOST childhood-fantasy films – the good ones – DO have this as their basic message. Peter Pan (from the original story on down) is about rejecting eternal boyhood, “Labyrinth” is about Connelly’s character getting out of her extended-adolesence and being responsible with the kid brother, even “The Goonies” (currently the go-to movie for web-based movie writers to slag on in order to prove their non-geekiness to the mainstream press) comes dwon on the side of the main kids growing up, facing fears, dealing with their various issues etc.
Same for Old Yeller and it’s spiritual successor E.T. (at the end of the day, magic bikes and all, E.T. is about Elliot accepting A.) responsibility for somethin outside himself and B.) to accept impermanence, something he’s been fighting against since his parent’s divorce.) If you want to see a “childhood fantasy”-worshipping Spielberg movie, it’s not ET, it’s Close Encounters: The main character acts like a hypperactive six year-old lost in his own imaginary world, is proven to have been 100% correct while everyone who didn’t indulge his whimsy is proven to have been wrong not to do so, and then his heroic-sendoff is essentially abandoning his adult responsibilities to go off to alien-fairyland.
TrashPunk, the music makes my impression of the trailer a lot better because it’s such an unusual choice for a children’s film. Makes me see it as more serious, or more Eternal Sunshine for kids than Harry Potter.
MovieBob, I agree fully, but would argue that Close Encounters A) is also a brilliant metaphor for what can happen when an artistic seed is sown and is nurtured at the cost of everything else, and B) works better today than ever before because movies do indulge our fantasies and escapist needs, and that the nightmarish descriptions of family life and responsabilities followed by the momentous escapist climax strike a stronger chord the more we struggle in our humdrum lives. The bills are still there when we switch off the BlueRay.
As for real adolescent rubbish you can’t go wrong with the new testament, as we will not die, our situation is not permanent, and that all our wrong doings are corrected by a scapegoat on a cross as long as you don’t think accept alternative theories about why we’re alive etc. If politicians are required to believe that fairytale it seems like kids not “growing up” is a moot point.
If Wells’ expectations come true that might be a good thing, but much like 9/11 was supposed to precipitate the end of the age of irony, I somehow doubt that the Recession is going to stop people from wanting to see massive, escapist spectacles like Transformers, which means that people will still make them. I would love to think that we might advance into an era where filmmaking is more thoughtful and personal again, but the machine’s already working and way out in the field, and without just nuking the whole damn thing and starting over I think the best filmmakers are going to be able to manage is giving it a tune-up every now and then, making it work better, more efficiently, or more effectively.
That looks good, but I don’t think it looks amazing. Maybe it’s because of my Deafness, but people claim that the music makes the trailer even better. For me, it’s just blah.
action: If the trailer was made 25 years ago and called Neverending Story, I’d agree.
gil: I’m assuming(or at least hoping) people will avoid TF 2 because the first one sucked, regardless of the economy.
I liked the trailer although that’s more than in those 20 something pages.
The book is about being pissed at your parents, living the wild life and then eventually getting bored of the party and wanting to go home for a mom’s cooking. It’s a good thing to tell your kids – which is who first reads you this story when you’re supposed to go to bed.
Yesterday I explained my objections are to kids and kid movies, particularly ones that celebrate childhood as something sacred and wondrous where wild things run free. Today, I would like to extend my objections to people and to movies about people generally, particularly ones that celebrate human life as something sacred and wondrous. We all know the converse to be true. Life is, without exception, brutal and grim, where fleeting moments of apparent “happiness” only make the inevitable miseries more difficult to endure. Give me a soda, a carton of Milk Duds, and movies without hope, and I’m content.
I think a lot of people will be surprised when this comes out.
Thanks for reading and posting, Jeff.
特价机票
北京特价机票
上海特价机票
成都特价机票
杭州特价机票
西安特价机票
重庆特价机票
广州特价机票
贵阳特价机票
长沙特价机票
天津特价机票
南京特价机票
郑州特价机票
南宁特价机票
国际机票
国内机票
团队机票
上海到长沙机票
深圳到上海机票
航空新闻，机票新闻
国际机票价格查询
断桥铝门窗
阳光房
深圳航空公司
南方航空公司
东方航空公司
海南航空公司
上海航空公司
山东航空公司
四川航空公司
厦门航空公司
国际航空公司
美国西北航空公司
奥凯航空公司
上海吉祥航空公司
华夏航空公司
香港华民航空公司
国泰航空公司简介
澳门航空公司
东北航空公司