It used to be something of a stamp of certification that in a classic Disney movie, the parents never lived. As I sit here, I am having extreme difficulty remembering a single animated flick in which both the mother and father of the hero/heroine made it through the entirety of the feature. If they didn't die over the course of the film itself, they just weren't there to begin with- whether from a previous conflict or just lack of narrative space. The only time I remember ma and pa hitting the credits was in "Hercules", and that's because good ol' Hera and Zeus were immortal. This loss of a caretaker was not however just simply passed over in a light manner. The absence of the main character's mother or father had a profound effect of their lives, and oftentimes was the focal point of inspiration for their actions throughout the plot line. Simba sends himself into exile over the death of Mufasa, Pocahontas carried her mother's free spirit and necklace wherever she went, and Bambi was forced to fend for himself after mommy gets shot by hunters. Coping with living without a parent, once upon a time, was the biggest obstacle that a child could face. They were forced to reform how they lived their life to coincide with the legacy their ancestor had left for them. The heroes of the movies would go in search of the spirt of life itself, and where- whether in the stars, the leaves or the ocean one went when they left it. After seeing two of the summer's biggest kid-flicks: "Kung Fu Panda" and "WALL-E", I noticed that, while Po's mother is MIA (noting that "Panda" is Dreamworks, not Disney), the issues at stake in the two movies are much larger than figuring out how to save one's own life. Both Po the Panda and "WALL-E" must discover ways to save everyone else's.
I feel a bit like an old "babushka" when I make the observance that children today seem to have grown up faster than ever. My old-lady-like feelings continue when I see that parents now seem to have no issue in taking their charges to what I consider to be intense action films such as "Iron Man", and based on the already plentiful toys and merchandising, "Dark Knight". Kids of the new millennium are less easily phased than ones in the past- not as quickly moved to emotion or wonder. Like the pre-renaissance babies, they are more adult than youth. Stephen King once made the prophetic statement, "If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about leaning how to die." Based on children's' movies of the past year or two, King's prediction seems right on target. Since youth is shorter than ever, kids watching movies need not be taught how to fix their own lives- they are instead tasked with fixing the world. Global responsibility is the new keyword for morality. The selfish little princesses of the past are gone. Who cares about Snow White finding Prince Charming or Ariel becoming a human to kiss Prince Eric? We have to prevent global warming! Yes, I do acknowledge the climate crisis and the need to cut back and find alternative energy sources- but does a 6-year old need to as well? While "WALL-E" does have its touching moments of love... between two robots..., it is almost secondary to the greater cause at hand, which is to repopulate and un-pollute the earth. Po goes on a journey of self-discovery through Kung-Fu, but does so mainly for the benefit of his village, not for his own well-being. My jaw quite literally dropped at the climax's solution, where Po the fuzzy Panda warrior didn't simply punish the bad guy moderately, or bring him to jail, but flat out obliterated him. The friends I was seeing it with at the time remarked also on the oddly gruesome conclusion. Although I have completed childhood myself, I'd like to think that my time in its midst isn't too far off for me to just a bit of recollecting. From what I do remember, I can tell you that it was a complicated, and rough time. I can think back on laying in bed at night- not being able to sleep because I was so verklempt over what pondering happened when a person died. I literally couldn't close my eyes for bed. Maybe not every kid faces such a great personal debate, but in the first 12 or so years of life, there is a lot of figuring out to be done. It irks me greatly that an elementary school student is now supposed to take on the role of Atlas and carry the world around on their shoulders along with all their own personal burdens. For once, I'm asking for just a little selfishness here. Let the girls go out in search of their Princes, and the boys battling the dragons keeping them, and leave saving the world for the adults. In my own eyes, true love should come first.
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