"Happy Feet"

[Christ's Free Servant]

Neb, I was thinking about taking my grandson, thanks for the heads-up, I don't think we will be going.

Good plan! I wished I had read this before we went this morning. What a waste!

[nebula]

Oh . . . that was another song sung - "You don't have to be beautiful to turn me on..." - a song I just found out is by Prince. *gag*

All penguins have a "heart song", but all the songs are mate-searching songs (note: not love-searching, but mate-searching).

[Guest Biblicist]

Rated G or PG does not necessarily mean for children. I try to check this website before trusting Hollywood to entertain my children in theaters.

http://www.christiananswers.net/spotlight/...pyfeet2006.html

The site says Happy Feet was offensive! Glad I did not go see it. However I heard that Flicka was a good childrens movie. It gets a "Good" rating from Christian Answers website.

[nebula]

It's amazing . . .

I was watching a bunch of adds for "Happy Feet", and they show all the fun stuff with the five smaller penguins (the leader voiced by Robin Williams), but show nonthing of the emporer penguins singing . . . which is the dominant theme of the movie.

I guess they figured if they played the penguins singing, people would realize what kind of movie it was and not go see it!

[WillingToDie]

I'll probably catch some flak for this, but shouldn't we be worried about keeping our children overprotected? I mean, the sooner we expose our kids to certain things, the better they'll be able to deal with them when they're older. I understand the desire to protect our children from everything in the world that's bad, but it's not really a feasible idea.

I mean, to me, a movie with absolutely no objectionable material would seem kinda...boring. Exposure to this stuff is only dangerous if you're not willing to explain to your children what is and isn't appropriate, and willing to answer some difficult questions, it shouldn't be a problem.

This whole rant could just be a product of my growing disillusionment with political correctness. People just need to develop thicker skin.

[Guest Biblicist]

WillingToDie,

I can understand what you are saying. However, I do not feel it is overprotecting our children at all to screen or preview movies before they watch. Enough stuff comes into our house with objectional material, why would I want to PAY for them to go see it as well. I believe children are not protected enough, they are expected to grow up way to fast with worldly adult themes in their television programs, video games and education. It makes me sad to hear some of the things my children's friends have been exposed to so early in their lives.

I make it a habit to watch what my children are watching. We only have one television so it's easy to do that. I like to call it controlled exposure. I have been watching their shows with them since they were little and I try to point out behaviours or attitudes that are unacceptable. Now that they are teens I get the "Mom, it's just a move/show!" line, but they see the difference. If they watch a movie, such as Harry Potter, they are not taken up with the "magic" because they know it's wrong and not really real.

It is very rare that you will find a movie made by Hollywood that is truly aimed at very young children. If they did you'd end up with 2 hours of Barney or Franklin [Little Bear is my favorite]. Mostly they are trying to appeal to the adults in the audience since the adults are the ones buying the tickets. When you try create a movie that appeals to adult humor, or content, the movie is bound to contain material that is inappropraite for young children, there is no way you can cross over without it.

[Spunky]

It's amazing . . .

I was watching a bunch of adds for "Happy Feet", and they show all the fun stuff with the five smaller penguins (the leader voiced by Robin Williams), but show nonthing of the emporer penguins singing . . . which is the dominant theme of the movie.

I guess they figured if they played the penguins singing, people would realize what kind of movie it was and not go see it!

Since I saw the preview of that little penguin I have had my heart set on seeing the movie as have my trolls. I agree if the movie is as bad as this thread says it is then yes I wouldn't put

it past them to purposely have left many parts out of the advertisement! Thx all this saves me

the cost of tickets!

I'll probably catch some flak for this, but shouldn't we be worried about keeping our children overprotected? I mean, the sooner we expose our kids to certain things, the better they'll be able to deal with them when they're older. I understand the desire to protect our children from everything in the world that's bad, but it's not really a feasible idea.

I mean, to me, a movie with absolutely no objectionable material would seem kinda...boring. Exposure to this stuff is only dangerous if you're not willing to explain to your children what is and isn't appropriate, and willing to answer some difficult questions, it shouldn't be a problem.

This whole rant could just be a product of my growing disillusionment with political correctness. People just need to develop thicker skin.

I won't give you flak because in part I agree.

I don't wish to be too overprotective of my trolls but there are boundaries in which I will not allow society to corrupt them either. It is our duty to have our children prepared for society

the good and the bad has to be addressed before they are tossed into the world to fend for themselves, and that is one duty as a parent I take seriously "educating" my trolls!

Since Broke Back Mountain was a flop to it's targeted audience I guess they have decided

to use "Happy Feet" to achieve their goal.

God Bless!

[nebula]

but shouldn't we be worried about keeping our children overprotected?

I got exposed to pornography as a 7-year old . . . with unpleasant consequences.

A line has to be drawn somewhere.

[traveller]

First of all, I didn't see Mumbles's differences symbolic of being gay. He certainly wasn't gay as he had a female love interest. Instead, I thought it was showing that his difference was that of intellectualism. That he had more reasoning abilities and more curiosities about the "whys and wherefores than the other penguins. He wanted to know why things happened. Thats why he went in search of the aliens.

The biggest objection I found was that the movie pitted religion against education, which is a common misconception in our real world. Many think the two cannot go hand in hand. The guru and the elders were certainly symbolic of our snake-oil salesmen and hypocritical pew sitters. (the ones that that the "appearance" of righteousness, like the group of Pharisees that Jesus addressed.) But folks, we battle this daily in real life. Many nonbelievers see us all in that light. The phonies are out there, getting media time and it caused many to see all believers in the same light.

As far as the sexual inuendos, yep - it was there all right. However, the only one that really bothered me was the lyrics by Salt n Peppa's song. It's played on the radio all the time. But the film, as far as when it's on the emporer penguins, is about survival, and thier suvival is about making eggs. It's closely parellels the Dance of the Penguin, the documentary about the emporoer penguin, and that they find each other after the long months apart by their "song." I thought it was brilliantly done, myself. Certainly the dialogue could have been toned down for the little ones.

It was a political statement, to be sure, about our damaging the planet and reducing the food supply of the animal world. And, I think that was the crux of the film. That the religious uneducated ones are destroying the environment and damaging the earth while the higher educated scientist are the "good guys" that are needed to come save us all.

I think it's not for a certain age groups. It was perfectly fine for me, a grandmother. I very much enjoyed the comedy and the fact that I left there and the carload of us discussed it all the way home, and then later that night we discussed it even more. It made us think, made us communicate and gave us theoportunity to discuss God's glorious creation and our impact on it, whether it's right or wrong.

So, chunk rocks at me if you like - but I enjoyed it!

[Guest Biblicist]

Let he who is without sin "chunk" the first rock!

Thanks for that review, traveller, I appreciated it. I have found many of the kids movies enjoyable, not that I would let my children watch them though.