Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Children's films

We purchased Shrek 2 as it was going cheap. It's quite good fun. I like the bit where the transformed Shrek steals some people's clothes, as his ogre-y ones no longer fit, and he says in a princely way "I will repay you..." and then adds "if I can find you... and if I don't forget".

A lot of the humour seems aimed at adults: like Pinocchio wearing ladies' underwear. I'm not sure whether that sort of thing is crossing the line. It makes me uncomfortable, so it's crossing my line. I'm sure it went straight over S's head, but still... It contrasts rather markedly with the other children's film we watched recently, Peter Pan. Very knowing humour vs a more wholesome child-centred movie. Clearly the modern film has the adult audience very much in mind.

Although Peter Pan is not without its problems: I'm not at all easy in the depiction of the "Red Indians" and although Wendy resists the role of "squaw get firewood", I'm not particularly happy with the gender stereotyping. Still, it gives me something to think about, and something to discuss with S. She didn't want to be Wendy when we were doing the dress-up for school thing, she was Peter Pan. :)

She describes herself as a tom-boy, which is definitely an expression she picked up at school. Hmmph.

No comments: