Dear MPAA: Please update ratings system

There are few animated/computer-generated movies for kids (or shows, for that matter) that don't have some sort of "agenda," if you will. My son loves the Backyardigans, which is about as innocent as they come, but even they have an agenda....sharing, kindness and using your imagination.

If the message is man is destroying the environment (which is hard to dispute, at least in some form) and celebrating diversity, I have a hard time disagreeing with that message. In fact, that's one I'd like my little man to learn.

If there wasn't a message, it would just be a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

 

Those damn Backyardigans will teach my kinds to be nice over my dead body.

 

tom and jerry fuckin' rules. it has an agenda, violence is the solution to all problems.

 

Just once I'd like to see the cat beat (read: "kill") that fucking mouse.

The above sentence also works when referring to Sylvester vs Speedy Gonzales.

Altering it slightly -- "mouse" becoming "bird" -- makes it appropriate for Sylvester vs Tweety.

 

All these cartoon movies seem to come with some kind of simpleton message these days. I am taking my neice and nephew to movie this weekend. I will be sure to drive them in my Hummer to offset any brainwashing they get during movie.

Come to think of it everything seems to have a hidden agenda now a days - On MondayNight Football JaY Z was in the booth for no good reason other than he happens to have a new CD coming out.

 

Doesn't sound like Jay Z's agenda was very hidden there, Boom.
So because you drive a Hummer, global climate change isn't real?

 

Boom keeps it unreal.

 

Novelist, didn't you take your kids to see this movie? Isn't it likely that they won't know what symbolism is just yet? I mean, it is a kid's movie after all.

 

They're 12 and 13, they're pretty green (eco-wise), and they're also very bright. My daughter wanted to go see it because she thought it would be fun. Every time we drive past a construction site where clearcutting was involved, my son bemoans the loss of the trees. I'm sure the symbolism wasn't lost on them. FWIW, they both enjoyed the movie (and for the most part, so did I. I seriously want the soundtrack), which ultimately was the point, I suppose. I'd just like to be able to go somewhere where the politics are checked at the door, or at least they let you know ahead of time that someone's bailiwick will be foisted upon you.

 

I think you're being pretty naive to think that politics are never involved in most facets of life.

I am not trying to ridicule you, but do you also believe in journalistic objectivity as a gold standard? Because the desire for apolitical filmmaking would seem to run parallel to a steadfast belief in objectivity that many question.

 

DOH, you're misreading me here. It's not that I "think that politics are never involved in most facets of life." Politics are everywhere in our society, all the time. So when I plunk down $16.50 for me and my kids to see a movie about dancing penguins, I'm thinking, this'll be amusing and I can, you know, take a break for 90 minutes or so. Rate this movie G-SB, and maybe I seek my break elsewhere.