March 24, 2006
SITBB Vault: They'll Find it Disturbing???
| I admit it: I was wrong.
After bugging me and bugging me about the "Charlie" movie every time we walked into Blockbuster, my kids finally got me to relent and let them see the first Willy Wonka movie. I have to say, these munchkins are a lot hardier than I was. They did not appear to be scared at all--let alone "traumatized." And--thankfully--this time around neither was I scared or traumatized. In fact, this time around I was looking at the movie through a family scientist's eyes. And the thing that fascinated me was Charlie's family structure. Both sets of grandparents were living at home. They were, however, bed-ridden, leaving young Charlie and his mother (no father in sight) to work their fingers to the bone to support everybody. I do not know what that was about. (I guess I'll have to read the book to see if more of an explanation is there.) But for me, that was the creepy part this time--the extreme poverty, the bed-ridden but apparently (at least in one case) perfectly healthy grandparents... Not to mention Mr. Wonka's appropriation of an entire race of beings and making them work for him in secret confinement in exchange for their lives and safety--How's that for a-no-ther rid-dle for you! Anyway. When I'm wrong I'm wrong. And I was wrong about this. My kids loved Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Maybe I'll even let them get the new version next time we're in Blockbuster. (Originally posted July 21, 2005.). |
OK. I said I wouldn't blog about this, but the inner child in me will not allow me to remain silent. I must speak out on one of the great traumas of my young life. A trauma so deep and pervasive that just the thought of creating its physicality by typing about it on my keyboard makes me fear for my continued sanity.
I am talking about the time when I, as a child, saw "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."
This is the first one, with Gene Wilder as WW. And now the perfectly sane and non-twisted mind of Tim Burton is bringing us a second remake of the Roald Dahl book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" starring that other paragon of cinematic normalcy, Johnny Depp.
If this type of thing thrills you, then by all means, go see the movie. But please think carefully before taking along your young child. Here's what the Nick Jr. parents' movie guide has to say about the appropriateness of this film for the six and under set:
They'll find it disturbing when the children are punished for not listening: one of them turns blue and blows up, one falls into a chocolate river and is then sucked up into a tube, another is miniaturized and has to be stretched back on a taffy rack.
They'll find it disturbing?! Heck-I find that disturbing! And mind you, I happen to be a horror/science fiction/mystery fan. I remember when I saw the first WW film I had the idea that all these "bad children" were being murdered, dispatched with in the most gruesomely creative ways. You might say, my first slasher film--years before I saw "Friday the 13th" or "Halloween" or "Nightmare on Elm Street." I only got it, years later when I saw the film again as an adult, that these children did not actually die. (There is one brief exchange in the latter moments of the first movie where Charlie asked where the kids went and WW says they're OK... I must have missed that as a kid. No likely due to the PTSD the movie had already caused me to suffer.)
Then there is something else about this movie that puts it off of my "must see" list. I can't quite put my finger on it...but I think that the colorful, widescreen visions of all that candy and chocolate and sweets will be for some kids almost--pornographic. Especially for today's kids, many who get such things in their own lives only as an occassional treat. (Or, in our case, when they visit any of their grandparents.) Like I said, this notion is vague. Don't ask me to explain any further.
Now, I've been in conversations with other folks around my same age who had the exact opposite reaction to WW. Some of them had read the book first. Some didn't. And, I generally am a fan of Burton's work--even if I think it very clearly is "adult" in nature.
But, my daughters will not be seeing "Charlie." Maybe they could handle it. Afterall, they love watching "Teen Titans"--a far cry from "Care Bears"--with their comic book connoisseur Daddy. And they are big fans of "Alice in Wonderland," another work with...shady (if not dark) elements, which I previously read chapters of to them at bedtime over the course of several weeks. They might handle "Charlie" just fine.
But I have a feeling I'd be quite disturbed. Again. (*shudder*)
Posted by perry032 at March 24, 2006 07:24 AM