Okay, Peter Pan doesn't completely stink, but it is really annoying. The Disney Store had this amazing sale some time ago, and Peter Pan was one of the movies that they'd only release every 40-thousand years (brilliant marketing strategy, by the way), so I decided to buy it. I figured it had pirates (but not scary ones like Pirates of the Caribbean), its main character was a boy (rather than a princess), and it had old fashioned values. What more could my 6-year old LittleMan and 4-year old BoopaLoop want?
Most of the movie is fairly benign, in my opinion. Three cute kids have an exciting adventure to the land they always dreamed to go. That part is fine. The part that I find completely annoying is that EVERY SINGLE female character (except the mother) exhibits intense jealousy over Peter Pan! Tinker Bell hates Wendy because of jealousy. The mermaids hate Wendy because of jealousy. Even Wendy hates Princess TigerLily because of jealousy! As I watch my daughter watch this movie, I wonder what she is gleaning from it.
The movie ends well enough with Wendy deciding that she wants to grow up after all, but I'm convinced that the only reason for that epiphany was due to Peter Pan's reaction to Wendy's jealousy. He didn't care. I think the moral of this story is that girls get jealous all the time, and we as women need to grow up and fend for ourselves. And, that boys will be boys, and you can't change them.
I agree that jealousy is something to avoid like the plague, but to have every female character act jealous was too much. So, once the movie was over, I decided next time to pick the movie. I picked Ratatouille.
No one gets jealous in that one.
Am I being unreasonable? Is there more to value in the movie Peter Pan that I'm being blind to? Help me understand!
5 comments:
Have you ever watched Thomas the Tank Enginer closely? Those trains are jerks to each other. Also? I love, love the old-fahioned Christmas movies for kids, "Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer". Just watch as see how mean Santa is!!
Ummm....I think Ratatouille has its share of jealousy. Isn't the short, mean-spirited chef jealous (or envious or covetous) of the geeky kid's success?
As for Peter Pan, it is part morality play, part daydream fantasy and probably entirely reflective of the era in which it was written. The concept of, 'boys will be boys', kills me. I'v always detested that perspective in cowboy movies, when the judge or rancher used it to explain the behavior of psychopathic young ***hole thugs. (Maybe that's the reaction the author was shooting for?)
You might ask your daughter something like, "Wasn't it funny how all the girls were jealous? Would they be like that if you made the movie?"
Think of it as a teachable moment. Just yesterday I was able to talk to the girls about topics from High School Musical 3 *shudder*, and it was kinda cool to see what they thought and that they'd actually gotten the message from the movie: follow your own dreams, not the dreams of your parents or friends. Plus, BoopaLoop is probably more susceptible to the sneaky highjinx than the girl drama. :)
I haven't watched it in so long that I hadn't noticed... but now that you mention... I guess they DO do that. Geese! Not the greatest message I guess.
Oh, and the trick to folding fitted sheets is to grab the sheet from the corner of the sewn seam... not the actual corner of the sheet. Hmm, that doesn't really make sense. Umm, the 4 corners that go on the top of the mattress... those are the corners to grab, and from there it fold much better! Hope you understand what I'm trying to say, because I'm not sure that it really makes sense, LOL. :)
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