blargblog
An expulsive extension of
When the new Potter installment reaches local movie theaters this month, I plan on taking my 6-year-old niece Katelyn to see it. She has a huge crush on Harry, of course, one that she's nurtured since she was still in diapers when the first movie came out a few years ago. I have never taken a kid to the movies before, so I am looking forward to it.
Yet I have some apprehensions. Only a couple years ago, an article like "Latest 'Harry' might be too scary for kids" would scarcely draw my attention. "Fooey," I'd say. "Give the little brats a good fright. Toughens 'em up for the real world, nasty place full of craven bastards that it is...grumble, grumble" and I'd skulk away to my dark little corner to draw more angry cartoons. But now I'm a daddy, a new parent sensitive to his child's development, and by extension, to that of every child. Some sunny-minded kindergarten teacher has overtaken my soul: "We must create a safe, warm and loving environment free of undue harshness where bunnies may gambol." [The gamboling bit is very important, in fact; bunnies can't gambol when the hunter sprays with his AK. ("Today was a good day," sez Mr. Cube.)] This coming from a guy who saw Roman Polansky's Macbeth when I was five, around the same time I saw Monty Python's Holy Grail. Yes, they left an indelible mark. A positive one, if ya ask me, but some may differ.
The professors of childhood development and mental shrinkage cited in the article recommend a few tips in preparing a young one for the "darker" themes of the new Potter flick. There are ten tips, in fact, but they all boil down to one: talk. Talk about the movie, talk about Harry's ordeal, talk about death, talk about how the child feels, talk about the difference between reality and fantasy, and so on. All decent advice, and certainly that last bit about separating fact from fiction can prod a kid along the path of critical thinking.
Still, I can't help but feel a slight dread. Stage fright, probably. When you're with a kid, you are on. The spot light trains on you and you have to say something, but not just anything, because kids are excellent BS detectors. Ya gotta speak true. When you spend so much of your adult life telling white lies to avoid awkward situations (cuz yer boss iz psycho, fr'instance) or smoothing over the wrinkles of daily interactions with other humans, or simply being a pretentious ass, such expectations of forthrightness and plainspeak can act like a state trooper's flashlight in your eyes. "Y'know how fast you were goin', bub? And why is there evil in the world?"
Uh, 65, officer, and something to do with social inequities...but don't hold me to that. My speedometer's a bit off.
Posted by kevinmoore at June 1, 2004 11:54 PM | TrackBackWell, good parenting is (in part, I the childless one imagine imagines) about knowing what your kid (or near-kid) is like and adjusting accordingly. We librarians talk about this ad nauseum. Sadly, there are few real tools to help parents (or anyone else) evaluate entertainment media that aren't produced by and for the kind of people who think kids seeing HP1 will turn them into Satanists.
There was a media report we used to get at my library in TX that catalogued each "use of the Lord's name in vain" in current film releases. Someone actually had to count such things! But it also included notes on violence, things like "Suicide: offscreen". I very actively avoid cinematic depictions of sexualized violence, personally. Such a review source had some use for me, taken with a grain of salt. I just wish there was some resource out there that reviewed titles for stuff like violence, scary situations, etc. without the moralizing and pro-censor baggage.
But of course, the only way to really know if a movie is something you want your kid to see at a particular time it to watch the damn thing yourself.
Posted by: sd at June 2, 2004 03:55 AMI wouldn't worry about it too much. It was made w/ the knowledge that itty-bitties would be seeing it. Remember that they said the same thing about "Gremlins" - being too scary for children, that is.
I saw "Boxcar Bertha" when I was six. The scars, if not healed, are only a minor hindrance at worst (giggle, giggle, snort). Yeah, talk is a good thing. Let the kid talk and help out if that's necessary. Chances are that it won't be. Have fun.
Posted by: Jake Squid at June 2, 2004 10:24 AMI saw "Heavy Metal" when i was 8, and I still haven't recovered. "but it was animated" my at-the-moment-adult-guardian-friend-of-the-family explained to my parents when i couldn't sleep for a week. Apparently he didn't think me hiding behind the chairs with my head down occasionally peeking and grimiacing wasn't an important enough signal to leave the movie. After all, he was enjoying it. Idiot.
For "Harry Potter", I think it will be fine, but likely scarey (I think Jake is half-right, but gremlins was prety fucking scarey too, depends on age and kid), and talking afterwards sounds good. All sort's of advice, be ready to walk out if she needs it, don't talk AT her, blah blah blah. But at the time you'll know what to do. you're a smart and sensitive guy.
Maybe afterwards you should see a porn flick. No scarey stuff there, and plenty to talk about afterwards. :)
Posted by: cbaldwin at June 3, 2004 07:24 AMThe lack of porn for children is certainly a serious deficit in our culture.
(That was a joke, for all you ironically-challenged people out there.)
I've read the Potter book —all of 'em, in fact, and I anxiously await the 6th installment, because I am a big dork— so I know basically what to expect. I think my apprehension is just general jitters related to the big change in my life that is about to occur. Overall I am positive, but being human, some butterflies poke the lining of my stomach.
But thanks all for the reassurance.
Posted by: Kevin Moore at June 3, 2004 08:48 AMYou saw Macbeth at age five? Whoa. Cool!
Posted by: Zen at June 3, 2004 02:06 PMI concur with sd - know the kid. I was traumatized by Snow White when I was 3, and couldn't watch a disney movie (or most any other movie) until I was somewhere around 10 or 12, and then had to watch them because I was too ashamed of being seen as a wimp. Depending on my mood, some things still totally freak me out even now in my wise old adulthood - for example, the scene in Momento when he "remembers" how his wife was killed. *shudder*
And when I saw previews for the new Harry Potter, they scared me. The kind of scary that I'll be able to handle, in the right frame of mind, but definitely something to be prepared for. So because of my personal baggage, I will be careful when/if I see it.
It really depends on the person and on their triggers - perhaps spending some time talking about movies, what they are and how they are made, can give the kid a way to step out of the action and not be terrified.
I think the scaryness factor of movies is hard to evaluate, and I think that one needs to take into account the overwhelming sensory nature of theaters too - that is why they are great, of course, but also why they can have so much of an impact on young'uns.
Enjoy the movie!
I saw le Prisoner de Azkaban last night with my significant other. Aside from it's being the best made Harry Potter movie yet, as well as one of the best fantasy movies ever made, the movie rates pretty high on my "creepy" factor. It didn't seem scary in a way that would give me nightmares (although the Grim and the werewolf and the Dementors might freak out some little kids) but there were parts that had me squirming with the sheer eerie creepiness of them.
Did you see it, yet? How'd the kiddo do?
Posted by: PinkDreamPoppies at June 5, 2004 02:16 PM