Ok. Recently I have been so swamped that I barely have time to breathe so when all my plans for a Monday went belly up I found myself with nearly six hours of free time. Chores were done. No work. Already gone to the gym. I weighed my options. I could always FIND more work that needed to be done. Or I could pop some kettle corn and have a movie marathon until my husband got home.
I started my marathon with a few episodes of Attack on Titan but for anyone who has seen it, it's a bit dark and not in the funny way. So I moved on to What to Expect When You're Expecting. Great cast list, super funny, and curbs my baby fever but by the time it's done I wanted something a bit less bubbly and that's when I saw The Nightmare Before Christmas on my Netflix queue. It had been years since I'd seen it or really thought about it. When talking cartoons with my friends who have kids it generally doesn't make the list and never understood why before now.
I was reflecting on that movie and it seems the great underlying theme of The Nightmare Before Christmas is that if you try to branch out of the place society has created for you, you will make people suffer and ultimately fail until you move back into your place. Wait, what? Was that really the concept that they wanted us to take from the movie. Society will put you somewhere and you better stay there? Now I'm not sure if I want my own kids watching that, you know, once they actually exist.
Of course this couldn't be allowed to stand. I loved this movie as a kid. I don't think I came out to scarred for watching it. I attempted to try and find something redeeming about the message that this was portraying and I'll admit I came up with slim pickings. The best I could do is change it from 'your being punished because you branched out' to 'we are presented with a protagonist who learns to be happy with what he has in life and with this enlightenment he is greater fulfilled as a self conscious being.' That's an ok message but I guess it's not the worst thing cartoons has thrown our direction.
I burst out laughing when I heard Disney finally made a cartoon about sisters bonding and the concept that you shouldn't marry the first good looking man you meet. Pat yourself on the back Disney. I'm proud of you.
Have a lovely weekend. I'll try to be a little more insightful next time. Maybe. We'll see how it goes. I might give you a rum cake recipe instead.
-Amanda
No comments:
Post a Comment