Posts
Within the first two minutes of the show they show Nemo's mom disappear. There was a little girl behind us that just screamed "NO!!!!!" and started sobbing. She was screaming on and off for the first 5 minutes she was so upset. My heart absolutely broke for her....I just couldn't stop wanting to make it better for her. I was brought back to when I saw Dumbo in the movie theater. I have never remembered this before yesterday. When Dumbo is taken from his mother and they are touching trunks I remember just being devastated! Of course I was raised to shove those feelings inside and God Forbid don't show them in public. I remember looking over at my sister (who was 8 years older) and she looked perfectly fine. I think my mom was there too (which is weird because I never remember going to the movies as a family except to the drive in once to see Peter Pan) and she grimaced a little. It stayed with me for a long time after but I don't think I ever spoke about it until now. I thought about Bambi and when his mother was shot...there is a part of the Frozen musical at Disney where the guy says "They DIED????? What is this Bambi? Or Finding Nemo? or Cinderella? or Tarzan? Or EVERY SINGLE Disney movie ever?" That gets a huge chuckle from the audience every time. But after this it got me to thinking. Why? Why did Walt find it necessary to make children's movies that have the most horrific thing that could happen to a child happen and we, as society eat it up with a spoon? What's wrong with us lol? Than I realized that there were a thousand other people in that theatre watching Nemo and that little girl was the only one I heard having such a hard time with it. Why? Are people so desensitized to it? Is it because everyone knew it was going to happen? Than we went to see It's Tough to be a bug. My daughter and I were screaming, no joke screaming the first time we went. Ducking down, covering our heads when the spiders came down. Now, we are prepared and assume the position before they release the spiders. Well....there was a little kid behind us yesterday that obviously didn't get the memo. He was SCREAMING and crying and I swear I never saw a dad move so fast in my life to get him out of there. Again....I had to wonder, what the HELL is wrong with Walt Disney? Why does he enjoy traumatizing children? Than I realized that some people ENJOY that....and that perception is reality.
That made me think of another movie by Walt. Snow White. And I thought about the dwarfs and how they are viewed by people differently. I always loved Dopey (obviously!) and I thought of Grumpy as the "bad dwarf". My very own prince Charming changed all that for me. He LOVES Grumpy and identifies with him. That kinda disturbed me at first, not gonna lie, but than he said Couldn't you tell that Grumpy had a crush on Snow White? I was like huh? He pointed out that when Snow White paid attention to Grumpy he blushed and how he was very protective over her. How the hell did I miss that???? He has an uncanny way of making me see things I've never seen before...he's magical like that. This was all spinning in my head yesterday as I contemplated whether or not Walt Disney was a mean man 😈
It occurred to me that his movies were meant to touch people in different ways. To show real life in fantasy, if that makes any sense. Today most people don't want to see that the bad often brings the good. That without sadness you can't truly appreciate the joy. Way to go Walt. Life is not always perfect. There are hard times along the way but if you stick with it, you get your happy ending. And in between, it's just a day in the life 💓
No comments:
Post a Comment