Children's Media Response: #3

Looking at some of our media examples from class and from the assigned homework readings/videos, I feel as if I understand fairly well what the inquiry topic means in regards to children's media.  I have a good grasp on what that is and what it does.  A child is a new human: someone who is venturing into an entirely new planet.  They are curious, they are wild, they are students of every facet of life.  This leads to a need that their developing minds have.  They must try to understand what is around them.  I feel that there are many different ways in which they can learn--and media in its various forms is just one of them, but a very effective one.

The They Might Be Giants album about science is a really nice example of a healthy and fun piece of entertainment to expose a child to.  It utilizes animation and absurdity and catchy tunes to get some complicated or confusing information out.  I would say that even as an adult, I still learned a new thing in every song.  The videos and songs were informative and creative and varied in topics enough to keep the journey fun and stimulating.  This is something that is important for children, who tend to have shorter attention spans.  The videos are short and fun enough to keep them engaged. Not only that, but they are still promoting good ideologies and ideas.  They are still prompting kids to be nice to the environment by driving an electric car, or to be nice to animals who provide us with many resources.  

We talked for a second in class about some hidden ideologies in different things that children engage with, and I stand by those ideologies not only being present but as being active and playing an active role in the developing minds.  Kids are way smarter than they get credit for.  Especially because they are students, they are watching carefully.  Children are eager to understand and eager to learn.  They see something, and while they may lack some of the analytical tools that adults have, they still analyze in their own ways.  A kid can still watch Pinocchio and come away from it with the knowledge that bad decisions = bad consequences, and they can still come away from the science music videos and know that an electric car is better than a gas car.  They are understanding, and they don't want you to baby them.  

That's a big part of being a kid--is knowing that you are one.  People tell you all the time and overtly leave you out of discussions or dismiss you because you are young and small.  And they are right. You're not ready to watch Star Wars yet, or you shouldn't watch a bunch of people kiss.  But sometimes what you want is to be treated like a real person.  It's a strange line to walk, and I don't really know why I'm talking about this, but it seemed relevant this week. 

Children's Media Response: #2

The film Pinocchio stands as one of my earliest memories of interacting with cinema as a child.  It is, personally, one of my absolute favorite children's films.  One thing that has been a consistent awe to me in this class so far is how different the take-aways are in adulthood when compared to childhood.  As a kid, and this is my current mind scraping the barrel for remembrances of what my child brain thought, this film was a colorful, light-hearted journey with a puppet.  It's strange to watch the film now and not only re-live the things I felt as a kid but to experience something different altogether.

The morality side of children's media is something that has always existed.  Our readings focused on the origins of fairy tales and different versions of one tale and how each presented their own ideologies.  I believe that the didacticism of children's media is something that it kind of has to have.  Where Son of Rambow lacked a bit of strong moral themes, it did still teach some sort of lesson about creativity and the importance of understanding within family members.

Pinocchio, on the other hand, teaches distinct and clear morals about right and wrong.  It tells the child in big bold letters: DON'T DO THIS, and DO THIS.  There are direct consequences and they are terrible and horrible.  As a kid, the image that had been burned onto my brain was the one of a boy turning into a donkey.  That fear of turning into a donkey if I did anything wrong remained with me for longer than it should have.  So one tactic that Pinocchio seems to take on is a sort of 'scared straight' one.  This was, and is, extremely effective.  Even watching the film now, as an adult, it remains a terrifying image and event.  I like that the film is able to elicit that same response in adults and children.

I know I mentioned before that the experience as a child can be different than the experience as an adult might have while watching a film.  The thing that is remarkable about Pinocchio is that I feel like the experience was mostly the same.  I got the same messages from the film when I was a kid as I did just last week.  The difference is that now, as an adult, I understand the apparatus.  I can see what's at work and how.  As a kid, all you take in is the sequence of events and the emotions you're left with.  You  still understand, you still make meaning, you are just unaware of how.

That's kind of important, I think.

Children's Media: Response #1

Taking into consideration our discussion in class, I'm left with a sort of blurry and upsettingly more complex idea as to what childhood is and what the term "Children's Media" refers to.  I've always been proud of my love for children's films and have used that love and devotion to the genre as a signifier of my "extensive" knowledge on the subject as well. I'm now sitting here questioning what I thought, and am excited for what I might learn.

Benjamin gave us three categories to consider:
1. Media For Children
2. Media About Childhood
3. Media That Children Consume

I was left trying to understand what to define as a child, and what to define as appropriate.  Many of us brought up good points about ethics and content and intent, and all of them seemed to propose a new thing that would complicate my former ideas about each subject.  You could lump all movies that seem to be aimed at children into the category of "children's media" but what about the films that are subtly or even explicitly just about childhood?  Shouldn't a film that deals overtly with themes about growing up and the mindset of being a child be a child's right to watch?  Examples of this that pop into my mind are films like Finding Neverland (2004), Boyhood (2014), or even Ivan's Childhood (1962).  You could make the argument that Finding Neverland, a film that talks about childhood and depicts it quite beautifully is a piece of children's media quite easily; however, something like Boyhood or Ivan's Childhood is more complicated in the sense that content and disturbing imagery and themes get in the way of it being appropriate for a child.  So that category gets complicated.  Perhaps not ever film that discusses childhood is for a child, but children should still be exposed to media that is about them and the things they go through.

The film we watched in class, Son of Rambow (2007) is a wonderfully imaginative and full of heart film that definitely is a piece of media that I find hard to define.  It deals with issues about being a kid and being in a world of kids.  The adults are distant and hard to understand and villainized for the most part.  This, I've found to be a common thread in a lot of films for children--the adults are misunderstood or presented as antagonists (hinting at an underlying ideology within children's minds).  The film represents the imagination and freedom in children as uber-important and, essentially, the thing that must be saved in children.  The main character, Will, is seen being stifled creatively in his family and his religion, and must find a way to break out of that or help others see the importance of the special world he lives in.  A common thread here also lies with his mother, who we see in a flashback being stifled creatively by her own parents.

There are definitely themes in the film that are aimed at parents in re: understanding your children, and also at children in re: being a kid and dealing with the issues that go along with that.  I would define it as a piece of children's media in the sense that it is a film that is for a kid, could be consumed by a kid, and deals with being a kid.  However, it is also something that could be argued to be aimed at adults as well, as I read and interpreted the film to be a message to adults about what we've lost, or what we're doing wrong.

I could go on forever about this topic, but I want to end on this specific note: children's media is a complex and beautiful genre within filmmaking.  Isn't it special that there are things that appeal to almost every single person on Earth, regardless of their intelligence level or comprehension?  Isn't is really unique that a film can give one adult a certain message and one child a different one?  I've found in my experience that children are incredibly smart and wise beings, and they deserve all media that is SMART and doesn't treat them like idiots.  Children should not be talked down to, they should be challenged.  Because they can handle it, and some of them want it and seek it out.  There are children out there that deserve beautiful and magical and special art to consume, and that is the children's media that stands out.