Careful about Holiday Gifting animated movies

[Rubystars]

Hi my fellow JTFers. This is primarily for those of you who have small children or will be buying gifts for small children over the next few months (or at any time really).

Not every animated movie is for kids, even the ones that have talking animals in it.

Let me give you an example. When I was a kid I regularly went to Blockbuster to get movies to watch. Mixed in with the other animated movies was something called the Plague Dogs (released in 1982). I was watching this when I was around 10 or 11. This movie has scenes of graphic violence in it such as a man being accidentally shot with a gun and dying in a bloody mess, and also has images of animal abuse in a laboratory setting (such as a dog who had a hole in his head from an operation, and forcing a dog to swim until he almost drowns, and pictures of rabbits confined so they couldn't move, and lots of pictures of sad chimps, rats being injected with long needles, etc.). You couldn't tell that this was what the movie was about because the cover just indicated it was about talking animals and it was stocked in the kid's section (it is a good movie, but certainly not a children's movie). I wasn't traumatized by it but I did wonder for a long time why the scientists would do such mean things to the dogs and other animals. I wasn't old enough to really appreciate the themes of the movie even if it didn't traumatize me.

This was the cover art, which shows a couple of dogs running from human pursuit, nothing to really indicate the graphic content:


There are other movies that feature talking animals that are also for mature audiences only that came out later. The movie Felidae (1994) talks about animals being sexually aroused and murdered. The cover art for the movie would lead you to believe it's just a mystery story about talking animals.



So getting to my point, please read reviews of movies and summaries about movies before you buy them for young children. I think there's nothing wrong with adult films being in this format, but sometimes store employees don't understand that they don't belong in children's animation.

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Even the supposedly totally clean Disney, etc. children's movies often have objectionable content though. What exactly is the message and point of Plague Dogs?

[Rubystars]

It's an adaptation of a Bryan Adams novel. He's the guy who wrote Watership Down. While that story (as deep and complex as it is), is suitable for children, Plague Dogs is for adults.

It's a condemnation of unnecessary vivisection at the surface level, but like all stories that feature talking animals, it's really a commentary on the state of human nature, which in this instance is not given a very good assessment.

The innocence of one of the main characters in the movie is highlighted when he says "Why do they do this, I'm not a bad dog". It just about breaks your heart open if you have one. That's just one part of the movie too. Like so many human victims of abuse, he is wondering what he did wrong to cause it, so it's a commentary on that too.

There's objectionable content and then there's strictly adult material. Not every animated movie or every animated movie with talking animals is for children, and too many adults don't know this. The Blockbuster staff at the time I went there had no idea that film was an adult film because hey, it had talking animals and it was a cartoon, it must be for kids right? This is why I'm posting this warning up. Also there's no comparing Disney films to Felidae.... trust me on that one. lol