A couple weeks ago we started seeing ads for the re-release of "Pinochio" on DVD - we don't buy our daughter every movie that comes out, but when the old ones come out it's kind of neat to share with her movies that have been around long before we were her age! I remember I had seen Pinochio when I was a kid, but didn't really like it - I remember bits and pieces, but could never remember how the images of donkeys and the whale fit in to the actual story line.
So after a few commercials, and our asking Grace "Would you like to see Pinochio when it comes out?", she showed some interest in it. Yesterday was the DVD release day, so since we happened to be going to BJ's last night we picked up a copy, and when we got home we popped it in to watch it.
As the story unfolded, parts started coming back to me, and I had this nagging feeling, like maybe we should pop in a different movie. Things affect you differently when you're a parent, and part of the story involves young boys (and one wooden puppet) being tricked into going to an island, where eventually they will be held prisoner, and sold off. I know it is just fantasy, I know it was a different time back then, but these days cartoons that involve "kidnapping", particularly by means of luring an innocent away, hold a darker meaning to me. I also realized there was a reason I never really liked this one - even as a kid - as there are some dark undertones to it. I can see where some little ones may be spooked by it.
But that's not what bothered me about Pinochio. Two things bother me:
First, several characters, including Pinochio and other boys, smoke cigars. A lot. A simple viewing of a movie isn't going to be THAT much of an influence on my daughter, but it just bothered me that up until last night, my daughter probably had never heard of cigars or cigarettes, although she knows Frosty the Snowman has a corncob pipe to go along with his button nose and two eyes made out of coal. The difference, however, is that Frosty didn't inhale! My precious little one doesn't know anyone who smokes - I don't even know if she's ever seen a cigarette being smoked! My how times have changed...smoking in a Disney film. What next? The F-bomb?
Not quite, but......my daughter has learned a new word, in a new context. Yes, it's VERY mild compared to words both my husband and I have uttered in her presence, but somehow I thought I'd be safe from this in an old Disney film! In this movie, a couple characters use the word "jackass". Yes, they are referring to donkeys or burros, which is totally legit, because as the story goes, when those "bad boys" are tricked into going to Pleasure Island, where there are no rules and the can do whatever they want (ie: be "bad"). So, they smash things up, cause a ruckus, fight, smoke, drink, shoot pool, and before they know it, the gates have been locked and they are now prisoners. What worse, what they don't know is that bad boys turn into jackasses, meaning donkeys, to be sold off by their captors to the salt mines.
The first time the word is used, it's somewhat slurred...even my daughter, with her superhuman hearing, didn't pick it up. But then later, Pinnochio's conscience, Jiminy Cricket, goes on a bit of a tirade....(not quite word for word, but something like...) "Well, if you want to be a jackass, you go ahead and be a jackass! I don't want to be around you if you're gonna be a jackass, so you go ahead and be a jackass if you want to be a jackass!"
Yeah, it's pretty mild, I know. But it kind of bothers me that by Friday my daughter will inevitably call me a jackass. I don't know why it bothers me, because frankly I think they're kind of cute!
The first time the word is used, it's somewhat slurred...even my daughter, with her superhuman hearing, didn't pick it up. But then later, Pinnochio's conscience, Jiminy Cricket, goes on a bit of a tirade....(not quite word for word, but something like...) "Well, if you want to be a jackass, you go ahead and be a jackass! I don't want to be around you if you're gonna be a jackass, so you go ahead and be a jackass if you want to be a jackass!"
Yeah, it's pretty mild, I know. But it kind of bothers me that by Friday my daughter will inevitably call me a jackass. I don't know why it bothers me, because frankly I think they're kind of cute!
Oh man....I need a haircut!
