Breeding Stupid
This post is sort of a “Part 2″ if you will of my rant about Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs a while back. I titled that Ice Age 3: Timeline Goes Awry because of the sheer idiocy of the premise of the movie. To think that someone with a computer can just make stuff up as they see fit. It’s a bit infuriating to me to say the least, even now, to think about the fact that the movie made it past an editor, let alone conception and reason.
But this is a “Part 2″ because last night, I was out with my wife at a popular Disney restaurant called Rainforest Cafe and had a similar encounter there. Amidst a whole, benefit-of-the-doubt mentality, I tried hard not to say something to anyone that worked there. But since we’re on the internet, where everyone can complain about anything, let’s complain for the sake of intelligence and hopefully, one day, we’ll stop the world from breeding stupidity. And maybe, just maybe, my kids won’t turn out to be idiots. It’s a prayer of mine, and the world’s fighting hard against it.
So, with that, let’s take a look at a rainforest. Smell the moist, humid air. Look around, the area surrounding you is teeming with vegetation. Maybe some monkeys squealing in the trees, some birds squawking above and around you. Maybe a river runs wildly in the distance. It’s hard to hear over the animals chattering and the bugs scurrying. Right?
This seems like an all-around normal depiction of a rainforest. It’s safe. I’m not claiming any particular species or animals other than monkeys. And, I’m not stating location.
Okay, now picture this restaurant. Dense “vegetation” covering the walls and ceiling. Looks really cool with the monkeys swinging from trees. Then there’s… coral and salt water fish? Okay, whatever, it’s a cool aquarium… We’ll look over the fact that rainforests do not, in fact, house coral reefs and salt water fish… The music is… Latin-esque? Mardi Gras even? What? It seems right though… I guess… rainforests are only in Latin America, right? No?
What the heck? A ZEBRA? An elephant? A rhino?
Somewhere in the world, a kid is failing a test on animals in a rainforest, or even animals that live in the plains, because Disney decided to put whatever animals they wanted to into their rainforest themed restaurant.
The problem isn’t Disney’s rampant apathy for rainforest realism or their utter lack of trying to make a believable rainforest experience, and it isn’t Dreamworks’ complete disregard for HOW HISTORY HAPPENED. The problem lies more in the fact that these are the people that children listen to. They’re the ones creating the movies and the memories that children will remember forever. And, they’re stupid.
Am I the only one not wanting to breed stupidity? Cause lately, it seems like I’m up to my neck in a pile of it.
welcome to the world man hath created, where stupid rules before all else and intelligence is scorned.
I refuse to accept such a world! It's… stupid. And I refuse to admit that Mike Judge was right. Everyone should see Idiocracy.
Hahaha! Kind of like how everyone calls the lion the "king of the jungle," but he doesn't live in a jungle? Yeah, that one sticks in my craw – whatever that is.
Remember, this is the company that sold us the "happy" story of genocide (Pocahontas) and domestic abuse (Beauty and the Beast). What do you expect?
True. I guess I'm not sure what to expect when all the animals sing and dance, and history is marred by the gentle blur of rose-colored glasses, but it just seems like there's got to be a line somewhere. A line between showing history with bias and just plain making something up.
It's a fine line, but there's a difference there.
I agree. I struggle a lot with trying to find that line of acceptability when it comes to imagination/make-believe, and true to life stories. If I had to make a naive guess, Disney would say they are just telling a story, not trying to teach about history [ahem, and making a lot of money]. But as a parent, even when stories are meant to just entertain, I can't ignore the fact that all their movies of late have a very political undertone, with an agenda. I lost a tremendous amount of respect for them after what they did to the story of Pocahontas. I mean, I'm all for happy endings, but this whole movie was WAY off.
If they asked me [which they never will] I would say, stick to stories that are just that. Made up situations and characters and times. Stay away from stories based on a historical figures, locations and time periods like Toy Story and Little Mermaid.
I agree. I haven't noticed the political undertones as much, but, I have noticed that if they're basing it on "reality" it's generally totally wrong (and that was a double adverb, and is generally totally wrong). There's ways to make a children's version of a story that still keeps the integrity of the story without making children dumber for watching it. Veggie Tales does this all the time when they create a rendition of a Bible story. I mean, they played out the David and Bathsheba thing very well, and it opens up conversations with kids.
And it's not just the kids getting duped… I remember Survivor Africa. (btw I'm South African). The one guy was all excited about the jungle and 'lions, tigers and bears'. Ha! Uhm… there are no tigers or bears here. And they were in the desert for a month.
But there is a whole district of aliens, right? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
You're right. People are already stupid. We don't need more movies, television shows, restaurants and theme parks enforcing this stupidity, fostering it deep within our childrens' brains until they're just another group of people riding their bikes outside on the beach in a hurricane on the local news. (Yeah, they're real too.)
On a positive note, the brownie volcano is delightful…
You know, you're right!