Explaining Cannibalism to Children

[Magpie]

"When little Heidi is stolen by her cruel aunt (who sells her) her grouchy grandfather searches for her."[/I]

You'd think I'd know better than to expect any correspondence between the original and the movie by now . I was also expecting that it would have been based on the part of the book that I found interesting - Heidi arriving and charming her grandfather, not the part where she was away.

[Thuringwethyl]

Obviously idiot parents in both, as in each, if I remember correctly (and I am sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong), the parents somehow LOST their child. In the jungle. First of all, what the fuck are you doing bringing a baby to the jungle anyway? Secondly, if for some reason you HAD to bring the baby to the jungle, don't you think that one of you nitwits could find time to keep an eye on him? Or hire a nanny/governess/babysitter to do it for you?

Can't you just picture that police interview? "Let me see if I have this straight, Mr. and Mrs. Greystoke: you lost your infant child....in the jungle. Really? Really?"

If I remember correctly from the actual book, Sher Khan killed the parents but was saving the child for last. That's when the mother wolf found him and got maternal.

Kipling is depressing.

[jedimaster91]

With the jungle book I think they may have...misplaced him...but in tarzan they just decided it would be ok to move out to the middle of nowhere with a baby and set up shop on an uninhabited island and then get eaten by a tiger.

The beginning of the movie leads the audience to believe they were shipwrecked on their way to somewhere else. Perhaps they were the only survivors and didn't really have a choice on where to set up camp.

Some recent Disney titles.

Castle in the Sky - Disney/anime - Both main characters are orphans.

Miyazaki luff! ^_^ Not technically Disney, though since they didn't create it. Just rereleased it to an English audience. But along those lines:

Princess Mononoke - San's parents abandoned her to the wolf gods, no mention of Ashitaka's parents, but they're probably dead

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - Nausicaa's mom is dead, dad dies during the movie; Asbel's parents are never mentioned

Howl's Moving Castle - No dad, and Sophie's mom betrays her to Madame Sulliman

Spirited Away - Parents turned into pigs


ETA: And let's not forget the oh-so-cheery Grave of the Fireflies.

[EricKei]

Spirited Away - Parents turned into pigs

Well,.... they got better >_>

ETA: And let's not forget the oh-so-cheery Grave of the Fireflies.

Sometimes I'd like to...but then, it seems like it would be an insult to such a fine film. It takes me a few years between viewings.

Kipling is depressing.

So stop doing it. How, exactly, does one Kipl, anyway?

(bacon-wrapped bacon cookies for dredging up the source of THAT reference)

[Pagan]

What people forget is that originally, "fairy" tales were never intended for children.

Now the part about SCs to come: Next year the age 5-15 group is doing...remember the title of this post?...SWEENEY! Really? How are you going to alter this one? The entire show is about killing and crazy people and eating your neighbors. And for those of you who have seen the Tim Burton version (love that man), the stage show is even more graphic. Yay, can't wait for this one.

I'm waiting for somebody to get the bright idea of doing "Rocky Horror"...

My husband's family are a mix between stage and supportive. Poor bloke had violin lessons when he was 6 and his family still thinks he's awesome for picking up 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' within a month . He hasn't touched a violin in about 20 years, and he's still bugged to bring it out at birthday parties!

I'm very rusty now, but I used to be hella good on the piano. But, I am proud to say, I never ever learned "Chopsticks".

Don't forget Peter Pan, which had both living parents and a dog. That family had it all, and yet they still ran away from home. tsk tsk. Spoiled kids with their living family and good home. Disney did manage to stick the lost boys in there though to make up for it.

Hey, you get someone sprinkling fairy dust on you that lets you fly and tells you "Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning," you gotta go!

With the jungle book I think they may have...misplaced him...but in tarzan they just decided it would be ok to move out to the middle of nowhere with a baby and set up shop on an uninhabited island and then get eaten by a tiger.

In the Disney cartoon the parents are eaten by a leopard in their house and Tarzan are almost eaten too but is saved by his gorilla stepmother. I think, but it's more than 40 years ago I read it, that Burrough's version is similar.

The Disney version is nowhere near close to the novel.

Tarzan is marooned on west coast of Africa with his parents. Mother dies of natural causes, father killed by leader of ape tribe that raises him. Ape name is "Tarzan"; English name is John Clayton, Lord Greystoke.

"Greystoke" with Christopher Lambert actually stayed closer to the novel than most others.

[Magpie]

Howl's Moving Castle - No dad, and Sophie's mom betrays her to Madame Sulliman

That's her mom. I always thought sister!

[AriGriffin]

The family trees for Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy are screwed up completely. Some trees show that Huey, Dewey, and Louie are blood relations of Donald (mother Della -aka Dumbella- is Donald's twin) and Daisy (unnamed father is Daisy's brother). I read in the Disney archives that Della dropped the boys off on Donald's doorstep after they put a lit firecracker under their father's chair, sending him to the hospital.

I wouldn't want to be a member of the Disney royality. It seems most of the true Disney Princes/Princesses lost a parent or grew up not knowing their parents.

I let my cousin watch Sweeney Todd when she was eight. She was fine with it.

[Imogene]

So stop doing it. How, exactly, does one Kipl, anyway?

(bacon-wrapped bacon cookies for dredging up the source of THAT reference)

Dredging? *skims the surface of her memories* "At the Dance" spots from the Muppet Show, mostly.

I think I read somewhere that the only Disney movies where both parents live are Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians.

Hate to return to this, but I thought of one: Hercules! Not only do his birth parents live through the entire movie, his adoptive parents do, too. Not the case with the original legend, of course... as Zeus made it with a human female to create Hercules... and, if I remember correctly, Hera did her usual jealous wife thing and enacted revenge against the woman... Also, Amphitrion was at the battle of Troy, if memory serves, and died there... Course, Philoctetetes was there, too, as Herc's apprentice... human, not satyr. Herc eventually went on a rampage and killed Megara, and their children...

Edit: and another: Emperor's New Groove. While it really depends on who you see as the main character, Pacha and Chicha both survive the entire movie.
What about Mulan? Her parents both survive to become role models for Mulan and Shang's marriage in Mulan 2.
There.
Edit 3: Peter Pan. Both parents survive. Mr and Mrs Darling. Yup, they're there at the beginning, and make it all the way through to the end, even if they didn't go on the adventure.

Edit 2: I originally came in here to post about my idea for a muppet to explain cannibalism to children: The cookie monster monster. Only eats Cookie Monsters.

[Pagan]

Well,.... they got better >_>

No they're not. They'll be stone dead in a a moment.

(bacon-wrapped bacon cookies for dredging up the source of THAT reference)

You had better hope RW doesn't know....

[Mikkel]

The Disney version is nowhere near close to the novel.

Tarzan is marooned on west coast of Africa with his parents. Mother dies of natural causes, father killed by leader of ape tribe that raises him. Ape name is "Tarzan"; English name is John Clayton, Lord Greystoke.

Yes, I see. As I said I read the book as a young teenager and haven't reread it before now . Luckily I have the time at the moment.

[Flying Grype]

I don't really consider anime to be children's shows, at least not most of them, and that's probably why they seem more serious than our cartoons, because they're not really scued to the younger typical cartoon audience.

Inaccurate. Cartoons in Japan are made for many different audiences. There's stuff for little kids as well as stuff for adults-only. It's not like Japan only makes cartoons for grownups.

I'm just comparing what they make for a certain age group vs. what we make for a certain age group. Sailor Moon was made for preteen girls. It's got a hell of a lot more serious and scary content (if you watch the original uncut and undubbed version) than American-made shows made for the same age group. American preteen girls, in the meantime, are supposed to be watching stuff like Bratz.

[draftermatt]

The "urban legend" about the missing parent(s) in Disney movies is that Walt was so upset when his mother (I think) died that he purposefully had the stories written that way.

If true I guess Disney just kept going with it.

The others? Why mess with a formula that works?

[fireheart]

I'm just comparing what they make for a certain age group vs. what we make for a certain age group. Sailor Moon was made for preteen girls. It's got a hell of a lot more serious and scary content (if you watch the original uncut and undubbed version) than American-made shows made for the same age group. American preteen girls, in the meantime, are supposed to be watching stuff like Bratz.

Fortunately the dubbing's been cut down a fair bit since the late 90's. Negima! (which has been described as a harem manga here) has little to no cuts, although compared to the manga, the panty shots are almost zero. Funimation does a BRILLIANT job with dubbing an anime into English and still managing to keep it intact for the most part (One Piece is an example-the 4Kids version had a LOT of cuts and changes, the Funimation dub still has a few changes that keep with the flow of the 4kids anime, but for the most part, nothing's cut, nothing's changed)

[flutes_and_fabric]

I let my cousin watch Sweeney Todd when she was eight. She was fine with it.

Ah man, you just brought back some bad memories. I remember when I was 5, my babysitter's son (7) and I stayed up and watched Chucky from the upstairs balcony. My babysitter thought we were asleep, so she didn't notice us. I was terrified after seeing that movie, but no one ever knew except for her son. A year later I woke up with a Chucky doll cuddled under my arm. Everyone knew after that. I'm still traumatized from it.

Inaccurate. Cartoons in Japan are made for many different audiences. There's stuff for little kids as well as stuff for adults-only. It's not like Japan only makes cartoons for grownups.

That's true, and I never said they never made children's shows, but that they make a lot more cartoons for older audiences than we do. It's stupid to assume that there are absolutely no cartoons in Japan for children, so I might have left out covering that point because I didn't think I had to. The point I was trying to make is that it's much more accepted for adults to watch anime than it is for them to watch cartoons, so animes are able to explore more mature story arcs than cartoon. Yes, I know that there are American cartoons meant for adults (love family guy, south park, and drawn together) but they hit your over the head with the fact that this is something children should not be watching.

Actually, I'm having trouble coming up with an American cartoon with a mature yet not jokey plot meant for adults. Can anyone else think of one, because I'd love to watch it!

Oh, and I'm gonna have to dig up my recipe for breakfast brown sugar bacon muffins with cream cheese frosting for y'all, because it's delicious.

Edit: I'm talking about animated cartoons, not comics. I can think of plenty of examples there. Too bad I maxed out my comic expenditures for the month, cause a lot of good stuff just came out. Oh, and I can't wait for the new X23 series.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Actually, I'm having trouble coming up with an American cartoon with a mature yet not jokey plot meant for adults. Can anyone else think of one, because I'd love to watch it!

The original Flintstones cartoon (1960-66) was intended for an adult audience. It was cartoon take-off of the Honeymooners. It was aired in the middle of prime time. 8:30-9:00 PM. From the Wikipedia article:

The series was initially aimed at adult audiences, which was reflected in the comedy writing, which, as noted, resembled the average primetime sitcoms of the era.

And then there's Heavy Metal (1981, and it's Canadian) and Fritz the Cat (1972), the first X-rated animated film in the US.