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Post by mudlark on Jul 9, 2014 20:47:11 GMT
I am late in coming to this Disney film, but Lapwing and Peewit LOVE IT. Lapwing knows all the words to Let it Go, and sings it like her life depends on it. Together with Tangled , Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty all of which seem to involve child snatching, evil mothers/step mothers.witches/towers/being trapped/ feeling misunderstood and generally maltreated. Lapwing loves the tragic victimness of it all and Peewit thrills to the evil witch/stepmother, and as they both peer from behind a cushion I wonder is all this Disney darkness good for them. They certainly identify with the themes and for Lapwing Frozen in particular seems to express her own inner turmoil. I wondered if anyone else had experienced their children having strong reaction to Disney films of loss and abandonment.
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Post by mudlark on Jul 9, 2014 20:50:38 GMT
Not sure this should have come under 'fun stuff' .....
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Post by justbserene11 on Jul 10, 2014 17:55:21 GMT
I wasn't keen on tangled....
A witch 'stealing' the princess and the princess believing this witch to be her 'mother'. Then this princess discovers, this was in fact a lie and then she later is reunited with her 'real family'........
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Post by serrakunda on Jul 10, 2014 18:13:14 GMT
Simba loves frozen, which I'm surprised about because it seems quite a girly film to me. He loves the songs
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Post by lilka on Jul 10, 2014 18:27:09 GMT
Mine loved Tangled and Frozen. I did too - especially loved the way Frozen finally had Disney saying that maybe a Princess marrying the first princey-man she meets might actually be a bad idea  I also dislike it when the damsel-in-distress has to be rescued by 'her man' I read a few blogs of adult adoptees who identified with Rapunzels inner turmoil over wanting to leave her tower and hunt out the lights when she knew it would hurt mother gothel's feelings (and I totally understand that, I picked up on theme similarity when watching myself) My children don't see me as the wicked witch though - when they identify with the characters, they are Rapunzel but I'm the poor Queen missing her baby, not the evil witch. I still get hugs from DS when Rapunzel meets her mum and dad and hugs them at the end bless him!!! (personally I identify with the horse hahaha!) Childrens stories have always had dark themes, from time immemorial. Disney seriously sanitises things as well - DS found out recently that actually the original Little Mermaid dies! And he's certainly not hearing the original Sleeping Beauty yet  It very much depends on the child, I think some are much more attracted to these themes than others - my DD2 definitely goes for things with 'abuse/evil stepmother' type themes and I'm sure for her it's linked to her past - and I don't think it's always helpful for her. HOWEVER, I think sometimes it is helpful to confront these themes within a fictionalised 'safe' setting, with a happy ending to boot, and with supportive parents to help if it worries them. For secure children, thinking back to my own childhood, I think these tales are ace. I'd have hated to grow up without my favourite unhappy tales. Been more difficult to navigate as a parent to truamatised children of course! What did your children think of "Despicable Me" if they saw it? See there was one I was slightly concerned about, but they loved it (I thought it was good too). DS seems to think having a mum who was a supermegavillain woud be fun |
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Post by milly on Jul 10, 2014 19:40:00 GMT
We all adore Despicable Me and have watched it several times - mainly for the humour. I was slightly shocked by the adoption story when I first saw it though it is highly preposterous. Mine have never commented on it. But I think it shows adoption in a good light - Gru comes to love the girls after all. The adoption theme doesn't really figure in the second film - he's just their dad in that.
Older dd has never been drawn to fairy tales. Actually younger dd not that bothered either. I absolutely adored them as a child and was really hung up on the evil stepmother idea - I loved to fantasise that my mum was really a step mother to me and a witch to boot! Don't know what that says about me!
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Post by pingu on Jul 10, 2014 20:19:42 GMT
ds1was a Tracy Beaker fan, not really into Disney. Bit ds2 is happy to watch most of the childrens films around. He liked Dispicable Me, though i think it was the minions that appealed most, the adoption theme he just took as par for the course. His favourite adoption themed film is Stuart Little. I think he likes the idea that you can be part of a family, even if you lare different to them ( Stuart being a mouse, in a family of humans) these days he more Avengers, or How to Train. Your Dragon' we never got round to doing Frozen or Tangled but he said the kids at school said they were ok, and that having seen Ice Age he was not bothered about Frozen!
The only mistake we ever made, as regards letting him watch a film, was Coraline, it is very dark, and the girl goes into a room and her mother disappears and suddenly she is in a different family. Massively upsetting when he had only been here a month. ds1 did try to warn us that it might upset him, but we thought it was just his jealousy at the time he was struggling with the attention his new brother was getting. But he was right, avoid it like the plague folks.
Madgascar and sequels are delightful and all our family love them....
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Post by kstar on Jul 12, 2014 23:00:26 GMT
We love Frozen in our house and I actually think for once it's great to see really strong disney heroines as role models for girls - they have a great bond with each other and I love some of the relationships they form along the way. We haven't seen Tangled, but we also love the Despicable Me films. Beyond asking once why the girls were loving like that and how come their adoption wasn't like hers, it hasn't been that significant for Starlet - but she does absolutely love the wedding scene at the end of the second film when the girls say such lovely things about their new "mum"... Always a cue for a lovely snuggle!
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Post by mudlark on Jul 13, 2014 20:24:12 GMT
Never heard of Despicable Me ..will google immediately!
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Post by kstar on Jul 14, 2014 21:30:54 GMT
You must have seen the minions? They are adorable (and allegedly getting their own movie soon!)
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Post by mudlark on Jul 15, 2014 13:54:44 GMT
Never heard of the minions..( I feel like a minion at times, doing the bidding of Lapwing and Peewit)
I am still in the land of 5 and 4 year olds...clearly this is all to come!
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Post by chotimonkey on Jul 15, 2014 21:34:16 GMT
i think all the old fairy tales were intended to be for adults, which is why they are at heart very dark and gothic, and have been sanitised over the years.
i think they can be good for processing stuff if a child is comfortable with them,
squirrel (nealry 4) has found hansel and gretel (she was given it by a friend, its def not one i would have chosen for her) and has read it and talked about it a lot and she came herself to the idea that someone should have taken hansel and gretel to a safe place like fc and then the judge should have decided to find them a lovely mummy and daddy that would live with them forever and be kind.
squirrel is also in full princess mode and likes anything with a princess and big musical numbers in them... i try to balance it out playing princess warriors with her and reading lots of animal stuff without stereotypical gender roles
howler loves the jungle book and its ne of my childhood favourites... colonel hathis march was the only thing was could get her to sit still long enough for whilst potty training;)
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Post by milly on Jul 15, 2014 22:10:17 GMT
I have found it interesting to observe what has appealed to dd1. She has always liked to watch certain things over and over again. Once, long ago, it was tellytubbies - not sure what that signified! At one time she repeatedly played the scene in Lion King where Simba's father dies and cried over it - presumably processing the loss of bps. More recently it is clear she heavily identifies with 'real life' girl heroines - Tracey Beaker, the twins in Parent Trap, Matilda etc. I guess it's because she doesn't feel like the average girl but longs to be her. I suspect she is too literal to see parallels in fantasy characters, although she did really like Merida in Brave where the relationship between mother and daughter is very realistic.
Dd2 just likes certain stories and films - can't see any particular significance in them for her but she is much higher functioning than dd1- so maybe less angst?
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Post by pingu on Jul 16, 2014 8:57:22 GMT
Cinderella - scapegoating and emotional abuse.....
Goldilocks - unsupervised child was breaking and entering and not keeping herself safe.......
And really, what about that Snow White girl staying with seven working men..........
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I also dislike it when the damsel-in-distress has to be rescued by 'her man'
It very much depends on the child, I think some are much more attracted to these themes than others - my DD2 definitely goes for things with 'abuse/evil stepmother' type themes and I'm sure for her it's linked to her past - and I don't think it's always helpful for her. HOWEVER, I think sometimes it is helpful to confront these themes within a fictionalised 'safe' setting, with a happy ending to boot, and with supportive parents to help if it worries them. 
