Friday, January 21, 2011

F.Y.I.

Have you seen this movie?  If you answered "no" to that question, let me spare you the trouble....bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

Dan and I know better than to let the kids view a movie that we haven't seen, but we let this one slip because it was animated.  Gone are the days when you could feel safe with a cartoon!  The good news, it only cost us a dollar at Redbox....but the bad news, we watched some of it!  I am simply appalled at what passes for a "family movie" these days!  And what's worse, the USCCB movie review gave this an A-I (General Patronage)!  The description for what the term A-I means is as follows

"Strictly speaking, this does not simply connote films that are “for” children, or films in which they would necessarily be interested. Rather, any film free from significant objectionable content might receive this classification. In the days of the Hollywood Production Code, when it was assumed that almost all mainstream films were acceptable for all audiences, many films with “adult” subject matter -- like 1956’s “Giant” -- received this classification. Nowadays, with even the cleanest adult films usually containing at least instance of foul language, such examples are rare."

This movie starts out with female wolves "strutting their stuff" in front of the male wolves and when the Alpha males struts by, the female wolves call him "hot"!  And that's just for starters!  I know, I know....I'm being too "old fashioned" and "Pollyanna-ish", right?  Perhaps others might not consider this "significantly objectionable content" in the grander scheme of things, but I do!  There are so many other movies that are good and wholesome and edifying!  Why should I have to subject my kids to this nonsense!  I'm so tired of having to be in this defensive mode all the time.

We stopped the movie about 15 minutes into it. They didn't seem that interested anyway.  Nathan did ask if we could finish watching it tomorrow....I said no!  He wanted to know why so Dan and I simply explained that we didn't think it was appropriate for his age group and he seemed OK with that. 

If any of you know of a place to get movie reviews (from a Christian perspective) in addition to the USCCB,  please leave a comment and I will post the links in my sidebar!  Thanks!

8 comments:

Jennifer Castro said...

Thanks for the review. It was on our list to be seen, but now I will try to avoid it. There are just too many better options to waste time on anything less.

Jessica of Faustina Farm said...

It is sad but true I would never trust a USCCB review. :( http://www.pluggedin.com/ is a good resource.

Nichole "Nikki" Warren said...

We use a combo of USCCB, Kids-In-Mind and Decent Films (decent films also list the USCCB rating on many of the films), so really I just go to decent films and Kids-In-Mind. The only time I check out the USCCB if it's an OLDER film or decent films has an N/A for that movie.

Barb Szyszkiewicz said...

I like Common Sense Media.
www.commonsensemedia.org
Their review of this movie points out the innuendos, etc. that you mention.
Pesky popups to "join" (it's free) when you start a search, but the site has TONS of info on movies, music, TV, apps and games.

Barbara said...

Plugged In has pretty good reviews, as do the others mentioned by your other readers. Sadly the USCCB can not be trusted for movie reviews from a parental point of view, and neither can most Catholic publications. I don't get it.

Anonymous said...

We use dove.org and screen it because they both give details as far as innuendo, etc.

Therese said...

Nancy,

Just yesterday I was reading on a blog about two 7 year olds engaging in very very inappropriate sexual behavour at school. I think it happened because parents just are not particular enough about what their children see on TV.

I totally agree with you about not putting things like strutting and calling males hot in front of our children. We really need to protect their innocence as much as we can.

Judy Dudich said...

BRAVO for you in turning it off!
You are not "way out there" in thinking this objectionable material...we would have done the same thing! I hardly EVER agree with the USCCB reviews!!!
BTW, why say "It's not appropriate for your age group"...why not just, "It's not appropriate" PERIOD?
Just a thought.
I admire you and Dan for standing up for decency when choosing entertainment for your family!
Your children are blessed!