Toy Story in 3D, in honor of it's 10th anniversary. Really? 3D? I like 3D movies when it's a special treat - an IMAX maybe - or some show at Disneyworld where water gets sprayed on you when you think a bug is peeing on you or something. But not regular old movies that were good before 3D glasses entered the picture. 3D glasses are not fun to wear - even though they are plastic now instead of paper. But when you are 2, the glasses don't stay on your face.
We did take the kids to this 3D adventure this afternoon, and I can't say I recommend it. It was their first theater-going experience, and Jason and I were pumped - we LOVE movies, so we've been waiting for this day for awhile now. But I have to admit, I think we should have waited longer.
I am grateful for innocence.
Note to self: don't kill the innocence with cartoons of all things. I had looked at commonsensemedia.org and thoroughly scanned what about Toy Story was violent, scary or inappropriate. It gave it great reviews as far as that went and they considered it a "green light." And, I knew I liked the movie, remembering it from when I watched it 10 years ago. But I was 19 - and at 19, I already knew that people said words like "stupid" and "shut-up" and "idiot" and "kill." And I knew that the toys in the movie were just toys, so when they talked mean to each other, they were just TOYS...and so I shouldn't take it too seriously. And I had seen people (or in this case TOYS) physically fighting before, and so it didn't phase me when Buzz and Woody roll around under the car at the gas station and punch each other out.... But my innocent little four and two year old? They haven't. They've never seen anyone (or thing) punch each other out. They don't have words like idiot in their vocabulary. And they don't know that little nasty boys (girls?) blow up toys with explosives in their backyards.
So, did we make the wrong call? I don't know. It was still fun - they got to have ice cream and popcorn at the movies (note: since when is ICE CREAM at the movies a good idea? Especially with 3D glasses - it's impossible to sit in the dark with 3D glasses on and not be covered in drips - even if you aren't a 4-year old). We did something fun together as a family, and that's the important thing. Now for tomorrow, I just have to figure out how to talk casually about what they saw - you know, just work it into the conversation - so I don't let these new words and actions roll over them like normal fare. Uggghhhh...being a modern parent is hard work. I wish we were Amish.
Moving Day
14 years ago
I am so with you on this. I cringe when I hear words like "idiot," etc. just because Sean is so quick to pick up on things, and I don't want to add anything unnecessary into his life/vocabulary at this point. I hate that he got to watch SpongeBob at someone else's house, but the good news is, our TV doesn't get that show, so we can't watch it here!
ReplyDeleteStill, you had a great day out as a family, and hearing those words just once hopefully won't "stick" with them like it would if you owned the movie and watched it often. They'll probably just remember how pretty it was to watch, and were probably so busy with the 3D glasses and the ice cream that all the "questionable" parts of the movie washed right over them!