This week our family went to see the movie, “Night at the Museum 2” and I really enjoyed it. Indeed, I have to confess a love for most movies made for kids that are based on books. “Horton Hears a Who” was especially good.
In philosophy and religion there is the a common idea that true enlightenment, happiness or fulfillment is only achieved when we return to child-likeness. It’s not that we cease being adult, but rather we are able to engage with the simple clarity of childhood in complex situations. Subsequently, those who make good quality films for children must engender the morality, intent and knowledge of a responsible adult and the sensitivity, curiosity and clear vision of a child.
What makes a child so annoying and interesting for adults is their sense of contemplation. They are often able to focus on the smallest detail with an engaged captivation. I wrote a couple of years back that taking my small daughter for a walk was often frustrating because I would find that she had stopped behind me to examine a worm or her reflection in a piece of glass. I would only see the external response - stopping. I would also experience frustration. However, if I took the time to ask what she saw and what she was thinking, a story of incredible imagination would often follow.
Perhaps that’s why many adults enjoy kids films under the cover of darkness. Such movies allow us to break free from adult restraints, restraints that we might call conformity to more mature themes. When an adult produces a kids film they introduce notions of moral rights and wrongs, they observe ordinariness in creative ways and allow what they believe about the world to come to life through imagination: ants develop personality, birds talk, kitchen knives can dance and sing. The creativity bypasses our adult defenses, sneaks round the back and catches our ordered lives by surprise.
However the same adult when producing a more adult movie will be much more careful about moral statements and suggestions. What is noticeable in adult film is that virtues become unclear: violence is often celebrated as justice, love and sex are confused, truth becomes the victim of necessity and ends justify means. So what happened?
Growth into adulthood means adapting to complexity. Life is not straightforward, yet we want it to be. We teach our kids virtues like honesty, courage, compassion, forgiveness, peacemaking and so on, things that get packed into kids films. However, the path to adulthood doesn’t always teach us to apply those virtues very well.
Not much has changed since the time of Jesus. He is recorded as saying to his disciples, “If you want to enter the kingdom of heaven you must first become like children.” Why? To reengage with a simpler understanding of life, God and virtue: to live honestly, spontaneously, creatively and compassionately.
Adults make life complex, not children. Kids movies remind us that what really matters in life is not that complex, cloudy or hard to achieve. Thanks Horton!