"Kid's" movies

What defines a kid's movie? Is there some set formula that makes a movie set apart for kids? I was thinking about this last night as I baby sat. The kids I was babysitting had permission from their parents to watch a movie. So we watched 'Home On the Range'. And honestly, I was really annoyed and somewhat disgusted. This movie, made for kids, was really rather awful. The number of sexual references made was the big thing that caught my attention. There I was, sitting watching a movie with an 8 and 11 year old and the movie was seriously not appropriate for them. While the comments, references, and innuendos most likely went over their heads to some extent, I know they didn't completely. And the thing is, if the sexual references are meant and expected to go over the kid's heads, why put them in? It's sick! To pollute their young minds with information they don't need. With 'humor' that isn't humorous, but on the contrary, crude.

Well, we finished watching 'Home on the Range' and we started putting a puzzle together, but then the kids wanted to watch another movie while we did the puzzle. After getting parental permission they decided to watch Atlantis. Another one I'd never seen. I thought the other was bad. This one was plain and simple, appalling. Not only was it full of sexual references and innuendos, but the visual was there as well. When the explorers reach the city of Atlantis they are met by I guess the princess. And umm.... to say the least, she needed some clothes on. But then it got worse, as little as she was wearing, in one scene she and Milo are together alone and she randomly starts taking off some of what she is wearing.(as if she had enough on in the first place to be taken off) I was like "holy cow, what is this?" The excuse? She was going swimming. But it was a bunch of rubbish if you ask me. She didn't have to strip down to nearly nothing in order to go swimming. The over emphasis on her body was totally uneeded. It was a cartoon for crying out loud.

Maybe I'm old fassioned. I don't really know. All I do know is that while I was sitting there watching it, all I could think was that the animators were a bunch of sick creeps that spent to much time fantisizing about womens bodies. And also, I spent the entire time thinking how seeing this was messing up the 8 year old boy. I mean, he is going to have to face all this later, but why push it at him this early? Why not let him be inocent for a few more years? Well, this post probably seems....uhh...quaint. But really, the movies labeled "kids" today, are not at all apropriate for kids to see.(really not for anyone when I really think about it)

We as Christians need to be so careful. We too easily take things for granted, such as, if a movie is rated G it's okay right? But the young mind is so impressionable. We need to be careful about what we allow to impress the minds children. Keeping their minds pure and inocent while they are young will save them many struggles when they grow to later stages of life. Too often we think, "Oh, they are little, it goes over their heads so if they see it it's okay." Well, that's not at all true. I mean, take the indecently dressed women(I actually hesitate to even call them dressed) for example. Letting little boys see that, it's basically just an early introduction to porn. Sure it's cartoon so it's not exactly the same. But it makes them curious. And it's a curiousity they don't need to deal with at that age.

So what am I saying? Simply this, don't plop a kid down in front of a movie just becuase it's labeled "kids" and not check it out first. You never know what they will slip in there. The subtlties that seem harmless, but are NOT. These subtlties will stick with them. They remember and understand much more than you know.