Mature themes still sneak into kids' movies

By Ellen Kim     11/5/09 6:00pm

Have you ever watched a children's movie and found yourself saying, "This movie is not for kids"? Such thoughts ran through my head last week as I took in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a film that made me wonder which morbid visionary decided the tragic story of a deformed bell-ringer would make a good children's classic. Before continuing, I will say that the movie itself was amazing. I had not seen Hunchback before last week, and I was impressed by its thematic breadth, dynamic composition and array of good and evil. But this was the appreciation of an 18-year-old. I doubt it would have the same significance for a child 10 years younger.

The dark themes underlying the plot are stark and unavoidable. Juxtaposed with tolerance, love, honesty and righteousness are prejudice, hatred, hypocrisy and sin. The gypsies are despised and scorned as thieves and vagabonds, yet expected to provide the town with lively entertainment. The administrator of justice, Claude Frollo, is a sadistic man with distorted morals. He is convinced, however, that he is a devout Catholic, utterly impeccable in manner and ways.

But there is none further from piety. The uncompassionate Frollo persecutes and tortures with unparalleled violence. He inculcates his adopted hunchback son, Quasimodo, with the so-called wickedness of society, one afraid of disfiguration. Frollo is quickly proven correct, when, at the Festival of Fools, the townspeople bind Quasimodo with rope and pummel him with tomatoes, jeering at his ugliness. The scene itself was incredibly distressing, with Frollo coolly ignoring Quasimodo's pleas for help.

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Another unavoidable edge to the story is Frollo's obsession with the beautiful gypsy dancer Esmeralda. This was perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the movie. In fact, I literally spat out a mouthful of water when Frollo began inhaling Esmeralda's hair in one scene. Besides the fact that he is probably twice her age and looks like he could be her grandfather, Frollo clearly vocalizes his impure desires for her. His lustful attraction to Esmeralda is an eerie indicator of a lack of sexual intimacy in his life.

Now, I happened to find Frollo's internal conflicts fascinating. The depiction of his ambivalence - his desire for Esmeralda and fear of sinning - shows his inability to control human nature. But for a children's movie, the themes were anything if not bizarre. Those behind the film choose not to dilute these PG-13 elements at all. Children may not fully be aware of the nuances, but their parents will certainly notice. And sooner rather than later, mothers and fathers will be anticipating some subtle, subconscious changes in their little ones that they might attribute to the "corruptive" movie.

Many people are quick to criticize parents for not checking up on movies before taking their children out to see them. After all, parents are the most vocal about movies with "deceptive" posters, titles and trailers. I agree that parents should probably make sure that the content of the movie is appropriate, or at the very least, what they approve of. But that's not always easy.

Studios promote movies to an audience by publicizing what they deem most appealing. That's just common sense. For young moviegoers, the commercials will be overflowing with talking rodents and exciting, colorful animations - maybe even in 3-D. Can we honestly expect parents to perform background checks on these movies to make sure that the computer-animated hamsters won't be murdering one another with pocket knives? They will look at the G rating and be content with that.

As for parents' angry or disappointed reactions to these children's-movies-gone-awry, it is completely understandable. They go out with their sons and daughters to enjoy a sweet, happy movie; the last thing they want to do is drive home, trying to explain why that old man was chasing the pretty girl with the goat, or worse, pretending that nothing happened.

I remember when I went to see the Cat in the Hat with my friend and our younger siblings. Our little sisters wanted to know why people laughed when Cat called the hoe a "dirty hoe." My mom didn't understand the joke because she didn't know the ins and outs of American slang, but she would have been very surprised if she had. This bit of crude humor was not necessary to the plot in any form and was completely wasted on the intended audience: elementary school children. Those who did laugh, including the unsuspecting parents caught off guard, most likely found themselves besieged with similar, awkward questions. By that point, the joke would not be funny at all.

It would be nice if children's movies wouldn't package dirty puns in cute boxes with dancing gargoyles or larger-than-life kitty cats on the front. If the movie-makers want to tackle a darker subject and use hidden undertones to expose the ugly side of life, then by all means, they should make the movie. But they should do it for an audience that is more likely to appreciate those qualities.

Ellen Kim is a Sid Richardson College freshman.

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