Response 6: Alice

It’s often said that children tend to have good imaginations. My mom always told me, when I was younger, that she thought adults had better imaginations because they could picture things more clearly in their minds. I remember feeling offended that she would suggest such a thing. I still don’t agree with her on that point, but I think there is something to be said for the idea that adults and children have different kinds of imagination.

One logical purpose that I believe imagination serves is to keep us from walking into danger, while at the same time prompting us to explore. We come up with ideas about what we think something is going to be like. Our minds pose possibilities to us, either of what wonderful things could be just beyond our current view, or what horrifying dangers wait around the corner. Often times, the things that we are afraid of aren’t really that frightening, and once we learn that, we are able to form more accurate conclusions about them. I think that, because they haven’t had as much experience and because their brains haven’t developed as much, children tend to be afraid of a different set of dangers than the adults are.

 In the beginning of “Alice,” the narrator (Alice) poses the idea that this may or may not be a film for children. There were certainly a lot of disturbing things in the film, such as the sawdust constantly falling from holes in the white rabbit, the caterpillar’s eye getting sewn shut, and all of the actual decapitation toward the end of the film. But I’m not sure those things would have frightened or disturbed me when I was younger. At the same time, children are easily scared of things in movies that aren’t frightening to adults. I was always terrified of Ursula, in The Little Mermaid, though she’s not particularly frightening to me now.

Another thing I think imagination does is help us come to terms with and overcome our fears.  Many children’s stories and picture books have themes of being afraid of harmless things, and then overcoming that fear. An example is “The Monster at the end of This Book,” in which the whole plot of the book is that Grover, from Sesame Street, does everything in his power to prevent the audience from reaching the end of the book because he’s scared of the monster that is supposedly waiting there. In the end, he finds out that the supposed monster is actually just him. In one of the clips we watched before class, a girl in a wheelchair has an imagined adventure in which her shadow follows a butterfly around. There are dangers she invents for herself in the form of giant crows, but in her imaginary game, she overcomes her fear of them and conquers them. This may help her to overcome her fear of her real-life problems.

Week 5: Not One Less

Much of our media for children involves stories with magic, mythical creatures, or other things that children aren’t likely to encounter in real life. There are stories we tell, however, like the film “Not One Less” that deal with problems that are closer to every-day problems. The broad metaphors of fantasy are discarded in favor of realistic experiences which are narrower metaphors and often act as commentary on society.  

In an adventure story, like “The Secret of Kells” the main character ventures out of the safety of his home and into the dangerous, magical forest. Part of the appeal of the story is that the audience gets to experience vicariously things that they could never experience in real life. In a clip from “The Secret of Roan Inish” that we watched in class, two children built a roof for a house. This experience, while much more mundane, was still powerful and appealing. I think this is because we can draw closer connections to the characters when they experience things similar to what we have experienced.

It is human nature to constantly connect the dots. We like to make metaphors out of everything we see. We are always drawing connections back to experiences we have had. “Not One Less” is a film that tells a story about an unusual experience. A thirteen-year-old girl is asked to be a substitute teacher for a month in a remote village. She is told that she will be paid extra if she manages to keep all of the students, and doesn’t lose any. Her determination to accomplish that goal is what drives the story. Few, if any, of the audience members have had experiences like this, but most of us have been put into daunting positions of leadership and responsibility, and watching her struggle and grow can make us feel inspired and uplifted as we apply her strength and her success to the challenges we face in life.

Another aspect of this sort of storytelling is that we can use it to point out the failures of our world and society. One of the children in the movie had to leave school to go to the city and find work because his family was in debt. Often in stories we tell children, the good people always get what they want and the villains get what they deserve. But that isn’t the way it is in real life, and sometimes it’s good to point that out.

“Not One Less” tells a story that is similar to things that happen in real life, with very little unrealistic embellishment. There are no grand adventures, magical creatures, or fairy godmothers. The main character does not lead an army, or save the universe. Yet her story is compelling and intense in its own way, because we, the audience, can draw close parallels between her problems and our problems, and understand the emotions she feels every time something gets in the way of her goal.

Morality Analysis: The Princess and the Frog

Many Disney princess movies focus on following dreams and achieving goals. “The Princess and the Frog” is no exception, but it takes a slightly different approach to the theme, and explores the importance of priorities, not simply the straightforward distinction between good and evil. Each character has their own set of motivations that reflects their personality and helps them make decisions. The creators of the movie use these contrasting characters to show what they believe to be most important.

Ray is the strongest representation of good in the movie. He isn’t perfect, but he puts values like love and family before anything else. He is loyal and friendly and always willing to help, from the first time they meet him when he untangles Tiana and Naveen, to the end when he risks his life to release Naveen and bring Tiana the amulet.

Tiana is the main character, and grows the most throughout the course of the story. Her weakness is that she works too hard, which is unusual. Very rarely is a strong work ethic portrayed as wrong, but in this movie it is suggested that a work ethic can be too strong. Tiana’s dream is to open her own restaurant, and she is interested only in fulfilling that dream. Her friends and her mother advise her to let herself relax and have a little more fun, but Tiana doesn’t listen. Unfortunately, her dream is cut short when the owners of the building she wants to set up the restaurant in tell her they’re planning on selling it to someone else. And then she is further blown off course because she ends up turning into a frog. But as the story progresses, she begins to discover that there are things she cares more about than her restaurant. She wants the restaurant, but she needs her friends and family. In the end, she learns to keep in sight the things that are truly important, and the friends she has made on her adventures help her achieve her goals.

Prince Naveen is almost an antagonist in the beginning of the story. He is interested only in himself. He feels entitled to everything he wants, just because he wants it, and has no real direction or future. He has been cut off by his parents and is penniless and desperate. Though he doesn’t have any desire to settle down, he knows he has to either marry someone wealthy, or get a job. His situation is made even more desperate when he is turned into a frog by Facilier. On his quest with Tiana to find a way to turn himself back, he starts to realize that there are things he wants other than good music, fun parties, and lots of money. He also begins to realize that if he wants these things, he’s going to have to make sacrifices and work for them. By the end, he is willing to give up the things that he wants in order to be with Tiana.

Facilier is the strongest representation of evil in the story. He is a desperate man who has essentially sold his soul in return for power. He gave up the things he needed in order to achieve his ambitions, and is now deep in a debt that he cannot repay. In the end, when his plans fall through, he is destroyed by his “friends on the other side” who he receives his magic from.

In the beginning of the story, both Tiana and Naveen are very self-centered. Tiana is so driven by her goals that she has no time for anyone else. Naveen has no goals, and hasn’t worked a day in his life, and also has time for no one but himself. However, through their adventures together, they realize that what they want is not the most important thing. In the end, the curse isn’t lifted until they both decide that the only thing they really need is the people they care about. Once the spell is lifted, Naveen and Tiana fulfill Tiana’s dream, working together to build her restaurant. The writers of this story clearly support the idea that it’s good to have fun, and it’s also good to work hard, but if you want to be happy, you need to keep in mind that love and family are more important than anything else.

Adventure analysis: Treasure Island

“Treasure Island” is one of the most read and retold adventure stories in the world. It follows a boy, Jim Hawkins, on a voyage to find buried treasure. The novel is built on elements of danger, suspense, and exploration. Jim starts a simple innkeeper’s son, but through the story as his horizons expand, he learns and grows and begins to understand the world. When he finally returns to his home, he no longer wishes to leave it.

The beginning of every adventure story is a call. Few heroes leave their home to seek adventure without some sort of prompting. Jim’s call to adventure comes in the form of a map, which is left in the inn by Billy Bones, a former seafarer. Bones is an interesting character. He is neither helpful nor specifically antagonistic toward Jim, but fulfills his role in setting the main character on the course that will eventually take him to the island the book is named for. Bones dies in the inn of a stroke, and Jim and his mother find a map among his belongings that they later discover leads to a hoard of treasure.

The second stage of Jim’s adventure begins. His mother’s inn is ransacked by men searching for the map, and now he has even more motivation to go after and recover the treasure. But it is impossible to do this alone, or from home, so he must venture out to new places, where he will inevitably meet new people. He is to be assisted in finding the treasure by two men, the doctor and the squire, who are Jim’s main allies on his journey. He also meets Long John Silver, who becomes, for part of the story, the antagonist. Jim trusts Silver in the beginning, though any audience member can see that he is not all he appears. This easy misplacement of trust on Jim’s part is a trait of childhood that he will grow out of before the end of the story.

The next part includes the actual adventure. It begins when Jim overhears Silver planning to mutiny, and follows Jim through all kinds of danger and excitement. Silver goes from being a friend to an enemy and then later he and Jim become allies again. This stage in any adventure story is the most exciting, and also the stage where the character grows the most. Through his courage and cleverness, Jim proves himself to be more than a helpless boy. The adults around him, the doctor and the squire, start treating him less like someone to be protected, and more like a valuable ally, which is something I believe all children want. In the end of the fighting, Jim and his friends have the treasure, and the pirates are left on the island when they begin their return journey.

The last stage of most adventure stories is a homecoming. Not only does it decisively end the story, it allows for a chance to report the adventurer’s progress. Jim returns to his mother older, more experienced, and in this case wealthier than he was when he left. In the narrative he describes how he no longer wishes to go on any more adventures, and is content to live a quiet life. The contrast between Jim’s character in the beginning of the story and his character in the end proves that he grew and changed through his experiences.

“Treasure Island” is an excellent example of an adventure story for children. The main character, a young boy, leaves his home in search of treasure. He runs into many kinds of people and situations, good and bad, and earns the trust and respect of the adults around him. He overcomes all the obstacles and achieves his goal, then returns to the safety and comfort of his home.