Bright eyes, burning like fire...
March 28, 2016 6:11 AM Subscribe
But, it has bunnies in it!
posted by Thorzdad at 6:22 AM on March 28, 2016 [12 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 6:22 AM on March 28, 2016 [12 favorites]
If I recall the film:
Dear "Concerned Parents": PITH OFF.
Dear Channel 5 programmer:
You're doing good work.
(I assume the UK has advisory warnings, too)
Everyone else:
Remember to tip your food delivery person and enjoy Threads.
posted by Mezentian at 6:31 AM on March 28, 2016 [24 favorites]
Dear "Concerned Parents": PITH OFF.
Dear Channel 5 programmer:
You're doing good work.
(I assume the UK has advisory warnings, too)
Everyone else:
Remember to tip your food delivery person and enjoy Threads.
posted by Mezentian at 6:31 AM on March 28, 2016 [24 favorites]
Look, it could've been Threads. Let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good here, eh?
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:33 AM on March 28, 2016 [12 favorites]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:33 AM on March 28, 2016 [12 favorites]
Also, what Mezentian said.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:33 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:33 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
I look forward to Grave of the Fireflies getting a screening on VE Day.
That is the saddest fucking movie I have ever watched in my entire life. To this day, anytime I hear a clanking tin can, I become emotionally upset. Fireflies takes the sadness and horror of Watership Down and magnifies it 1000x fold.
posted by Fizz at 6:35 AM on March 28, 2016 [12 favorites]
That is the saddest fucking movie I have ever watched in my entire life. To this day, anytime I hear a clanking tin can, I become emotionally upset. Fireflies takes the sadness and horror of Watership Down and magnifies it 1000x fold.
posted by Fizz at 6:35 AM on March 28, 2016 [12 favorites]
I am old enough that Watership Down was released as a kids' film at the cinema.
My 1970s parents somehow knew not to take me (and I never thank them enough).
BEFORE THE INTERNET.
posted by Mezentian at 6:36 AM on March 28, 2016 [9 favorites]
My 1970s parents somehow knew not to take me (and I never thank them enough).
BEFORE THE INTERNET.
posted by Mezentian at 6:36 AM on March 28, 2016 [9 favorites]
We're at a stage in society where cultural general knowledge has gotten so god damned low.
posted by Talez at 6:37 AM on March 28, 2016 [20 favorites]
posted by Talez at 6:37 AM on March 28, 2016 [20 favorites]
Should have Plague Dogs as the follow-up in a sunday afternoon double-feature so that if some kids aren't crying hysterically after Watership Down they'll be needing therapy after plague dogs.
posted by vuron at 6:38 AM on March 28, 2016 [24 favorites]
posted by vuron at 6:38 AM on March 28, 2016 [24 favorites]
For some reason, this pleases me.
It's not like the story of Easter itself is any less gruesome.
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:38 AM on March 28, 2016 [72 favorites]
It's not like the story of Easter itself is any less gruesome.
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:38 AM on March 28, 2016 [72 favorites]
It's not like the story of Easter itself is any less gruesome.
I'd let my kids watch Watership Down before The Passion of the Christ any day and twice on Easter Sunday. At least WD isn't a snuff film.
posted by Etrigan at 6:42 AM on March 28, 2016 [17 favorites]
I'd let my kids watch Watership Down before The Passion of the Christ any day and twice on Easter Sunday. At least WD isn't a snuff film.
posted by Etrigan at 6:42 AM on March 28, 2016 [17 favorites]
At least WD isn't a snuff film.
Well, assuming you weren't about to serve roast rabbit.
posted by Mezentian at 6:42 AM on March 28, 2016 [8 favorites]
Well, assuming you weren't about to serve roast rabbit.
posted by Mezentian at 6:42 AM on March 28, 2016 [8 favorites]
No way I'd expose my kids to this.
We do a double feature every Easter with Boys Don't Cry and Dancer in the Dark.
Next year we're adding The Human Centipede.
posted by crazylegs at 6:45 AM on March 28, 2016 [31 favorites]
We do a double feature every Easter with Boys Don't Cry and Dancer in the Dark.
Next year we're adding The Human Centipede.
posted by crazylegs at 6:45 AM on March 28, 2016 [31 favorites]
This kind of cobbled-out-of-tweets reportage from the post-print Indy really reminds us what we're losing with the death of actual newspapers.
"The scheduling choice was soon branded a huge 'inappropriate' no-no" — by whom? — "when the 'upsetting, traumatising, hideous and horrifying' scenes of bloody, slaughtered rabbits" — where's this quoted from? — "made their way into many an unsuspecting living room" — who would be "unsuspecting" in an age when you can look up a movie's IMDB entry to see if it's worth watching in seconds?
"'Who the hell thought it a good idea to put Watership Down on Easter Sunday? "Hey kids let’s watch dead Easter bunnies!"' wrote one distressed Twitter user" — where's this tweet? And it doesn't necessarily suggest its author was distressed. Followed by several tweets talking about C5's "brilliantly twisted sense of humour" and how the movie was "traumatising" and "disturbing" (which it obviously can be for young children) — none of which looks like the "angry reaction" the piece describes them as.
Maybe it's just seeing it the day after watching Spotlight, but I'm left "horrified" to think that this "traumatic" article is the future of journalism.
posted by rory at 6:46 AM on March 28, 2016 [58 favorites]
"The scheduling choice was soon branded a huge 'inappropriate' no-no" — by whom? — "when the 'upsetting, traumatising, hideous and horrifying' scenes of bloody, slaughtered rabbits" — where's this quoted from? — "made their way into many an unsuspecting living room" — who would be "unsuspecting" in an age when you can look up a movie's IMDB entry to see if it's worth watching in seconds?
"'Who the hell thought it a good idea to put Watership Down on Easter Sunday? "Hey kids let’s watch dead Easter bunnies!"' wrote one distressed Twitter user" — where's this tweet? And it doesn't necessarily suggest its author was distressed. Followed by several tweets talking about C5's "brilliantly twisted sense of humour" and how the movie was "traumatising" and "disturbing" (which it obviously can be for young children) — none of which looks like the "angry reaction" the piece describes them as.
Maybe it's just seeing it the day after watching Spotlight, but I'm left "horrified" to think that this "traumatic" article is the future of journalism.
posted by rory at 6:46 AM on March 28, 2016 [58 favorites]
That's the sound of thousands of televisions in the UK switching off, so the kids can play a wholesome game of Grand Theft Auto, instead of being traumatised by dead bunnies.
posted by Jubey at 6:47 AM on March 28, 2016 [17 favorites]
posted by Jubey at 6:47 AM on March 28, 2016 [17 favorites]
"made their way into many an unsuspecting living room"
I'd also be a little concerned if the room in which the family was sitting had developed sentience.
So many questions - is the living room malign? Benevolent?
If the living room was surprised by the content of Watership Down, it most certainly wasn't well read.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:50 AM on March 28, 2016 [18 favorites]
I'd also be a little concerned if the room in which the family was sitting had developed sentience.
So many questions - is the living room malign? Benevolent?
If the living room was surprised by the content of Watership Down, it most certainly wasn't well read.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:50 AM on March 28, 2016 [18 favorites]
I am old enough that Watership Down was released as a kids' film at the cinema.
My 1970s parents somehow knew not to take me (and I never thank them enough).
Not all of us 70's kids were so lucky. Bunny death on the big screen = flocks of children running down the aisles and/or staking out claims on the sticky, popcorn-riddled floor.
posted by jeremias at 6:50 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
My 1970s parents somehow knew not to take me (and I never thank them enough).
Not all of us 70's kids were so lucky. Bunny death on the big screen = flocks of children running down the aisles and/or staking out claims on the sticky, popcorn-riddled floor.
posted by jeremias at 6:50 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
I am old enough that Watership Down was released as a kids' film at the cinema.
My 1970s parents somehow knew not to take me (and I never thank them enough).
BEFORE THE INTERNET.
I'm old enough too. My 1970s parents took me along, aged 11, and I'm thankful. It was a very good movie, and I still have vivid memories of it, even though I haven't seen it since.
P.S. Bambi's mum dies too, kids!
P.P.S. Who the hell is even watching Channel 5 on Easter Sunday afternoon.
posted by rory at 6:51 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
My 1970s parents somehow knew not to take me (and I never thank them enough).
BEFORE THE INTERNET.
I'm old enough too. My 1970s parents took me along, aged 11, and I'm thankful. It was a very good movie, and I still have vivid memories of it, even though I haven't seen it since.
P.S. Bambi's mum dies too, kids!
P.P.S. Who the hell is even watching Channel 5 on Easter Sunday afternoon.
posted by rory at 6:51 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
To be fair to the programming person who put this on, I suspect scant few people in that position have ever seen this movie, let alone read the book. Add to that, I doubt the catalog description of the film goes into the horrific parts. For all I know, the description the programmers reference may just be a bunch of innocuous tags...animated, rabbits, etc.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:52 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 6:52 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
I barely remember the film, but the book Watership Down actually was considerably less frightening to me than was The Wind in the Willows. I think it's the way that Watership Down acclimates you to treating these animals as living in a world of violent death from the very beginning of the narrative. But then I'd also seen a couple of the family dogs meet terrible ends on roads by that point, so maybe I was more inured than most kids (also, had read my way through Joshua, Judges and Job in the pews on Saturday mornings).
Richard Adams on Watership Down: 'Perhaps I made it too dark'
What I remember is that it struck me as a cross between a Greek epic poem (the Odyssey, most obviously) and the cheery but explicit (in terms of rural English animal life) tones of the James Herriot novels my mom loved so much at the time. And the fact that the origin of Watership Down was, in essence, oral tales continuously cut and re-worked for an audience (so much like the Homeric myths) lends it a lot of its force and energy. Probably helps that Adams was a WWII veteran whose characters basically function as a military band as well.
Bunny death on the big screen
I feel like it's the fact that bunnies are being killed by other bunnies that would be the more traumatic element here, but I could be wrong. Like I said I don't remember much of the cartoon but the fights between, e.g. Woundwort and Bigwig are pretty drawn out and brutal in the book.
posted by AdamCSnider at 6:54 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
Richard Adams on Watership Down: 'Perhaps I made it too dark'
What I remember is that it struck me as a cross between a Greek epic poem (the Odyssey, most obviously) and the cheery but explicit (in terms of rural English animal life) tones of the James Herriot novels my mom loved so much at the time. And the fact that the origin of Watership Down was, in essence, oral tales continuously cut and re-worked for an audience (so much like the Homeric myths) lends it a lot of its force and energy. Probably helps that Adams was a WWII veteran whose characters basically function as a military band as well.
Bunny death on the big screen
I feel like it's the fact that bunnies are being killed by other bunnies that would be the more traumatic element here, but I could be wrong. Like I said I don't remember much of the cartoon but the fights between, e.g. Woundwort and Bigwig are pretty drawn out and brutal in the book.
posted by AdamCSnider at 6:54 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
Well, Sunday I discovered that the actual Easter story is so horrifying to my kid that he created an a mental alternate version where Jesus died peacefully in old age "walking in the forest." He got VERY UPSET when I tried to tell him that's not the Bible version so I had to back off. Choosing not to soak him in the gore of the Crucifixion story from an early age is having some unexpected consequences, I guess.
He also wanted his fish to come into the closet with us the last time we had a tornado warning. So I'm pretty sure bunnies slaughtered to make housing estates and then fighting a bloody war against each other would have been a bit much for him.
I actually do love the book Watership Down, and think it's a great story. The animated version loses something, though the style in which the El Ahrairah stories are told is very nice.
But I'm not giving him the book version till later.
posted by emjaybee at 6:55 AM on March 28, 2016 [16 favorites]
He also wanted his fish to come into the closet with us the last time we had a tornado warning. So I'm pretty sure bunnies slaughtered to make housing estates and then fighting a bloody war against each other would have been a bit much for him.
I actually do love the book Watership Down, and think it's a great story. The animated version loses something, though the style in which the El Ahrairah stories are told is very nice.
But I'm not giving him the book version till later.
posted by emjaybee at 6:55 AM on March 28, 2016 [16 favorites]
The way that y'all talk about Threads actually makes me want to see it, and I'm a little worried about what that says about me.
posted by schmod at 6:57 AM on March 28, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by schmod at 6:57 AM on March 28, 2016 [8 favorites]
The first rule of Threads is "Don't fucking watch Threads."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:01 AM on March 28, 2016 [39 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:01 AM on March 28, 2016 [39 favorites]
I have nightmares from the wikipedia summary of Threads
I love WD as book, but I've never seen the movie. Time to change that!
posted by dismas at 7:04 AM on March 28, 2016
I love WD as book, but I've never seen the movie. Time to change that!
posted by dismas at 7:04 AM on March 28, 2016
Well, Sunday I discovered that the actual Easter story is so horrifying to my kid that he created an a mental alternate version where Jesus died peacefully in old age "walking in the forest." He got VERY UPSET when I tried to tell him that's not the Bible version so I had to back off. Choosing not to soak him in the gore of the Crucifixion story from an early age is having some unexpected consequences, I guess.
One of the most interesting and disturbing elements of Latin Christianity (I hear it's somewhat different in the Greek Orthodox tradition) is the way that the entire focus has transitioned from incarnation and resurrection, which were the most important parts of the story for many ancient Christian communities (Christ becomes one of us, Christ conquers death) to the crucifixion as the almost exclusive moment of importance (death as atonement). For many Christians, blood spraying everywhere and demonized caricatures of Jewish priests screaming epithets wasn't really the point.
posted by AdamCSnider at 7:05 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
One of the most interesting and disturbing elements of Latin Christianity (I hear it's somewhat different in the Greek Orthodox tradition) is the way that the entire focus has transitioned from incarnation and resurrection, which were the most important parts of the story for many ancient Christian communities (Christ becomes one of us, Christ conquers death) to the crucifixion as the almost exclusive moment of importance (death as atonement). For many Christians, blood spraying everywhere and demonized caricatures of Jewish priests screaming epithets wasn't really the point.
posted by AdamCSnider at 7:05 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
I recently re-watched Threads. I can't explain why I thought that was a good idea. Please refer back to the first rule of Threads.
posted by wintermind at 7:05 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by wintermind at 7:05 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
has anyone considered a remake of threads with bunnies?
posted by pyramid termite at 7:07 AM on March 28, 2016 [27 favorites]
posted by pyramid termite at 7:07 AM on March 28, 2016 [27 favorites]
And why wouldn't they show something more appropriate to the Easter holiday?
Like The Passion of the Christ.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:08 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
Like The Passion of the Christ.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:08 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
can't they just replay the charleton heston Moses movie like they did when I was a kid?
posted by dismas at 7:09 AM on March 28, 2016
posted by dismas at 7:09 AM on March 28, 2016
Argh on YouTube there used to be this montage of the most painful Watership Down clips set to 'Bright Eyes', masterfully engineered for maximum blubberage, but I can't find it anymore. Does anyone know the video I'm talking about?
posted by Panthalassa at 7:09 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Panthalassa at 7:09 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Hmm...apparently, in the UK, Grandparents' Day falls on the first Sunday in October.
Should be a perfect time to show When The Wind Blows.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:10 AM on March 28, 2016 [18 favorites]
Should be a perfect time to show When The Wind Blows.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:10 AM on March 28, 2016 [18 favorites]
Hey kids, don't watch a show about bunnies that will make you think, but go ahead and maim some caricatures shaped like bunnies by eating their ears off first then their face off like you were a Floridian on Bath Salts.
posted by Nanukthedog at 7:11 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by Nanukthedog at 7:11 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
And why wouldn't they show something more appropriate to the Easter holiday?
Like The Passion of the Christ.
Friends of ours hosted a "Let's watch Passion of the Christ and then Norman Jewison's Jesus Christ Super Star" get together a couple of Easters ago.
Spoiler: one contained less whipping than the other. More dancing, too.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:14 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Like The Passion of the Christ.
Friends of ours hosted a "Let's watch Passion of the Christ and then Norman Jewison's Jesus Christ Super Star" get together a couple of Easters ago.
Spoiler: one contained less whipping than the other. More dancing, too.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:14 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
There's a violent-highlights-only version on Youtube
posted by BinaryApe at 7:14 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by BinaryApe at 7:14 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.
posted by Artw at 7:17 AM on March 28, 2016 [36 favorites]
posted by Artw at 7:17 AM on March 28, 2016 [36 favorites]
Makes sense that this is all Channel 5's fault. So I guess parenting is no longer a thing?
posted by xedrik at 7:19 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by xedrik at 7:19 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Watership Down fucking rules.
When I saw Pan's Labyrinth, I sat in front of a father and his daughter, who looked/sounded about 10, give or take. She clearly loved it, and as we filed out the theater, it was fun hearing her bubble about her favorite parts.
I wonder if the dad knew if she would react that way, or if that had been only luck...
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:23 AM on March 28, 2016 [6 favorites]
When I saw Pan's Labyrinth, I sat in front of a father and his daughter, who looked/sounded about 10, give or take. She clearly loved it, and as we filed out the theater, it was fun hearing her bubble about her favorite parts.
I wonder if the dad knew if she would react that way, or if that had been only luck...
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:23 AM on March 28, 2016 [6 favorites]
Apologies to those whose sensibilities were disturbed by Watership Down. Next year we will substitute a heartwarming claymation movie about Mark Twain by the creator of the California Raisins.
posted by benzenedream at 7:38 AM on March 28, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 7:38 AM on March 28, 2016 [15 favorites]
I don't know, people make weird decisions about bringing kids to movies. We went to see one of the LOTR films at an 11pm showing, and there were families with three and four-year-olds in the room. W? I guess it's ok because there aren't any rabbits.
posted by sneebler at 7:39 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by sneebler at 7:39 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
Only Metafilter can make me cry happy tears of laughter about Watership Down and Threads.
(And possibly Grave of the Fireflies, but I have not watched that yet).
But, hey, I have this copy of When the Wind Blows, and I've loved his previous works: Father Christmas, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday and Fungus the Bogeyman, so I assume this willl rock my world.
posted by Mezentian at 7:39 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
(And possibly Grave of the Fireflies, but I have not watched that yet).
But, hey, I have this copy of When the Wind Blows, and I've loved his previous works: Father Christmas, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday and Fungus the Bogeyman, so I assume this willl rock my world.
posted by Mezentian at 7:39 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
This almost read like an Onion article, except that I have experienced the unintentional horrors inflicted upon children first hand.
posted by SpacemanStix at 7:42 AM on March 28, 2016
posted by SpacemanStix at 7:42 AM on March 28, 2016
Silflay hraka, whiners.
posted by Sangermaine at 7:45 AM on March 28, 2016 [16 favorites]
posted by Sangermaine at 7:45 AM on March 28, 2016 [16 favorites]
What has happened to England? When I was a boy there, it seemed like you couldn't turn on the television without seeing a double-feature of Kes and Scum.
Of course, that was Thatcher's England. All was a bit grim.
posted by maxsparber at 7:54 AM on March 28, 2016 [8 favorites]
Of course, that was Thatcher's England. All was a bit grim.
posted by maxsparber at 7:54 AM on March 28, 2016 [8 favorites]
> (And possibly Grave of the Fireflies, but I have not watched that yet).
I'm not going to tell you not to watch it, but I can pretty much assure you that if you do, you will never want to watch it again, and thinking about it will make you sad.
posted by languagehat at 7:55 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
I'm not going to tell you not to watch it, but I can pretty much assure you that if you do, you will never want to watch it again, and thinking about it will make you sad.
posted by languagehat at 7:55 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
When I saw Pan's Labyrinth, I sat in front of a father and his daughter, who looked/sounded about 10, give or take. She clearly loved it, and as we filed out the theater, it was fun hearing her bubble about her favorite parts.
If she liked the Captain beating the guy to death with the wine bottle, it was probably all OK after that.
posted by thelonius at 8:00 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
If she liked the Captain beating the guy to death with the wine bottle, it was probably all OK after that.
posted by thelonius at 8:00 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
One of my most vivid memories as a child is watching something that Irish TV thought would be great to label as 'cartoons' and tout as the same, which turned out to be (as I later found out) Eastern European high cartoons about deep issues of social justice and the importance of collective action/communism. Unfortunately, I was not of an age to appreciate that, so I and my siblings sat aghast as a capitalist gradually got fatter and fatter as his workers got thinner, until they all ganged up and ate him, and other similar scenarios played out in other following cartoons. After that seeing Watership Down was easy.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 8:01 AM on March 28, 2016 [16 favorites]
posted by lesbiassparrow at 8:01 AM on March 28, 2016 [16 favorites]
I saw Watership Down as a kid (on cable, not in theaters) and I loved it. Maybe it helps that we had indoor/outdoor cats at the time, one of whom was forever leaving dead critters by the front door, and that cat himself died around the same years that I would have seen WD? Maybe the movie is more traumatic for kids who get told the "Fido has gone to live on a farm" story, or never had to learn about the more brutal side of their beloved pet. But I think if you're a kid who already has some kind of understanding about the concept of death, it's actually a very comforting movie -- burrow massacre and fight scenes aside, it ends with our hero dieing peacefully of old age in his sleep, then going to bunny heaven. Shiny, eternal, and chrome.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:07 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by oh yeah! at 8:07 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
I would say it is very important for children to witness Bigwig's "because my Chief Rabbit told me to" moment.
...
now my usage of the word "witness" in the above has me craving a Watership Down/MMFR crossover.
posted by LegallyBread at 8:09 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
...
now my usage of the word "witness" in the above has me craving a Watership Down/MMFR crossover.
posted by LegallyBread at 8:09 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Oh man, that bit about being buried alive as the warren was filled in was proper full-on hide-behind-sofa nightmares-for-weeks material when I was a kid. Still gives me the creeps thinking about it, and I was very much a born-in-the-70s Thatcher's child.
posted by doop at 8:10 AM on March 28, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by doop at 8:10 AM on March 28, 2016 [11 favorites]
My mom plopped me in front of the TV when I was 6 and put Watership Down into the VCR.
I probably would have appreciated it if I'd been a few years older, but instead it took me years to overcome my crippling fear of bunnies. FWIW, I have always found Anya to be the most relatable Buffy character.
posted by duffell at 8:14 AM on March 28, 2016 [8 favorites]
I probably would have appreciated it if I'd been a few years older, but instead it took me years to overcome my crippling fear of bunnies. FWIW, I have always found Anya to be the most relatable Buffy character.
posted by duffell at 8:14 AM on March 28, 2016 [8 favorites]
Came looking for The Plague Dogs, was not disappointed. Where would Skinny Puppy be without it?
I had waited so long and had heard so much about Grave of the Fireflies that there was no way it could live up to my expectations, and it didn't. When the Wind Blows, now there's a sad movie.
posted by bouvin at 8:15 AM on March 28, 2016
I had waited so long and had heard so much about Grave of the Fireflies that there was no way it could live up to my expectations, and it didn't. When the Wind Blows, now there's a sad movie.
posted by bouvin at 8:15 AM on March 28, 2016
Threads, Watership Down, and Ring of Bright Water.
That last one is guaranteed to make a child cry, and not in a sentimentally cathartic way. As the Wikipedia plot summary tells you (necessary spoiler alert!), the adorable lead otter gets brutally killed at the end of the film. The supposedly happy ending is that Mr. Otter has spread his seed somewhere and the little baby otters come bouncing into the movie.
We picked up the VHS from the Family section of our local Blockbuster store, and were reassured by the blurbs on the back of the box. But when the little guy was killed, there was a WTF moment when the three of us looked at each other like "No, they didn't just decapitate the main character at the end of this kids' movie, did they?" Then came the wailing of our daughter. Nice film night in the family bed.
(In defense of the film, if you look into its back story, it all makes sense.)
posted by kozad at 8:18 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
That last one is guaranteed to make a child cry, and not in a sentimentally cathartic way. As the Wikipedia plot summary tells you (necessary spoiler alert!), the adorable lead otter gets brutally killed at the end of the film. The supposedly happy ending is that Mr. Otter has spread his seed somewhere and the little baby otters come bouncing into the movie.
We picked up the VHS from the Family section of our local Blockbuster store, and were reassured by the blurbs on the back of the box. But when the little guy was killed, there was a WTF moment when the three of us looked at each other like "No, they didn't just decapitate the main character at the end of this kids' movie, did they?" Then came the wailing of our daughter. Nice film night in the family bed.
(In defense of the film, if you look into its back story, it all makes sense.)
posted by kozad at 8:18 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
The local rural newspaper, which to put it very mildly was not representative of the highest qualities of journalism even then, described Threads in the TV listing as simply:
"Northern romance story."
I know they received some letters of complaint shortly afterwards, but they choose to ignore/not print any of them.
Anyway, for light relief here's a scene from Ben Wheatley's recent Civil War comedy-drama. Gather round, children...
posted by Wordshore at 8:23 AM on March 28, 2016 [10 favorites]
"Northern romance story."
I know they received some letters of complaint shortly afterwards, but they choose to ignore/not print any of them.
Anyway, for light relief here's a scene from Ben Wheatley's recent Civil War comedy-drama. Gather round, children...
posted by Wordshore at 8:23 AM on March 28, 2016 [10 favorites]
I just read the Wikipedia summary of "Grave of the Fireflies," and I am sad now.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:24 AM on March 28, 2016
posted by wenestvedt at 8:24 AM on March 28, 2016
"Northern romance story."
To be fair, northerners meet radiation, and it is a life-long entanglement.
posted by Mezentian at 8:26 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
To be fair, northerners meet radiation, and it is a life-long entanglement.
posted by Mezentian at 8:26 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
Watership Down is one of those movies that I always want to rewatch (such gorgeous animation! Hazel and Bigwig!) and then I experience vivid sense memories of watching the warren burial scene and even the comforting sound of the esteemed Michael Hordern telling us about the Prince with A Thousand Enemies sends a shiver up my spine.
That said, anyone who enjoys the movie and book would do well to read Tales from Watership Down, which expands wonderfully on the bunny universe/mythology.
posted by fight or flight at 8:26 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
That said, anyone who enjoys the movie and book would do well to read Tales from Watership Down, which expands wonderfully on the bunny universe/mythology.
posted by fight or flight at 8:26 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
Reading the comments, I'm reminded why I don't watch movies with animal peril. It's probably from those stupid Walt Disney animal movies but WD didn't help. My thanks to whoever runs the site doesthedogdie.com.
posted by fiercekitten at 8:34 AM on March 28, 2016
posted by fiercekitten at 8:34 AM on March 28, 2016
I was sure I saw someone on Twitter saying they were watching Threads on broadcast TV the other night, but I've looked back on iPlayer and it's not on there.
The really annoying thing is that yeah, there was a long enough time a when 5 was the fifth channel of five, so they did have a little bit of a duty to be serving everyone, but since the analogue signal was turned off? It's fine for people to complain on Twitter, but writing articles about it? That's something that people should be ashamed of.
posted by ambrosen at 8:35 AM on March 28, 2016
The really annoying thing is that yeah, there was a long enough time a when 5 was the fifth channel of five, so they did have a little bit of a duty to be serving everyone, but since the analogue signal was turned off? It's fine for people to complain on Twitter, but writing articles about it? That's something that people should be ashamed of.
posted by ambrosen at 8:35 AM on March 28, 2016
Netflix had Watership Down on their little rotating "watch this" thing when I signed in yesterday. I sent a screen shot to my husband so we could both ruefully enjoy the description, which was something like: "the wonderful children's classic bright to screen." Oh, my, no.
posted by thebrokedown at 8:38 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by thebrokedown at 8:38 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
I re-watched Threads on my 40th birthday, alone. It wasn't that bad.
posted by colie at 8:38 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by colie at 8:38 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
V: Verified by DoesTheDogDie staff.
"So, what do you do for a living?"
"I sort of review movies."
"That must be fun!"
"You'd think so. But most of my day is spent weeping in my cubicle."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:39 AM on March 28, 2016 [18 favorites]
"So, what do you do for a living?"
"I sort of review movies."
"That must be fun!"
"You'd think so. But most of my day is spent weeping in my cubicle."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:39 AM on March 28, 2016 [18 favorites]
God what a stupid article. Who are these outraged parents who aren't picking up on the fact that what their kids are watching is disturbing to them and simply change the channel? Neglectful parents, that's who. I'm not so comfortable with neglectful parents dictating the programming of public airwaves.
Plus, it's fucking Easter, go hunt for eggs or something.
There are so many great films I want my children to see. Goonies comes to mind. Every time we try, we get 30 minutes in and I watch the tension in my son's face turn to terror and we put it aside for another six months when I think he might be able to try again.
I don't know what pisses me off more, that there are parents that are letting their kids consume media completely unguided, or that there aren't so many of these parents and this is just poorly sourced OutrageFilter.
And frankly, Easter has fuck all to do with it.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:42 AM on March 28, 2016
Plus, it's fucking Easter, go hunt for eggs or something.
There are so many great films I want my children to see. Goonies comes to mind. Every time we try, we get 30 minutes in and I watch the tension in my son's face turn to terror and we put it aside for another six months when I think he might be able to try again.
I don't know what pisses me off more, that there are parents that are letting their kids consume media completely unguided, or that there aren't so many of these parents and this is just poorly sourced OutrageFilter.
And frankly, Easter has fuck all to do with it.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:42 AM on March 28, 2016
I saw a comment somewhere that said, "Grave of the Fireflies is the best movie that I will never, ever watch again." And it's true.
posted by xedrik at 8:47 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by xedrik at 8:47 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Even now I get upset thinking of Watership Down. The movie was more affecting than the book - I had read the book before I even know there was a movie. Strange how potent cheap music, etc etc, I guess.
But at the same time, Watership Down was one of the few sad things I watched or read as a kid where I felt the sadness level was really appropriate. It's sad. It's about death and loss, and about aging and mortality generally, and how the world is confusing and scary. But unlike some of the other stuff I watched or read around the same time (Bridge To Terabinthia, "All Summer In A Day", etc) it didn't feel unfair. Bridge to Terabinthia always seemed like such a deck-stacking book, like a junior Thomas Hardy novel, and "All Summer In A Day" is just fucked up, and not what you want to give to a bullied child.
posted by Frowner at 8:48 AM on March 28, 2016 [11 favorites]
But at the same time, Watership Down was one of the few sad things I watched or read as a kid where I felt the sadness level was really appropriate. It's sad. It's about death and loss, and about aging and mortality generally, and how the world is confusing and scary. But unlike some of the other stuff I watched or read around the same time (Bridge To Terabinthia, "All Summer In A Day", etc) it didn't feel unfair. Bridge to Terabinthia always seemed like such a deck-stacking book, like a junior Thomas Hardy novel, and "All Summer In A Day" is just fucked up, and not what you want to give to a bullied child.
posted by Frowner at 8:48 AM on March 28, 2016 [11 favorites]
10 Facts You Might Not Know about Watership Down
1-10: It will fuck you up.
posted by schoolgirl report at 8:54 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
1-10: It will fuck you up.
posted by schoolgirl report at 8:54 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
There was like a two year period here on MetaFilter where I kept finding myself doing Watership Down jokes. (Here's one.)
I should probably watch it again just to get that rolling again.
posted by maxsparber at 9:09 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
I should probably watch it again just to get that rolling again.
posted by maxsparber at 9:09 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
Threads is up on Vimeo, for your Easter Monday entertainment (here in England, today is a Bank Holiday/National Ikea Shopping Day).
There used to be a clip on YouTube(?) from the nuclear bomb going off and the immediate aftermath, speeded up and set to the Benny Hill saxophone music. That was ... interesting. The film also led to one of the strangest profiles on IMDB.
posted by Wordshore at 9:13 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
There used to be a clip on YouTube(?) from the nuclear bomb going off and the immediate aftermath, speeded up and set to the Benny Hill saxophone music. That was ... interesting. The film also led to one of the strangest profiles on IMDB.
posted by Wordshore at 9:13 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
The thing about Watership Down is that it has a happy ending. Hazel lives to see a thriving new warren, in a spot about as secure as it can be. Then one day he follows the black rabbit of Inlay away from the warren to die of old age, because happily ever after still includes death. Even more than the bunny on bunny carnage that's a heavy concept to build into a kids movie. And yeah, kinda choked thinking about it now.
I don't know. I don't like the idea that suffering is a source of virtue or that a previous generation's trauma must for the sake of tradition be inflicted on the next as an idea generally. However, I have a hard time seeing kids being exposed to this movie as a bad thing. I thought that was the part of point of stories generally; to allow the vicarious experience of things you're either going to experience at some point in the future, or that you hope you won't ever experience to give you some kind of context and experience for your reactions to them. I will grant this could just be my "kids these days" reflex jerking though.
posted by Grimgrin at 9:15 AM on March 28, 2016 [12 favorites]
I don't know. I don't like the idea that suffering is a source of virtue or that a previous generation's trauma must for the sake of tradition be inflicted on the next as an idea generally. However, I have a hard time seeing kids being exposed to this movie as a bad thing. I thought that was the part of point of stories generally; to allow the vicarious experience of things you're either going to experience at some point in the future, or that you hope you won't ever experience to give you some kind of context and experience for your reactions to them. I will grant this could just be my "kids these days" reflex jerking though.
posted by Grimgrin at 9:15 AM on March 28, 2016 [12 favorites]
This kind of cobbled-out-of-tweets reportage from the post-print Indy really reminds us what we're losing with the death of actual newspapers.
Well, there is only so much you can "report on" for this article; Tweets help pad it out. Besides, if you just reported the facts — "Channel 5 shows Watership Down on Easter Sunday, some parents complained" — it wouldn't be much of a story.
Including the Tweets pushes the story over the edge into something comical.
But this isn't "journalism," it's not intended to be "journalism," and the only thing that has died at the Indepedent is the printing press. Like Christ, the printing press died so that others, namely journos, might live on on the online version of the paper.
posted by My Dad at 9:15 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Well, there is only so much you can "report on" for this article; Tweets help pad it out. Besides, if you just reported the facts — "Channel 5 shows Watership Down on Easter Sunday, some parents complained" — it wouldn't be much of a story.
Including the Tweets pushes the story over the edge into something comical.
But this isn't "journalism," it's not intended to be "journalism," and the only thing that has died at the Indepedent is the printing press. Like Christ, the printing press died so that others, namely journos, might live on on the online version of the paper.
posted by My Dad at 9:15 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Hey, I'm Art Garfunkel. Remember me? From Simon and Garfunkel? Yeah, Paul and I did some cool stuff back in the 60s. We were good friends! But really, you should check out some of the stuff I did since then. It's pretty good! Like 'Bright Eyes.' You know, 'Bright Eyes?' No, not that 'emot' youngster everyone keeps talking about. The song from that one movie with the rabbits that scared the crap out of you as a kid? You know, 'Bright Eyes?' Ah, fuck it. If Paul wants to do another reunion thing, he knows where to find me. I'm gonna go read some fucking Tolstoy.
Goddamn it, I was the cute one! How come nobody remembers that?
posted by panama joe at 9:17 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
Goddamn it, I was the cute one! How come nobody remembers that?
posted by panama joe at 9:17 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
Plague Dogs sad??
Oh, you must not have stuck around for the post-credits stinger. I won't spoil anything, but suffice it to say, there's an island and some ice cream and a big, rollicking musical jamboree.
Unfortunately, a manufacturing error caused most VHS copies of the film to cut off right before this final scene. But take my word for it—they all lived happily ever after!
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:20 AM on March 28, 2016 [8 favorites]
Oh, you must not have stuck around for the post-credits stinger. I won't spoil anything, but suffice it to say, there's an island and some ice cream and a big, rollicking musical jamboree.
Unfortunately, a manufacturing error caused most VHS copies of the film to cut off right before this final scene. But take my word for it—they all lived happily ever after!
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:20 AM on March 28, 2016 [8 favorites]
My parents let me watch Watership Down when I was six. I don't think they regretted it... until I pestered them almost constantly for a year asking "What happens when you die? What happens when you die?" Handling a six-year-old obsessed with death can, I understand, be rather difficult.
posted by Rissa at 9:21 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Rissa at 9:21 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Eastern European high cartoons about deep issues of social justice and the importance of collective action/communism.
A couple of years ago, I was watching TV with my nieces in a tiny village in ex-Yugoslavia. I was treated to the story of a cute little fox who was negotiating with a factory owner to free his forest friends from doom. The story culminated in animal trafficking and a huge forest fire and at a point an Afghan dog was drugged and started behaving in a disturbingly flirty way towards her (capitalist) owner who happened to be morbidly obese.
The weird part is that the 4/5 year old kids seemed to be having lots of fun and it seemed to be a standard cartoon for them. I really wish I could unsee it.
On the upside, there was another show about the antics of a post office worker who was secretly at it with every woman in town and it was pretty funny.
posted by Tarumba at 9:21 AM on March 28, 2016 [6 favorites]
A couple of years ago, I was watching TV with my nieces in a tiny village in ex-Yugoslavia. I was treated to the story of a cute little fox who was negotiating with a factory owner to free his forest friends from doom. The story culminated in animal trafficking and a huge forest fire and at a point an Afghan dog was drugged and started behaving in a disturbingly flirty way towards her (capitalist) owner who happened to be morbidly obese.
The weird part is that the 4/5 year old kids seemed to be having lots of fun and it seemed to be a standard cartoon for them. I really wish I could unsee it.
On the upside, there was another show about the antics of a post office worker who was secretly at it with every woman in town and it was pretty funny.
posted by Tarumba at 9:21 AM on March 28, 2016 [6 favorites]
My youngest son is still too traumatised to watch 'Up' again. Lots of the Pixar movies have devastating scenes of death and rejection. My oldest son won't watch 'The Princess Bride' because of the torture scene.
Having said that, they both love 'Little Shop of Horrors' even though it contains a man-eating plant and a psychopathic dentists. Kids!
posted by h00py at 9:24 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
Having said that, they both love 'Little Shop of Horrors' even though it contains a man-eating plant and a psychopathic dentists. Kids!
posted by h00py at 9:24 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
I'd let my kids watch Watership Down before The Passion of the Christ any day and twice on Easter Sunday. At least WD isn't a snuff film.
Ahem. A film only counts as "snuff" if it contains an actual murder. The Passion of the Christ is torture porn.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:25 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ahem. A film only counts as "snuff" if it contains an actual murder. The Passion of the Christ is torture porn.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:25 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Northern romance story
Given Threads or Coronation Street, I'd still probably pick Threads.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 9:26 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
Given Threads or Coronation Street, I'd still probably pick Threads.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 9:26 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
Is the movie considerably more brutal than the book? Because I've never seen the movie, but I LOVED the Watership Down book and books like it as a kid. Random phrases in rabbit-language were some of my earliest Internet screennames.
There's something inherently kid-appealing about animal xenofiction. Tailchaser's Song, Raptor Red, White Fang, The Call of the Wild, Black Beauty, all books kid-me adored. It's some combination of "learning facts about nature" + "animals are cool" + "pretending to be an animal," plus an animal character feels more powerful from their POV than a human child protagonist would.
Perhaps the movie version may feel more traumatizing because the visuals take the violence from "hurting a character" into "hurting an animal," which is much more upsetting to many people (including me).
I suspect there has never been and will never be totally book-faithful movie adaptations of Black Beauty and White Fang, because those have acquired the reputation of "classic kidlit," and there's no way to make a family-friendly visual out of "people whipping domesticated animals until they bleed."
posted by nicebookrack at 9:32 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
There's something inherently kid-appealing about animal xenofiction. Tailchaser's Song, Raptor Red, White Fang, The Call of the Wild, Black Beauty, all books kid-me adored. It's some combination of "learning facts about nature" + "animals are cool" + "pretending to be an animal," plus an animal character feels more powerful from their POV than a human child protagonist would.
Perhaps the movie version may feel more traumatizing because the visuals take the violence from "hurting a character" into "hurting an animal," which is much more upsetting to many people (including me).
I suspect there has never been and will never be totally book-faithful movie adaptations of Black Beauty and White Fang, because those have acquired the reputation of "classic kidlit," and there's no way to make a family-friendly visual out of "people whipping domesticated animals until they bleed."
posted by nicebookrack at 9:32 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
I actually read WD when I was ten and dug it. Didn't see the movie until later, though.
As for alternate rabbit-oriented films on Easter: I had friends once who used to screen Night of The Lepus at their Easter parties.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:01 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
As for alternate rabbit-oriented films on Easter: I had friends once who used to screen Night of The Lepus at their Easter parties.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:01 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
Ugh, as a 44-year old, all I have to do it *think* about *looking* for a youtube clip of the Black Rabbit Prince voiceover segment to start into little hyperventilating watery-eyed sad-angry sniffles. BUT FIRST THEY MUST CATCH YOU.
posted by Capybara at 10:03 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Capybara at 10:03 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
I wonder if the programmer didn't know what it was. It's along the lines of: Let's air Sin City on a Saturday morning. You know, it's a comic book, so it's for kids!
(True story: a woman brought her two young kids into the showing we went to, thinking just that. Either that or she had extremely permissive ideas on what was appropriate for kids. Anyway, the kids were boisterous at first, but got more and more quiet as the film went on. I think they might have been catatonic by the end. But it did lead to one of the weirdest questions ever asked: "What's with all the boobs in this film, mom?")
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:06 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
(True story: a woman brought her two young kids into the showing we went to, thinking just that. Either that or she had extremely permissive ideas on what was appropriate for kids. Anyway, the kids were boisterous at first, but got more and more quiet as the film went on. I think they might have been catatonic by the end. But it did lead to one of the weirdest questions ever asked: "What's with all the boobs in this film, mom?")
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:06 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
"You like dogs? Hey, there's something on the schedule called Old Yeller, it's supposed to be a 'childhood classic', that's gotta be safe, right?"
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:17 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:17 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
I don't remember much about the film - just that I was annoyed at how much they had to cut from the book to make it into a feature length movie.
"Silflay hraka, whiners.
posted by Sangermaine at 10:45 AM on March 28"
I think it must say something about how deeply the book imprinted on me that I still remember what that means 35 years after I read it.
posted by tdismukes at 10:19 AM on March 28, 2016 [6 favorites]
"Silflay hraka, whiners.
posted by Sangermaine at 10:45 AM on March 28"
I think it must say something about how deeply the book imprinted on me that I still remember what that means 35 years after I read it.
posted by tdismukes at 10:19 AM on March 28, 2016 [6 favorites]
Watership Down was an engrossing book. I guess youngish parents of today weren't around when it was a popular read. Just wait until the kiddies are old enough to realize that it's not really about rabbits. If you like pointy tipped allegory you could show them The Secrets of NIMH. It's about cute little field mice, and how they achieve cross-cultural exchange with a colony of rats to overcome a....well, I won't spoil it for you.
Yeah, so, anyway, let's dress Easter up with chocolate eggs and put a hat on the rabbit. What a good idea.
For an even darker, more engrossing read, I recommend The Plague Dogs, by the same author.
posted by mule98J at 10:20 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yeah, so, anyway, let's dress Easter up with chocolate eggs and put a hat on the rabbit. What a good idea.
For an even darker, more engrossing read, I recommend The Plague Dogs, by the same author.
posted by mule98J at 10:20 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Wait a second. Are you trying to tell me that Jesus is still alive?
Uh. Are you trying to tell me Jim Caviezel is dead?
posted by duffell at 10:25 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
Uh. Are you trying to tell me Jim Caviezel is dead?
posted by duffell at 10:25 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
For a softcore S&M read, I recommend Maia, by the same author.
posted by thelonius at 10:27 AM on March 28, 2016
posted by thelonius at 10:27 AM on March 28, 2016
A film only counts as "snuff" if it contains an actual murder.
I'll give Mel Gibson credit for trying.
posted by Etrigan at 10:31 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
I'll give Mel Gibson credit for trying.
posted by Etrigan at 10:31 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
My primary school's go-to film for showing us as a treat was The Neverending Story. Emptiness! Despair! Beloved animal companions drowning in swamps of sorrow! I wish they'd just shown us Bambi.
posted by Catseye at 10:35 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Catseye at 10:35 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
My 1970s parents somehow knew not to take me (and I never thank them enough).
My parents had no clue what was appropriate, and they were also trying to please everyone including my precocious older sister. Therefore I got WD, Jaws, Close Encounters, and a few others at a very young age.
posted by Melismata at 10:36 AM on March 28, 2016
My parents had no clue what was appropriate, and they were also trying to please everyone including my precocious older sister. Therefore I got WD, Jaws, Close Encounters, and a few others at a very young age.
posted by Melismata at 10:36 AM on March 28, 2016
Uh. Are you trying to tell me Jim Caviezel is dead?
Person of Interest is basically a modern version of Weekend at Bernie's.
posted by maxsparber at 10:39 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Person of Interest is basically a modern version of Weekend at Bernie's.
posted by maxsparber at 10:39 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
I do feel like all of this should be on a kid-by-kid basis, and that has to be the parents' role. Watership Down was fine for me, in both book and movie forms - upsetting, but not the wrong kind of upsetting.
Whereas "The Destructors", which I read in, IIRC, fourth grade as part of the gifted books program, really really fucked me up. To an adult, it's an obvious parable about class and post-war change; to a kid, it's about a gang of bad boys who destroy an old man's home and leave him helpless in the rubble, and no one does a thing. That story filled me with so much dread, because I knew my classmates hated me and would be perfectly happy to tear down my house and leave me homeless, and after all, the story said that no one helped the old man or stopped the boys. I really used to worry that my classmates would kill me or burn down my house. It probably wasn't actually plausible, although several of the bully children were violent enough that they would certainly have pushed me down the stairs or hurt me pretty badly if they'd had the chance.
My point being - other than "OMG TRAUMA MEMORIES" - that we actually read "The Destructors" for school. For school! Augh.
posted by Frowner at 10:43 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
Whereas "The Destructors", which I read in, IIRC, fourth grade as part of the gifted books program, really really fucked me up. To an adult, it's an obvious parable about class and post-war change; to a kid, it's about a gang of bad boys who destroy an old man's home and leave him helpless in the rubble, and no one does a thing. That story filled me with so much dread, because I knew my classmates hated me and would be perfectly happy to tear down my house and leave me homeless, and after all, the story said that no one helped the old man or stopped the boys. I really used to worry that my classmates would kill me or burn down my house. It probably wasn't actually plausible, although several of the bully children were violent enough that they would certainly have pushed me down the stairs or hurt me pretty badly if they'd had the chance.
My point being - other than "OMG TRAUMA MEMORIES" - that we actually read "The Destructors" for school. For school! Augh.
posted by Frowner at 10:43 AM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
My primary school's go-to film for showing us as a treat was The Neverending Story.
In 9th grade we had to take Economics, Personal Finance, and Career Planning: one per quarter. These courses tended to be taught by the athletic coaches. When it came time for Economics, the coach took like 3 class days to show us Soylent Green - he was really into it.
posted by thelonius at 10:48 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
In 9th grade we had to take Economics, Personal Finance, and Career Planning: one per quarter. These courses tended to be taught by the athletic coaches. When it came time for Economics, the coach took like 3 class days to show us Soylent Green - he was really into it.
posted by thelonius at 10:48 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Uh. Are you trying to tell me Jim Caviezel is dead?
You honestly can't tell from his performance on Person of Interest.
On preview - yes, maxsparber, yes.
posted by chonus at 10:51 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
You honestly can't tell from his performance on Person of Interest.
On preview - yes, maxsparber, yes.
posted by chonus at 10:51 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Solomon, God DAMN IT, you!
posted by Capybara at 11:22 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Capybara at 11:22 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
I read Watership Down as a kid and I *loved* it - same with Plague Dogs. My dad took me to see the movie, though, on one of our weekends together, and I'm sure he thought, "Oh, fun kid cartoon!" It totally made me cry - just as much as the book did. Such a strange movie - I reckon a lot of kids ended up traumatized after their parents went, "Oh look, a bunny cartoon movie! Let's go take the kids to that!"
posted by routergirl at 11:24 AM on March 28, 2016
posted by routergirl at 11:24 AM on March 28, 2016
Richard Adams on Watership Down: 'Perhaps I made it too dark'
Ya think?
posted by zarq at 12:00 PM on March 28, 2016
Ya think?
posted by zarq at 12:00 PM on March 28, 2016
This is probably indicative of me being horribly warped in some way, but I watched Watership Down for the first time when I was 6 years old or so, and I loved it. I demanded my mother rent it from Blockbuster so many times that we bought the VHS. She was pretty horrified when she sat down and it with me after I'd already watched it many times over by myself.
It is pretty disturbing, especially Holly's tale of the rabbits being killed in their warren. And there is the whole "Bunnies ripping each other into pieces" thing, but my love of that movie lead to me begging my parents to get me real life bunnies as pets, so clearly that didn't leave too negative an impression on me.
Now, would I show this movie to my (nonexistent) kids? I mean, I'd probably wait until they were 8 or 9 at least. I don't think it's so much what happens in the story exactly, although obviously that's upsetting, but I could understand not wanting to expose very young kids to some of the visuals.
At the same time, aside from Watership Down, I also watched a lot of nature documentaries including lots of "lions tear a gazelle up into a million pieces" so maybe that made me more okay with the whole thing. Also my other favorite childhood movies were The Last Unicorn, The Rats of NIMH, and Nightmare Before Christmas, and now my all time favorite TV show is Hannibal, so I guess I've always been sort of drawn to vaguely disturbing stories.
posted by litera scripta manet at 12:44 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
It is pretty disturbing, especially Holly's tale of the rabbits being killed in their warren. And there is the whole "Bunnies ripping each other into pieces" thing, but my love of that movie lead to me begging my parents to get me real life bunnies as pets, so clearly that didn't leave too negative an impression on me.
Now, would I show this movie to my (nonexistent) kids? I mean, I'd probably wait until they were 8 or 9 at least. I don't think it's so much what happens in the story exactly, although obviously that's upsetting, but I could understand not wanting to expose very young kids to some of the visuals.
At the same time, aside from Watership Down, I also watched a lot of nature documentaries including lots of "lions tear a gazelle up into a million pieces" so maybe that made me more okay with the whole thing. Also my other favorite childhood movies were The Last Unicorn, The Rats of NIMH, and Nightmare Before Christmas, and now my all time favorite TV show is Hannibal, so I guess I've always been sort of drawn to vaguely disturbing stories.
posted by litera scripta manet at 12:44 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Can't see/hear mention of Bright Eyes without thinking of The League Of Gentlemen.
You see, Patricia, the magic lies in the fact that although they are rabbits, they talk and act like people [NSFW]
posted by comealongpole at 12:54 PM on March 28, 2016
You see, Patricia, the magic lies in the fact that although they are rabbits, they talk and act like people [NSFW]
posted by comealongpole at 12:54 PM on March 28, 2016
Is the movie considerably more brutal than the book? Because I've never seen the movie, but I LOVED the Watership Down book and books like it as a kid. Random phrases in rabbit-language were some of my earliest Internet screennames.
I read the book when I was 12 or 13, and in some ways, I think the book can be more disturbing because you get more detailed explorations of creepy elements like Cowslip's warren and their whole "deal with thedevil humans" thing, which I find almost more disturbing than the Woundwort's totalitarian regime.
At the same time, I think the visuals are what make the movie feel disturbing in a way that the book doesn't. I really love the visuals of the movie's animation, and I'm glad they didn't shy away from showing the disturbing parts, but I imagine it's less the content than the images that a lot of parents are objecting to, since there are plenty of other stories/movies/etc that kids watch with equally disturbing or more disturbing storylines
posted by litera scripta manet at 12:54 PM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
I read the book when I was 12 or 13, and in some ways, I think the book can be more disturbing because you get more detailed explorations of creepy elements like Cowslip's warren and their whole "deal with the
At the same time, I think the visuals are what make the movie feel disturbing in a way that the book doesn't. I really love the visuals of the movie's animation, and I'm glad they didn't shy away from showing the disturbing parts, but I imagine it's less the content than the images that a lot of parents are objecting to, since there are plenty of other stories/movies/etc that kids watch with equally disturbing or more disturbing storylines
posted by litera scripta manet at 12:54 PM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
This was an HBO thing in the late 70's/early 80's. After my dad taking me to the westworld/soylent green double feature and then Jaws, the terrors of the warren were tame by comparison.
posted by mikelieman at 1:19 PM on March 28, 2016
posted by mikelieman at 1:19 PM on March 28, 2016
Well, there is only so much you can "report on" for this article; Tweets help pad it out. Besides, if you just reported the facts — "Channel 5 shows Watership Down on Easter Sunday, some parents complained" — it wouldn't be much of a story
But that was my point. There's no story here: the story is the tweets., plus "Channel 5 shows Watership Down on Easter Sunday". On the basis of the Indy's story, I don't even know whether some parents really, actually complained. Blaming parents is a straw rabbit, anyway. All the so-called "complaints" quoted were tweets, most tongue-in-cheek, by people whose memories of watching the movie at a young age were triggered by seeing it on the TV schedule - or on Twitter itself, when it was trending. Show me the tweet where a parent says "I let my 5-year-old watch this on Easter Sunday and was shocked, shocked!" - I don't know if there are any; the Indy certainly hasn't shown us any.
The whole piece is supposition built on a handful of throwaway lines that random people tweeted to pass the time on a Sunday afternoon. Which wouldn't be that bad, except that the UK media run stories like this all the time nowadays, and too often about issues a lot more important than Channel 5's weekend schedule.
posted by rory at 1:37 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
But that was my point. There's no story here: the story is the tweets., plus "Channel 5 shows Watership Down on Easter Sunday". On the basis of the Indy's story, I don't even know whether some parents really, actually complained. Blaming parents is a straw rabbit, anyway. All the so-called "complaints" quoted were tweets, most tongue-in-cheek, by people whose memories of watching the movie at a young age were triggered by seeing it on the TV schedule - or on Twitter itself, when it was trending. Show me the tweet where a parent says "I let my 5-year-old watch this on Easter Sunday and was shocked, shocked!" - I don't know if there are any; the Indy certainly hasn't shown us any.
The whole piece is supposition built on a handful of throwaway lines that random people tweeted to pass the time on a Sunday afternoon. Which wouldn't be that bad, except that the UK media run stories like this all the time nowadays, and too often about issues a lot more important than Channel 5's weekend schedule.
posted by rory at 1:37 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Reminds me of the parents of two very young kids at the theater when I saw Deadpool. I can't remember what scene finally convinced them to be actual parents, but I know it was after the (very much implied) anal sex.
posted by Brocktoon at 1:37 PM on March 28, 2016
posted by Brocktoon at 1:37 PM on March 28, 2016
"Happy International Women's Day"
posted by hanov3r at 1:58 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by hanov3r at 1:58 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
They showed Watership Down to my whole Primary School when I was a kid. There were a lot of kids taken out of the Assembly Hall that day. The boy next to me was so freaked out he threw up on my shoes. I still haven't seen the end.
posted by IanMorr at 2:02 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by IanMorr at 2:02 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
There must have been some weird shift of values here, because when I was a child, all books and movies dealt with death or illness or fundamental fears. Disney movies were scary as hell. Maybe there was an obsession with death back then, but shouldn't kids meet the reality and discuss it?
Watership Down was one of my favorite books as a teen and I loved the film. Only now I realize why my grandparents shared and encouraged my enthusiasm and my grandpa requested the audiobook when he lost his sight - Adams must have been a fellow WW2 fighter. Now I wonder if there were observations or emotions from the war in the book.
posted by mumimor at 2:38 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Watership Down was one of my favorite books as a teen and I loved the film. Only now I realize why my grandparents shared and encouraged my enthusiasm and my grandpa requested the audiobook when he lost his sight - Adams must have been a fellow WW2 fighter. Now I wonder if there were observations or emotions from the war in the book.
posted by mumimor at 2:38 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've often wondered if there has been a shift of values, or if it's just that my particular childhood was weird.
One data point:
I just now went and looked up the current Junior Great Books selections. When I was in either fourth or fifth grade, our books had "All Summer In A Day", "The Destructors", "The Rocking Horse Winner" and a short story whose name escapes me about a white girl who observes from the outside the extremely destructive and violent bullying of an Indian girl in her class. I don't remember the other stories. I think there were about eight in the book, and almost all of them were stories for adults with child protagonists. I think we also may have had a Jack London story where the guy dies in the cold - I dimly remember reading some Jack London around that time. This was the mid eighties.
Right now, fifth graders read "All Summer In A Day", but it looks like most of the other stuff is YA, intermediate serious stuff (Richard Peck) or folktales - nothing like what we got. Only the 8th graders get "The Destructors" and while they get some other grown-upish stories, in general the stories are not tragic - "The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse", some Amy Tan, etc. Also, they seem to read more short pieces.
So it looks as though at least here, there has been a shift to more "child appropriate" material and away from tragic themes. I cannot even tell you how deeply I was haunted by "The Destructors", "The Rocking Horse Winner" and "All Summer In A Day". I feel like I would have been better off encountering those stories at least a couple of years later, when I had more practical understanding of the world.
On the one hand, I think there's child-appropriate material (like Watership Down, which I read when I was 11, IIRC) that deals with sad and scary stuff, and then there's material that isn't really intended for children and requires a lot more reading skills. You really need to be able to read for irony and parable to get much out of "The Destructors", and you need some post-WWII history for it to make any sense.
I feel like thirteen or fourteen is much better for all that sorta-dark "Lord of the Flies"ish stuff - not that it's not disturbing at that age, but you've got a lot more handle on the world.
Also, you need a teacher who is capable of reading at a sophisticated level themselves. What strikes me, looking back, is how our actual teachers were not well-prepared to lead us in discussion of the Junior Great Books readings. I remember being so bored - and I loved to read. And we certainly didn't get any context for the stories, either. I understood them because I was a little swot and knew (sort of) what an 18th century house would look like and what the class dynamics were in "The Rocking Horse Winner", but I sure couldn't have told you what the authors were trying to say. (Except that DH Lawrence blames the mom and is an awful misogynist.)
posted by Frowner at 3:01 PM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
One data point:
I just now went and looked up the current Junior Great Books selections. When I was in either fourth or fifth grade, our books had "All Summer In A Day", "The Destructors", "The Rocking Horse Winner" and a short story whose name escapes me about a white girl who observes from the outside the extremely destructive and violent bullying of an Indian girl in her class. I don't remember the other stories. I think there were about eight in the book, and almost all of them were stories for adults with child protagonists. I think we also may have had a Jack London story where the guy dies in the cold - I dimly remember reading some Jack London around that time. This was the mid eighties.
Right now, fifth graders read "All Summer In A Day", but it looks like most of the other stuff is YA, intermediate serious stuff (Richard Peck) or folktales - nothing like what we got. Only the 8th graders get "The Destructors" and while they get some other grown-upish stories, in general the stories are not tragic - "The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse", some Amy Tan, etc. Also, they seem to read more short pieces.
So it looks as though at least here, there has been a shift to more "child appropriate" material and away from tragic themes. I cannot even tell you how deeply I was haunted by "The Destructors", "The Rocking Horse Winner" and "All Summer In A Day". I feel like I would have been better off encountering those stories at least a couple of years later, when I had more practical understanding of the world.
On the one hand, I think there's child-appropriate material (like Watership Down, which I read when I was 11, IIRC) that deals with sad and scary stuff, and then there's material that isn't really intended for children and requires a lot more reading skills. You really need to be able to read for irony and parable to get much out of "The Destructors", and you need some post-WWII history for it to make any sense.
I feel like thirteen or fourteen is much better for all that sorta-dark "Lord of the Flies"ish stuff - not that it's not disturbing at that age, but you've got a lot more handle on the world.
Also, you need a teacher who is capable of reading at a sophisticated level themselves. What strikes me, looking back, is how our actual teachers were not well-prepared to lead us in discussion of the Junior Great Books readings. I remember being so bored - and I loved to read. And we certainly didn't get any context for the stories, either. I understood them because I was a little swot and knew (sort of) what an 18th century house would look like and what the class dynamics were in "The Rocking Horse Winner", but I sure couldn't have told you what the authors were trying to say. (Except that DH Lawrence blames the mom and is an awful misogynist.)
posted by Frowner at 3:01 PM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
Next year we will substitute a heartwarming claymation movie about Mark Twain by the creator of the California Raisins.
I'm not sure that the world wouldn't be helped by a claymation version of The War Prayer.
posted by notquitemaryann at 3:20 PM on March 28, 2016
I'm not sure that the world wouldn't be helped by a claymation version of The War Prayer.
posted by notquitemaryann at 3:20 PM on March 28, 2016
They showed Watership Down to my whole Primary School when I was a kid. There were a lot of kids taken out of the Assembly Hall that day.
Same here. Last day of school before Christmas break, they showed it to all of us in JK, K, and Grades One and Two. No-one previewed it, they just put on a children's movie with cartoon rabbits. Mass kindertrauma ensued. To this day, my sister can't hear the words Watership Down without welling up, which is a great torture device. Me, I got through fairly well, as being such a cutie at the time, I was safely seated on the lap of the lovely Miss Philps, and I was distracted from the movie by more mature thoughts which were well in advance of my young age.
Even with the mass terror and lack of a shown ending, I still enjoyed Watership Down more than Pete's Dragon. That one was a total piece of shit, probably because of Mickey Rooney, whom I took and instant and absolute dislike to. I was a smart kid.
posted by Capt. Renault at 3:32 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Same here. Last day of school before Christmas break, they showed it to all of us in JK, K, and Grades One and Two. No-one previewed it, they just put on a children's movie with cartoon rabbits. Mass kindertrauma ensued. To this day, my sister can't hear the words Watership Down without welling up, which is a great torture device. Me, I got through fairly well, as being such a cutie at the time, I was safely seated on the lap of the lovely Miss Philps, and I was distracted from the movie by more mature thoughts which were well in advance of my young age.
Even with the mass terror and lack of a shown ending, I still enjoyed Watership Down more than Pete's Dragon. That one was a total piece of shit, probably because of Mickey Rooney, whom I took and instant and absolute dislike to. I was a smart kid.
posted by Capt. Renault at 3:32 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
For a softcore S&M read, I recommend Maia, by the same author.
Hahahahah oh yes. That was a bit surprising to nine-year-old me. But not shocking. I had liked Ivanhoe so much a year or two before that I had looked around for other historical novels, and that's how I started reading Bertrice Small in second grade. As soon as I realized that my parents thought this was a bad idea, I got very good at hiding it.
posted by notquitemaryann at 3:32 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Hahahahah oh yes. That was a bit surprising to nine-year-old me. But not shocking. I had liked Ivanhoe so much a year or two before that I had looked around for other historical novels, and that's how I started reading Bertrice Small in second grade. As soon as I realized that my parents thought this was a bad idea, I got very good at hiding it.
posted by notquitemaryann at 3:32 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
I remember being a kid and in one weekend watching Watership Down, The Secret of Nimh, and some cartoon about a little Australian girl helping a Joey find his mother or maybe the reverse? Looking for the Joey. All I know is I cried all damn weekend and stopped trusting cartoons to be happy.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 3:34 PM on March 28, 2016
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 3:34 PM on March 28, 2016
Looking for the Joey.
We had that one, too. And as luck would have it, we had a Joey in our class. Let's call him Joey Bishop. So this Australian girl was running everywhere, calling out for Joey, and every time she said 'Jo-ey!', we'd all respond 'Bi-shop!' For at least an hour. It was hi-lar-i-ous.
posted by Capt. Renault at 3:45 PM on March 28, 2016
We had that one, too. And as luck would have it, we had a Joey in our class. Let's call him Joey Bishop. So this Australian girl was running everywhere, calling out for Joey, and every time she said 'Jo-ey!', we'd all respond 'Bi-shop!' For at least an hour. It was hi-lar-i-ous.
posted by Capt. Renault at 3:45 PM on March 28, 2016
So. Watership Down is appropriate at about asome early a point at which it is capable of haunting you without making you hate rabbits. And if you read it two years later, make sure you've read something else that scars you in the short term that you wish you'd read two years later. The point is - there's a point where what you read should haunt you -just a little. That years from now you want to be thinking about how it lingered with you. It's a good thing to read something you aren't ready for. It makes you ready to process all there other shit adolescence throws at you.
Don't get me wrong, Easter Sunday probably isn't the best time. .. but, hey - it'll leave an impression that will help spur a few more into their early teens.... probably not the 3 year old kids though.
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:11 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
Don't get me wrong, Easter Sunday probably isn't the best time. .. but, hey - it'll leave an impression that will help spur a few more into their early teens.... probably not the 3 year old kids though.
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:11 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
I was talking about WD with my sister in law over Easter, the book not the movie. I read it as an adult and don't have kids so I didn't have a frame of reference--I said I thought it might be advanced so she should google before she turned it over to him. I forgot to warn her about nightmares caused by rabbit warren genocide.
posted by mark k at 6:24 PM on March 28, 2016
posted by mark k at 6:24 PM on March 28, 2016
And now they're coming out with Fear The Watership Down. It's set in LA, but I heard it's not as good.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 7:02 PM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by ActingTheGoat at 7:02 PM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
For a softcore S&M read, I recommend Maia, by the same author.
aka Waterbed Down
posted by sineater at 7:49 PM on March 28, 2016
aka Waterbed Down
posted by sineater at 7:49 PM on March 28, 2016
I'm not sure that the world wouldn't be helped by a claymation version of The War Prayer.
I believe the original comment was a reference to The Mysterious Stranger, etc.
posted by ovvl at 7:58 PM on March 28, 2016
I believe the original comment was a reference to The Mysterious Stranger, etc.
posted by ovvl at 7:58 PM on March 28, 2016
For a softcore S&M read, I recommend Maia, by the same author.
I the opposite of recommend Maia. In fact I came to warn the thread. Dude has issues with women, manifested very early on by the young teenage protagonist enjoying being raped by her stepfather.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:02 PM on March 28, 2016
I the opposite of recommend Maia. In fact I came to warn the thread. Dude has issues with women, manifested very early on by the young teenage protagonist enjoying being raped by her stepfather.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:02 PM on March 28, 2016
panama joe channeling Art Garfunkel prompts me to mention that, though the theme song was written by Mike Batt, the rest of the music for the film was written by Angela Morley an interesting person in her own right. There was recently a Radio 4 documentary about her: “Musical Variations: The Life of Angela Morley — The colourful career of British composer and transgender pioneer Angela Morley."
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 8:31 PM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 8:31 PM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
I recently watch an in-flight version of Up where the sad scene near the start was cut out. The rest of the movie didn't make much sense after that.
posted by Diag at 8:33 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Diag at 8:33 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
I really loved Watership Down and though Adams was great. Then I read Plague Dogs and was perturbed. Then I read Maia and thought "what the what is up with this porny Conan shit." Then I read Traveller, which is about how much General Robert E. Lee was loved by his goddamn horse, and then I gave up.
I have occasionally been haunted by the idea that WD was written by someone else and the real Adams, who was a hack, stole it. But sometimes artists only have one good idea in them.
posted by emjaybee at 8:44 PM on March 28, 2016
I have occasionally been haunted by the idea that WD was written by someone else and the real Adams, who was a hack, stole it. But sometimes artists only have one good idea in them.
posted by emjaybee at 8:44 PM on March 28, 2016
Halloween Jack: " Hey, there's something on the schedule called Old Yeller"
It's Old Yeller, it's a happy movie.
posted by Mitheral at 10:05 PM on March 28, 2016
It's Old Yeller, it's a happy movie.
posted by Mitheral at 10:05 PM on March 28, 2016
rory: "who would be "unsuspecting" in an age when you can look up a movie's IMDB entry to see if it's worth watching in seconds?"
Er...anyone? The fact that you can look up a movie on IMDB doesn't make everyone suspicious. And, assuming therefore that there are "suspecting" people and "unsuspecting" people, it seems almost tautological that the people who are unsuspecting would not look it up on IMDB, because why would they? They're unsuspecting?
(No issue with the rest of your comment, just that bit seemed odd)
Nanukthedog: "Hey kids, don't watch a show about bunnies that will make you think"
All I can remember thinking from Watership Down as a kid was "Oh fuck that's horrible". What has stuck with me in the intervening 30 years is "It's a movie about rabbits dying". Literally the only thing I can remember about the movie, is that rabbits die en masse (by suffocation, I believe). I'm sure it's a great movie and a great book and good food for thought for older kids, but not for me.
Mezentian: "And possibly Grave of the Fireflies, but I have not watched that yet"
My son (age 10) has heard a lot about it and wants to watch it. I haven't seen it, but I know myself well enough that I said "Sure, watch it. With mom, though. Not me."
posted by Bugbread at 1:11 AM on March 29, 2016
Er...anyone? The fact that you can look up a movie on IMDB doesn't make everyone suspicious. And, assuming therefore that there are "suspecting" people and "unsuspecting" people, it seems almost tautological that the people who are unsuspecting would not look it up on IMDB, because why would they? They're unsuspecting?
(No issue with the rest of your comment, just that bit seemed odd)
Nanukthedog: "Hey kids, don't watch a show about bunnies that will make you think"
All I can remember thinking from Watership Down as a kid was "Oh fuck that's horrible". What has stuck with me in the intervening 30 years is "It's a movie about rabbits dying". Literally the only thing I can remember about the movie, is that rabbits die en masse (by suffocation, I believe). I'm sure it's a great movie and a great book and good food for thought for older kids, but not for me.
Mezentian: "And possibly Grave of the Fireflies, but I have not watched that yet"
My son (age 10) has heard a lot about it and wants to watch it. I haven't seen it, but I know myself well enough that I said "Sure, watch it. With mom, though. Not me."
posted by Bugbread at 1:11 AM on March 29, 2016
Er...anyone?
Fair point! I guess I meant that when it's trivially easy to check any film in the schedules in seconds - not just because you're worried about surprise bunny horror, but because you're wondering if a film is worth watching - the whole question of whether you're suspecting or unsuspecting becomes moot. But it's true that not everyone will bother doing that.
posted by rory at 1:25 AM on March 29, 2016
Fair point! I guess I meant that when it's trivially easy to check any film in the schedules in seconds - not just because you're worried about surprise bunny horror, but because you're wondering if a film is worth watching - the whole question of whether you're suspecting or unsuspecting becomes moot. But it's true that not everyone will bother doing that.
posted by rory at 1:25 AM on March 29, 2016
The first rule of Threads is "Don't fucking watch Threads."
If you really want to carry that scar on your soul, do it on the first day of your next vacation. That, or look forward to a week without sleep.
The second rule of Threads is "Don't fucking watch Threads."
posted by eriko at 3:18 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
If you really want to carry that scar on your soul, do it on the first day of your next vacation. That, or look forward to a week without sleep.
The second rule of Threads is "Don't fucking watch Threads."
posted by eriko at 3:18 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
I vividly remember my entire class at school being shown a Watership Down / Animal Farm double feature when I was a child. I can't remember exactly how old I was; probably around 10. It was kind of horrifying, but it dovetailed nicely with my youthful enthusiasm for gruesome age-inappropriate material.
posted by confluency at 5:47 AM on March 29, 2016
posted by confluency at 5:47 AM on March 29, 2016
... the rest of the music for the film was written by Angela Morley an interesting person in her own right...
Scored those intense string arrangements on 'Scott 3', pure genius!
posted by ovvl at 5:59 AM on March 29, 2016
Scored those intense string arrangements on 'Scott 3', pure genius!
posted by ovvl at 5:59 AM on March 29, 2016
Frowner, the freezing to death story is "To Build a Fire" by Jack London. I think we were given similar things to read in school, only our class was almost all short stories. I also remember some William Saroyan somewhere in there. The 70s and early 80s were also chock full of disaster movies, which I always found really boring and it felt like every other movie made was a disaster movie. It was certainly a different time.
I remember trying to read WD because one of my older siblings had it around. I think I was expecting something a little more fantasy-ish. I remember it being kind of gritty, I wasn't particularly enjoying it, and it felt wind-baggy to me at the time. I never bothered to read more than a few chapters and never cared enough to go back and read it later when I might have understood the subtext or other things.
posted by clickingmongrel at 8:09 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
I remember trying to read WD because one of my older siblings had it around. I think I was expecting something a little more fantasy-ish. I remember it being kind of gritty, I wasn't particularly enjoying it, and it felt wind-baggy to me at the time. I never bothered to read more than a few chapters and never cared enough to go back and read it later when I might have understood the subtext or other things.
posted by clickingmongrel at 8:09 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
A short animation, of sorts, also featuring cute bunnies and a soundtrack by The National.
posted by Wordshore at 1:12 PM on March 29, 2016
posted by Wordshore at 1:12 PM on March 29, 2016
The book was deeply affecting to me when I was 13, and still is today. The film is a bit of an afterthought for me, I should try to see it again sometime. Never get the exact sense of subtlety and detail in an adaptation, exactly, as happens.
SPOILER (If you've read this far, you either know or don't care what happens..) in the book, Hazel takes his final run through the meadow with El-ahrairah, but in the film he goes with the Black Rabbit..
(One of the most fascinating scenes in the book is the myth of the bedraggled El-ahrairah negotiating for survival against the pitiless Black Rabbit of Inle..)
posted by ovvl at 6:19 PM on March 29, 2016
SPOILER (If you've read this far, you either know or don't care what happens..) in the book, Hazel takes his final run through the meadow with El-ahrairah, but in the film he goes with the Black Rabbit..
(One of the most fascinating scenes in the book is the myth of the bedraggled El-ahrairah negotiating for survival against the pitiless Black Rabbit of Inle..)
posted by ovvl at 6:19 PM on March 29, 2016
I don't know if the memories of each corrupted each other, but I had the impression from the ending of the book that that El-ahrairah and The Black Rabbit of Inle were aspects of the same entity. The ending the film (just rematched, thanks!) indicates this with periodic flickers of the Black Rabbit over the figure of El-ahairah leading the spirit of Hazel away. Not sure how I inferred that from the book.
On review, the animation of that last scene is pretty startling merging the realistic (Hazel's last ear twitch) and fantastic (ghostly rabbit-like figures flying though a ghostly forest then upward into the sun).
posted by wobh at 3:07 AM on March 30, 2016
On review, the animation of that last scene is pretty startling merging the realistic (Hazel's last ear twitch) and fantastic (ghostly rabbit-like figures flying though a ghostly forest then upward into the sun).
posted by wobh at 3:07 AM on March 30, 2016
This kind of journalism drives me nuts- a few parents dashed of some tweets, hardly a mass protest.
And if you look at the article, the only apparently earnest tweet is quoted, not screenshot- and I searched Twitter and couldn't find anything like that.
All the other tweets are tongue in cheek.
posted by Dwardles at 4:49 AM on March 30, 2016
And if you look at the article, the only apparently earnest tweet is quoted, not screenshot- and I searched Twitter and couldn't find anything like that.
All the other tweets are tongue in cheek.
posted by Dwardles at 4:49 AM on March 30, 2016
Cowslip's warren and their whole "deal with the devil humans" thing, which I find almost more disturbing than the Woundwort's totalitarian regime.
That's definitely the author's intent. Woundwort in the book is explicitly portrayed as a traumatized, highly intelligent rabbit who built his totalitarian system for the purposes of protecting his warren from human (and, secondarily, animal predators') notice. He's been corrupted by power, but the core of his scheme was noble, and he is shown to the very end to have reserves of physical courage that definitely contrast with the Cowslip bunch.
Reading it the first time years ago I spent a fair amount of time trying to parse the politics of it. Was Woundwort a commentary on the Soviet Union? On fascist leaders like Franco and Mussolini? It's ambiguous and maybe he didn't have any direct analogue in mind, but it was one of the more interesting and nuanced character portraits in the book.
posted by AdamCSnider at 1:53 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
That's definitely the author's intent. Woundwort in the book is explicitly portrayed as a traumatized, highly intelligent rabbit who built his totalitarian system for the purposes of protecting his warren from human (and, secondarily, animal predators') notice. He's been corrupted by power, but the core of his scheme was noble, and he is shown to the very end to have reserves of physical courage that definitely contrast with the Cowslip bunch.
Reading it the first time years ago I spent a fair amount of time trying to parse the politics of it. Was Woundwort a commentary on the Soviet Union? On fascist leaders like Franco and Mussolini? It's ambiguous and maybe he didn't have any direct analogue in mind, but it was one of the more interesting and nuanced character portraits in the book.
posted by AdamCSnider at 1:53 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
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posted by Panthalassa at 6:21 AM on March 28, 2016 [65 favorites]