Sunday, June 15, 2008

orphans in film

I LOVE movies, musicals and theatre.  I plan to share this love with Sadie.  Well, yesterday I woke up and turned on the tv.  One of the many versions of Annie was on so I started watching and singing along (of course). 

215px-Annie_Musical_Poster 

Then, I started thinking.  Do I want Sadie to see this show?  The depiction of an orphanage is just awful.  Ms. Hannigan is such a meany.  She tells the kids that no one loves them.  They are made to clean the place.  They skip meals.  All Annie can think about is finding her parents.  Oy. 

Then I started thinking about my favorite Disney movie, The Rescuers.

Rescuersposter

I have always loved this movie but what would  Sadie think of Penny the orphan?  Penny is so sad and wants desperately to be adopted.  A couple comes to look at her and then chooses another little girl.  Now, I know that after her adventures, Penny is adopted by a nice mom and dad (hope I didn't just spoil that for anyone), but still.

I plan to be a responsible parent.  I'm going to have to start watching these plays and movies with a new set of eyes.  I certainly don't plan to keep Sadie sheltered, but I don't want to expose her to anything, especially something that is meant to entertain, that could hurt or confuse her.  I guess I'll have to wait until she is old enough to understand that it is just a movie or a show.  That it is not real and it is not like the orphanage where she spent the first year + of her life.  Now that I'm thinking about all of this, I wonder what other movies, plays and even books are out there I need to worry about.

1 comment:

The Gregs said...

Thse are good questions. I have wondered how to handle this too. So many films and plays are about losing parents or orphans.