Adults flock to cinemas as children's films come of age<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A special mention goes to children's cinema this
\nyear. Jumanji (directed by Joe Johnston, a special effects
\nspecialist, with previous features including Rocketeer and Honey,
\nI Shrunk the Kids!) was the third most popular film in Indonesia
\nin 1996, certainly deservedly pipping Andrew Sipes' Fair Game and
\nJan de Bont's Twister.<\/p>\n
Jumanji is about a board game that magically whisks its
\nplayers off to the jungle (one character mentions Indonesia) or
\nbrings tropical mayhem back home. It gives Robin Williams
\nanother opportunity to act like a loon, this time he has been
\nreleased from the jungle after 26 years. Covered in large leaves
\nand skins, overgrown with beard, he bursts out of the undergrowth
\nlooking for mum and dad, as though time had stopped still.
\nThankfully he comes abruptly to his senses, shaves, puts on
\ndecent clothes, and tries to manage the situation.<\/p>\n
Chances of doing this are slim, even for Robin Williams. He
\nhas a lot on his hands: stampeding herds of rhinos and elephants,
\na nasty Great White Hunter, giant mosquitoes, monkeys that
\nterrorize the neighborhood and a rather languid lion that doesn't
\nseem to have its mind on the job. Like the 1991 movie Hook that
\nhad Williams as a workaholic dad compelled to connect with his
\nchildhood again, Jumanji is another Williams vehicle with the
\nsubtext to tune into kids.<\/p>\n
But it was Toy Story and Babe that were the best films to come
\nto Jakarta this year. Both received recognition internationally
\nwell beyond their category, and if you didn't see them, you
\nmissed out. Babe, awarded a Golden Globe for best comedy, was
\none of the five nominees (against Braveheart) for the Oscar award
\nfor Best Picture and Best Director. It won an Oscar for Best
\nVisual Effects while Toy Story won an Oscar for Special
\nAchievement.<\/p>\n
John Lasseter's Toy Story represented a milestone in cinema
\nhistory as the first entirely computer generated film ever made
\nand Chris Noonan's Babe involved a seamless combination of
\ncomputer animation, puppetry and animatronics. But cinema
\naudiences gather for story-narrative and spectacle, not just for
\nvirtuoso technological achievement. In the first place these two
\nfilms work on the former level.<\/p>\n
Babe was audacious in its simplicity, proposing a story about
\na pig that understandably wants to be different and manages it,
\nto public acclaim. To make such an innocent film in times such
\nas these, that is to find the financial backing and the market
\nfor such a concept, and then to succeed -- well, that's
\nsomething.<\/p>\n
In Babe the plot rested on the rivalries within the animal
\ncommunity down at Hoggett farm, while in John Lasseter's Toy
\nStory we were engaged in the rivalries among the toy collection
\nowned by young Andy. Woody the cowboy, who has been Andy's
\nfavorite toy to date, is displaced one birthday by a new toy,
\nBuzz Lightyear the astronaut, who has a few more tricks up his
\nspacesuit than his buck-skinned predecessor. They have to work
\nit out of course, beyond the safe world of Andy's room. On one
\nlevel, Toy Story is analogous with the bonding buddy movie, on
\nother levels, it suggests something about the challenge of new
\ntechnologies.<\/p>\n
The year saw more quality children's cinema in The Hunchback
\nof Notre Dame and The Indian in the Cupboard. Hunchback may have
\nseemed on the face of it a difficult choice of subject for
\nDisney, but children's film excels (by definition) at rendering
\nthe grotesque appealing after all. So why should we be surprised?
\nSimulated swooping camera movements around the venerable Notre
\nDame cathedral and a barrel-chested protagonist who could swing
\nfrom gargoyle to gargoyle brought dynamic action and even levity
\nto the Victor Hugo classic lurking in the shadows.<\/p>\n
Indian<\/p>\n
The Indian in the Cupboard was very touching, and in difficult
\nterrain. In representing indigenous people it nimbly avoided the
\npitfall of the turning itself into a lecture on political
\ncorrectness. The story is about a young boy who builds an
\nimaginative world around an Iroquois brave figurine that comes to
\nlife after being locked in a magical cupboard. In this film, the
\nmagic has another dimension to it which is hard to discern in the
\nfrenetic Jumanji. As a device it evokes a sense of history and a
\npowerful sense of loss, theirs (the Indians) and ours, while in
\nthe Robin Williams' film the magic is mechanical rather than
\nmetaphysical.<\/p>\n
The Adventures of Pinocchio rates at least a mention for being
\ngood entertainment, and Little Indian Big City, something
\ndifferent, rates at least as a good try. Not yet released as we
\ngo to print, Disney's upcoming 101 Dalmatians augurs well with
\nGlenn Close in it as the villainous Cruella de Vil.<\/p>\n
The other day while browsing through the titles in the
\nchildren's section of a local laser disc rental outlet, I came
\nacross the cherubic features of Macauley Culkin. So what's new?
\nCulkin's well-known face was gazing out sulkily from the cover of
\nThe Good Son, a violent drama that was withdrawn from theatrical
\nrelease in the United Kingdom when it coincided with news of a
\nhorrific murder case involving youngsters. The same film
\nreceived an 18 (years) certificate in Spain. This is no kid's
\nmovie, and neither is the Larry Clark film Kids, but that at
\nleast was in the adults' section.<\/p>\n
How to judge a "quality" children's film is no easy task
\noutside personal and subjective criteria, and is under-
\nresearched. With the transformations in programming threatening
\nto open up access to every kind of program to every kind of
\naudience, young or old, and with the seepage of violence and sex
\nfrom adult cinema into the children's arena, anxieties about what
\nis good for children are very real. Careless filing in the laser
\ndisc shop demonstrate how easy it is to slip-up.<\/p>\n
-- Jane Freebury<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/adults-flock-to-cinemas-as-childrens-films-come-of-age-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }