Children need parental guidance on movies: Activist
JAKARTA (JP): Five-year-old Monty has seen them all, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and on Friday he saw The Lion King, Walt Disney's latest production.
He already has the video, books, cutlery and imported balloons and was dragging his "Oma" around the Pondok Indah Mall, South Jakarta, for more.
"We get to be like children, buying all these things," said his grandmother referring to irresistible film-related products.
Although the products are now mostly made in Indonesia and therefore cheaper, she felt the money spent to please a child, "is just the same."
As Friday at the Mall proved, children's films that come complete with toys and other items are a boon for product makers and distributors and a danger to parents.
"It's dangerous to watch the film here," said the mother of three-year-old Emir with an exasperated laugh. Inevitably she spent at least Rp 50,000 (US$23.13) on the film-related products alone.
Her teenager niece, carrying a large lion-and-cub toy worth Rp 39,500 ($18.27) just shrugged her shoulders when her aunt told her she would get bored of it soon. "You'll only leave it lying around," said the aunt.
After watching the film the family had been drawn to the promotion display on the mall's ground floor. As the President Director of Metro Pondok Indah, Christine Barki, said, "After watching the movies children tend to identify more with the characters." The products are attractive as souvenirs of a memorable film, she added.
"We hope they are more accessible to parents as most are local, but high quality goods," she said, pointing to soft toys made by one of the license holders of Disney Consumer Products, Asiana Inti Industries.
However, Zumrotin K. Soesilo, who chairs the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, warned that "products of a certain theme or trend are never cheap."
"The makers must calculate their risks because when the theme, like a film, is replaced by another, people will no longer buy the items," she said, citing World Cup 1994 products as a further example.
Various toys of Hollywood's next top film to enter the city, The Flintstones, are already found in stores here.
With a minimum of 50 film viewers a day, spending at least Rp 20,000 per person ($9.25), the Metro Pondok Indah management expects a total income of Rp 200 million ($92,506.93) from the product sales in the 17-day promotion of The Lion King.
Secondary
Zumrotin says the public should firm with their children and not let children decide on what their parents should buy when shopping.
But she acknowledged that working parents, compensating for the lack of time spent with their children, try to buy some "happiness" and find it hard to be firm.
Even though some of the products are useful, like plates, she added that they are still secondary needs and as regular items would not be as expensive.
"We must be more discriminating because producers watch how we spend our money," Zumrotin said.
A group of children from the nearby Dairul Aitam orphanage, who were invited by the film promoters to see The Lion King for free, were not among those crowding the promotion corner.
For Maulana Yusuf, 13, it was a memorable afternoon - his first time to the movies. For his group of friends it was also their first time in a mall. On the rare outing, they shared other children's joy of owning "secondary needs", a package of The Lion King souvenirs. (anr)