Children need parental guidance on movies: Activist

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)