Sometimes as a parent it’s often awkward and difficult to address certain matters of the world with your children, even though it is integral to your child’s upbringing that you warn them of every foreboding danger in store.
Luckily, there are some popular children’s films that deal with such tricky subjects and may serve as icebreakers.
Here is a list of important issues you should discuss with your child and the films that will help bring a better, less awkward understanding of them.
INCEST: Star Wars, Back to the Future
Luke and Leia famously locked Skywalker-sibling-lips in the first installment of the series. Which would have been an honest mistake if Leia didn’t later admit that ‘somehow she always knew’ that Luke was her brother and yet, in spite knowing the truth decided to throw the gob onto him anyway.
Michael J Fox and his own mother share a lighthearted on-screen sexual chemistry that hardly seems shameful at all. Don’t let your child spend years in introverted Freudian terror at these conflicting feelings, let them know that in 1980’s science fiction it was perfectly normal.
http://youtu.be/-c0KvnIBbaU
BEASTIALITY:Planet of the Apes
We’ve all shared a laugh when the family pet is on heat and attempts dry hump an adult’s leg, or toddler’s face, but is it still funny when it happens the other way around? Of course not.
If your child starts to display tendencies towards the family pet sit them down and show them that Charlton Heston’s (or Mark Wahlberg’s) lust for a female ape is the romantic plot for a classic film (or Mark Wahlberg’s) and remind them gently that although these tendencies are natural, and sometimes mutually consensual, they often result in social problems. And logistical kissing issues.
NECROPHILIA:Casper, Corpse Bride, Edward Scissorhands
Rather than your child making the ultimate error of becoming sexually attracted to a person or animal of a deceased nature put one of these three films on for the budding Ed Gein and clear it up sooner rather than later.
The romantic relationships in these films between living and dead may seem idyllic but all of them end in misery and separation and this is why necrophilia should not be a part of your child’s life. They should also be careful in with scissors generally. Not just in a romantic setting.
TORTURE:Willy Wonka
Torture is a big part of life and shouldn’t be hidden away from younglings lest they find out the hard way. But rather than scare them with torture porn or french hardcore, kill them softly with this music filled piece of pro-torture propaganda.
Put the beloved Gene Wilder version of Willy Wonka on for the little cherub and allow them to witness the velvet glove of the dictatorial Wonka who lords it over an entire race of dwarf-people that he apparently rescued from giants in Loompaland. What kind of made up bullshit it is that?
Children are lucky to escape this candy-filled Guantanamo Bay where Wonka gets his sadistic kicks by turning kids into giant blueberries, shrinking them or having them drown in a chocolate river. And for what? All for the purpose of selecting his heir. Even Saddam wasn’t as brutal as that.
NARCOTICS: Reefer Madness
A lot of people might sneer at the dated values in Reefer Madness but truth is it holds an important moral message – drugs make devils of children. Unlike other more fashionable films this does not seek to glamorise drugs in anyway, just presents the cold hard facts of their effects. Namely, that the consumption of marijuana will lead you to become a crazed murder-rapist. Can’t fault the science…
WORDS: Will Roberts
