As you may or may not know, a stomach bug set up residence in our home this past week. It started with the 2-year-old. Luckily, she and the vomit bowl were bosom buddies for only 24-hours (that’s 2 weeks in mom time). Like all evil stomach bugs, it waited 3 days before hitting my husband and 5-year-old, lying in wait just long enough for us to believe we had escaped its clutches. Today is the one-week mark since the bug hit, and my oldest daughter and husband are still feeling out of sorts.
Where you have sick people, you have a television on 24-7. If you’re stuck holding a bowl to puke in, there’s really nothing more to do than to just sit around and wait to use it. Might as well watch something, right? Well, after a few days of nonstop Oscar’s Oasis, Timmy Time, and about every Pixar production in our DVD collection, I decided to treat my girls to a classic: Disney’s Cinderella. I figured, hey, they’re into princesses and dressing up in gowns and they’d only ever heard the story read to them; they’ll love it!
So, onto Amazon Prime I went and shelled out $14 to purchase Cinderella and have it permanently added to our practically-empty video library. I tucked the girls into their couches, made sure vomit bowls were within reach, started the movie, and walked to the kitchen to make a cup of moonshine tea. Two minutes later:
5-year-old: “Uh, there’s something wrong with the movie.”
I look up, expecting to see that little bar on the screen as the movie takes its time downloading. Instead, I see a bunch of credits. Oh, okay, my kids aren’t used to watching movies that have beginning credits with no accompanying scenes to divert their attention away from the text. Easy enough to fix: I fast-forward to the storybook beginning and go back to my tea. Two minutes later:
5-year-old: “Ummmm, it’s still messed up.”
Cinderella is waking up to birds and mice helping her out of bed. Volume is adequate, reception is excellent, dog is not camped out in front of the screen. What’s the problem?
Me: “What’s wrong?”
5-year-old: “It’s all squiggly. I don’t like it.”
2-year-old: “Me either.”
Can you guess the problem? I hinted to it above…
Pixar. The problem is Pixar. Well, not solely Pixar. I guess we can widen the blame umbrella and throw all computer animation in general under there. My children are so used to computer animated entertainment that old-fashioned hand-drawn animation is completely unacceptable. My first reaction was to get annoyed. I mean, I just spent $14 on this movie! It’s a classic! What kid (girl at that!) doesn’t like Cinderella?!? A movie about FREE shoes AND a handsome prince, c’mon!
And then I remember that I don’t like black and white movies. Not only do I not like them, I won’t even watch them. It’s A Wonderful Life: Never seen it. Casablanca: Nope. Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Heck no.
I guess every generation has their own thing. Color television is mine. Computer animation is my children’s. As the mom, though, it’s my job to force down their throats expose my girls to the classic squiggly lines of my childhood. As my children, it’s their job to turn up their noses and roll their eyes at how ancient their mom is.
And as the money-hungry kid-loving movie production company that Pixar is, it’s their job to remake the classics. Um, Pixar, you reading this? Cinderella, please! (Let’s add a little more bling to the shoes this time around, though, mmmmm-kay?)
Can you relate? We’d love to hear your stories in the comments section!
Lol I I have the same problem with my son. He will only watch the Pixar ones and hates the classics. Actually he just fell asleep after watching 2 mins of Peter Pan for the first time. I hate B&W’s as well 😉
Glad to hear I’m not alone in this!