Sad Feet

Over at Grist, Yolanda Crous, in an essay on the enviro-friendly kids movie, Happy Feet, tells us how bothered she was as a kid by hammy after-school specials with "messages." Now, thankfully, she's been reformed and is no longer irritated with Happy Feet's environmental preaching:

The good news: I was not annoyed by Happy Feet's environmental message. The movie manages to introduce complex issues (food chain disruption) in surprisingly subtle ways (birds start stalking baby penguins because they don't have enough fish to eat).

But then comes the rub. The problem with the movie, as she sees it, isn't that it's too preachy--it's that it's not preachy enough!

Everything else in the movie annoyed me... [this] cookie-cutter cartoon-with-an-environmental-message also comes with a few unadvertised messages -- and socially irresponsible ones at that. Apparently, all females in the South Pole are hip-swaying, breathy-voiced, man-crazed pushovers, all Mexicans are short, and all African-Americans are superfly playas. It seems Antarctica is a land of overwrought stereotypes as well as overwrought singing.

It's comforting to know that even if you grew up bored and exasperated by the hammy, obvious messages of after school specials and "very special episodes," you can mature into a decent, stereotype-aware, socially-responsible California liberal who knows that, however much kids might just want guilt-free entertainment and fun, what those youngsters really need are hearty liberal morals and political correctness.