The Mindful and the Mindless: Making Films Good for Families

An interesting take, by Dr. Marc T. Newman, on the writing behind today's "family" movies.

(AgapePress) - The fashion these days is for makers of films targeted at children to include winking adult references that will, supposedly, fly over the heads of kids while making the movie bearable for their older siblings and parents. Somehow, someone must have determined that having a solid story was not enough, or that including racy or profane humor would widen the demographic for kid's movies. Wallace and Gromit stooped to Austin Powers-level sight gags in Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The older brother in Zathura was well-versed in vulgarity. I am not sure if the state of "family-friendly films" tells us more about the family, or about the filmmaker.
All one needs to do is look at two films in current release to see whether this "new fashioned" approach is superior to the "old fashioned" emphasis on simple, good storytelling. Disney is back to the basics of live-action adventure with Eight Below. The trailer for Aquamarine promises a light tweener romantic comedy in the Disney tradition (though it is distributed by 20th Century Fox). But while Eight Below delivers the goods, Aquamarine, um, flounders.

Read the rest here.