The Lion King
As a family, we watch very little TV. Isaac has probably seen less than a hour's worth of commercials in his entire life. What TV he does consume is usually streamed and commercial free. But we LOVE movies. We watch a movie probably once a week, unless it is rainy or someone is sick. One of the best movies we all like is the Lion King. Unfortunately, Ethan has not had the attention span to watch the entire thing. Until now.
Last Friday we tried to watch the Lion King and the magical intro captured Ethan's attention and he hung in for the entire movie. Isaac first saw Lion King when he was a bit older, around three. At the time we were worried about the scene where the Dad dies and so for about a year we always skipped it. When Isaac was around five we let him watch the whole movie and we were deluged with questions: Is the Dad dead? Why haven't I seen this before? Who's fault is it that he died? It was unending. But, we reasoned, Ethan is significantly younger and has a very small attention span. There is no need to skip the Dad dying as he won't pick up on what's going on or, more likely, even pay attention when it happens. So we watched the Lion King unbroken.
The scene comes and Mufasa (the Dad) dies. Ethan is watching and gets very quiet. The movie is basically silent for three minutes and the entire time Ethan is saying: "Where'd the Daddy go?" Oops. He got it. Parenting is a very fraught and difficult thing. You are never quite sure how to handle something and 99% of the time you just do your best. But kids are rapacious learners and studious observers. They are learning at a much faster rate than any adult and so even when you, as an adult, try to project just how fast they are advancing, you almost always fail.
Ethan wasn't traumatized by Mufasa's death scene, but he was confused. Which is amazing because that is exactly the feeling the filmmakers were trying to elicit in the viewer. Death is confusing to adults and conveying that in a kids movie is tough. But they did it. Ultimately Lion King has a great message about parents and children and Ethan got that too. Both were a surprise. Kids are amazing.
Last Friday we tried to watch the Lion King and the magical intro captured Ethan's attention and he hung in for the entire movie. Isaac first saw Lion King when he was a bit older, around three. At the time we were worried about the scene where the Dad dies and so for about a year we always skipped it. When Isaac was around five we let him watch the whole movie and we were deluged with questions: Is the Dad dead? Why haven't I seen this before? Who's fault is it that he died? It was unending. But, we reasoned, Ethan is significantly younger and has a very small attention span. There is no need to skip the Dad dying as he won't pick up on what's going on or, more likely, even pay attention when it happens. So we watched the Lion King unbroken.
The scene comes and Mufasa (the Dad) dies. Ethan is watching and gets very quiet. The movie is basically silent for three minutes and the entire time Ethan is saying: "Where'd the Daddy go?" Oops. He got it. Parenting is a very fraught and difficult thing. You are never quite sure how to handle something and 99% of the time you just do your best. But kids are rapacious learners and studious observers. They are learning at a much faster rate than any adult and so even when you, as an adult, try to project just how fast they are advancing, you almost always fail.
Ethan wasn't traumatized by Mufasa's death scene, but he was confused. Which is amazing because that is exactly the feeling the filmmakers were trying to elicit in the viewer. Death is confusing to adults and conveying that in a kids movie is tough. But they did it. Ultimately Lion King has a great message about parents and children and Ethan got that too. Both were a surprise. Kids are amazing.