#morality tale

PLEASE DON"T TELL US OUR FUTURE

We have already lived yours, many many times.

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Today, a good and faithful friend came to Europe, to tell us our future.

(in a more kindly and less hectoring way --- than in the recent past....)

Robber Kitten Picture Cubes, 1898, McLoughlin Bros, New York

The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures, Kansas City, Missouri

The industrious ant who planned ahead for winter rebuffs the plea for help from the cricket, who didn’t. Ménagerie. 1906. Benjamin Rabier.

Jacques de Vitry on lazy priests:  merito buboni assimilantur, quem alaude sibi regem prefecerunt, ut eas ab importunis avibus deffenderet eo quod fortis et proceri corporis esse videretur. Cum autem, quadam die, volarent, capta est Alauda illa que in extremo exercitus alias sequebatur et delata est querimonia ad regem qui respondit: 

“Quare in extremo et periculoso loco ibat?” Postmodum capta est alia que in prima parte volabat, et respondit bubo: “Quia in prima parte se posuit?” Tandem, capta quadam Alauda, que in medio volbat, respondit bubo: “Quare inquietatis me? Quid vultis ut faciam vobis? Semper consuetudo fuit ut a nisis caperentur alaude.” |

with merit they are compared to an owl, whom the larks themselves place in command as king, so that he might defend them from annoying birds (of prey) because of strength and he might seem to be tall of body. But when, on a certain day, they might fly, that lark who in rear of the flock is captured and is carried away it follows the others the complaint to the king who responded: 

“Why was he going in the rear of the flock and a dangerous place?” Afterward another is captured in the front part he was flying, and the owl responded: “Wherefore in the first part he positioned himself?” Finally, a certain lark caught, who was flying in the middle, the owl responded: “Why do you disturb me? What do you want so I might do for you?” Always was his habit so that by leaning upon the larks might be captured.”

The pseudo-religious beliefs of a mountain village populated exclusively by Yetis with very expensive voices are threatened when up and coming villager Migo discovers the existence of “Smallfoot” a.k.a. Humans. 

This is the most aggressively morally complex children’s movie I have ever seen. 

I watched Smallfoot immediately after I watched The Birds with my cat at 6am. Maybe I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to grasp a children’s movie that seems to be taking on the complicated landscape of beliefs in a post-truth society. And also features the word genocide. I am so glad I only watched this with my cat, not a human child, because I don’t know how I would explain what that word means to a human child. (My cat wasn’t interested in a definition she just wanted me to keep feeding her dreamies.)

Smallfoot isn’t actually bad, but there are so many elements working against it. It has a fun and original concept and a really solid cast that includes Zendaya and Channing Tatum. The downside is that it also includes James Corden and is deeply. flawed. 

The movie opens with a song that I’ve completely forgotten the tune of (much like many of the songs in the film - they’re not bad, but they are impossible to recall once they’ve passed, like the Silence from Doctor Who.) The opening song introduces a fun joke about “squashing down” any questions you have about the meaning of life. This re-occurring joke was probably my favorite element in this film and I know that because I actually remember it. 

The complex to-and-fro between “the truth is the truth and we should acknowledge it” and “but lies keep us safe”, with a little “social media bad” thrown in makes this film quite exhausting for an adult human. I watched this with my Dad (as well as my Cat) and we ended up, probably inevitably, discussing “Trump’s America.”  I have never once had to discuss Trump’s America while watching Frozen. 

The comparison with Frozen is also inevitable for two simple reasons. First, there is ice everywhere so the colour palette is the same as Frozen. Second, they have a character who is short and sounds like Olaf and says the kind of thing that Olaf might say. Unfortunately, making a film that looks and in part feels like Frozen just results in me spending most of the movie wishing I was watching that instead. Frozen has a much more straightforward moral lesson. Frozen has better characters and memorable songs. This comparison just draws attention to the flaws of Smallfoot: a far too complex moral dilemma covered in snow and soundtracked with audio voids. 

Smallfoot was genuinely enjoyable, but only if you didn’t think too hard about it. The trouble is that it’s trying so hard to make you think that your brain can never quite relax. It even has the line “You’ve woken the town up, Migo, now make sure they stay awake.” which is so close to asking the audience to “stay woke” that I laughed out loud. I also thought that the two human characters looked weirdly like they were supposed to be the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, particularly the character of Brenda who even sounds a little like Meghan. I’m not sure if that was a co-incidence or if this was some weird deliberate reference. I can’t even figure out what the movie would be trying to say by referencing them? Maybe it’s my fault because I just look for Meghan everywhere... 

Dear Gus,

While you were walking around sans pants at Yiayia & Papou’s house tonight, I saw the spiky succulent catch your eye. I said, “Gus, don’t touch that,” and so you walked straight to it and grabbed it. It pricked you, and you walked away with a sad face. Lesson: Always listen to your father.

Dad