One the one hand, perhaps this is just a feel good Disney movie.
On the other hand, perhaps this is just another example of how our culture views children as some sort of parental wish fulfillment commodity. In this trailer, the value of the child is not intrinsic to his nature (especially since he does not seem God-given) but rather in that he fulfills the wishes and fantasies of his “parents.”
Perhaps I am just in a bad mood, but this trailer doesn’t sit well with me. Your thoughts?
The Odd Life Of Timothy Green.
August 18, 2011 at 5:04 am
Wait and see the movie. Inferts do wish and pray and imagine and day dream all sorts of imaginings. It's just what we do. They are just wishing and hoping, they aren't creating in a test tube. Course the movie could suck, but the trailer isn't manufacturing, it's just a day dream come to life but not via their specific action.
August 18, 2011 at 5:19 am
I agree with Anonymous. Although, I don't think I'll go see it. It just doesn't appeal to me.
August 18, 2011 at 6:36 am
Hmmm. I did a little clicking around, and found an interesting take from one site: the movie harkens back to "Pinocchio" in that the couple's somewhat facile wishes come a little too literally true (as Geppetto's longing for a son doesn't exactly work out the way he planned, either).
August 18, 2011 at 6:37 am
Which, I meant to say before posting, might make this movie more tolerable than the trailer makes it look. 🙂
August 18, 2011 at 7:47 am
"Is he for us?"
That sure makes it sound like children are gonna be treated like a parental accessory. Of course, it could be that the movie shows them getting more than they bargained for–realizing he's a person, not wish fulfillment and that the truth of the matter is that no, he isn't for them. They are for him.
popsophia.blogspot.com
August 18, 2011 at 10:19 am
The troubling aspect is the parents' applying their notions of what their child would be oblivious to the fact that what their child will BE, his attributes, his talents, his faults (apparently none?) are not usually up to the parents. This kind of projecting of parental desires/expectations onto a child is the source of much parental-child conflict. Pat is on target.
August 18, 2011 at 11:33 am
It looks innocent enough to me. I'd have to see the movie before judging it. I was thinking maybe it might be a movie like Red Cardigan described; kind of a "be careful what you wish for" type of deal.
August 18, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Disney w/gay days at Disney doesn't sit well w/me. Don't know why any responsible parent or adult would patronize this (evil) company. Advocates adult irresponsibility and childhood to death (i.e. disneyland is now for senior citizen). Note how the intended audience for this movie is 30/50+ "adults" (not a family movie). This trailer is anti-child (objectifies the child)and caters to people who see family (children) as "a choice" (or a fulfillment of their desires) and not the natural progression of life (sex).
August 18, 2011 at 1:51 pm
I can see what is problematic. It is the same with invitro fertilization. The end, someone to love, a family, justifies the means; and because we love people and are called to be defenders of light and life, once the deed is done, we're left with the feeble, "You shouldn't have done that" which sounds like we're advocating a person not exist. This movie is about a designer child…but with magic as versus science to create the perfect kid.
Fantasy, good fantasy, like good science fiction, is never about the conceit, but about what the conceit brings about and allows one to discuss. This is a wish fulfillment story of becoming the "perfect family" by creating volitionally, over a glass of wine, the perfect offspring.
We'll have a boy, not a girl. He'll be this tall and have brown eyes and a high IQ. He won't have Downs or asthma or autism or any learning disabilities. We will be perfect parents because we won't have to work at loving, he will be loveable because he is perfect.
So I think your misgivings are correct even if it appears life affirming.
August 18, 2011 at 1:58 pm
I tend to think that a twisted anti-"It's a Wonderful Life" film of the ilk Red Cardigan mentions would be even worse. A possible conclusion to that type of film could be: Since the perfect child does not lead to perfect results, it's better to remain childless.
Trailers are famous for withholding vital clues to the overall movie. Even so, this does strike me as unnecessarily cruel to all the genuinely grieving couples who are infertile and/or having difficulty adopting.
August 18, 2011 at 4:15 pm
He'll probably murder them in their sleep and that will teach them not to be perfectionists.
August 18, 2011 at 6:15 pm
The trailer obviously objectifies the child as a mere wish fullfilment/meet all my expectations for the parents. But perhaps that is just the trailer. Seems it would be a terribly boring movie if all the kid does is fulfill every wish the parents wrote down – no drama in that. A really interesting twist would be one where the wishes are taken very literally, but exactly opposite (such as scoring the winning goal for once – but for the other team) and see how the parents deal with it.
August 18, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Looks like a bunch of new age nonsense to me. Earth, nature, or whatever the hippie in the trees is pushing can provide what God doesn't…
August 18, 2011 at 7:35 pm
Fr. I came to give my two cents and you have already given it. Mother earth, not God appears to be the source of life in this film. Even if it has a "nice" message. I am not sure how we can continue to support films that pervert and twist the truth about first principles. Playing on the base emotions and feelings of the human person to re-define human nature and most importantly love. I think the this might be the "banal sentimentality" that Pope Benedict XVi speaks of love becoming in Deus Caritas Est.
August 19, 2011 at 12:09 am
I wonder if after the boy "fulfills" all the wishes they put in that box, he will disappear…
August 21, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Did you see them bury the box? Oh man, call Sam and Dean. I'm thinking deal with a crossroads demon.
August 26, 2011 at 9:18 pm
Pomeranian Catholic: w00t!