Tuesday, October 21, 2008

LIFE’S LESSONS FROM THE TOON WORLD

.
.
.

When you scratch beyond the surface of a lot of children’s animated movies, you’ll be surprised to find a rich source of life’s lessons that can be learnt. Not only the obvious moral & ethical ones, but also the deeper mystical and spiritual stuff too.

Lets take a look at CHICKEN RUN as an example. Firstly it is made using stop-motion, which in itself is an awesome effort. I loved it ever since the first Wallace and Gromit episode.

Each time I watch this movie I learn something new. For those of you who’ve seen it, the following discussion will make sense. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. [ My overall rating = 9/10 ]

1) Ginger the chicken NEVER gives up. Even though at one stage when she asks “What have we not yet tried” [ to escape the chicken coop ] one of the other chicks points out – “We haven’t tried not trying”. And this tenacity is shown to us in the first 5 minutes of the movie, before the titles are complete.

2) She always has a sense of hope, even when someone points out that the chances of them ever flying out are 1 in a million, she replies “then there’s still a chance”.
3) The mice who help them “acquire” their stuff to make their contraptions teaches me that sometimes the most unlikely people can become our friends and work with us in times of need.
4) The concept of Freedom is what is central to the theme of this movie, set against the backdrop of the ominous Mrs. Tweedy’s intentions. The Freedom that we all take so much for granted; but if we look closely, are we really Free? And what does freedom really mean?
5) Throughout the movie, Ginger doesn’t selfishly think only of herself, but wants Freedom for ALL the chickens at the same time. Selflessness.
6) She displays courage and fortitude far above the rest of the hens. How many times do we give up our own dreams because those around us say it cant be done ?

Theres a lot more in that movie, but I’m not just going to lay it all out for you. So this weekend it might be well worth your time to go out and rent it, and watch it with the kids; who knows what you might learn…..



NOTE :
Dont forget to take the Poll at the top right corner of this page, and VOTE for your views.

1 comment:

Shaleila said...

It's obvious that your children are gonna be very well brought up.... not only that, they will also be happy and successful people... the fact that u take the trouble to put out your views is commendable... proud of what u've made of your life Kevin.... and m really happy for Deepa too