Sunday, April 11, 2010

Mickey Mouse Monopoly

This movie really left me thinking... how important and influential a company can be, not only on peoples childhood for on the culture of the country.
i remember Wanda Chavez told us about an article she read that said that Disney world had become the Mecca of America,  a place to which every family wants to take their kids at least once. I thought this was interesting, I HAVE NEVER BEEN THERE, but i have heard of it my entire life. However in Uruguay ( all the way to the south of the south american continent) Disney is not so present in our daily life. We do get the movies and they are indeed classics, i bet 90% of the population has seen the lion king, but i don't think anyone knows the songs to it for example.
One of the things that surprised me the most wen i came to the USA was to see how submerged everyone was under the world of entertainment and it did not take long till I realize who was the most important; specially here where many people have grown up in Disney.
It was while we were having the class discussion when i  notices how most of the people felt part of their movies, how everyone defended their concept and did not even want to consider the idea that maybe their productions where not so innocent and magic like they seem.
This makes me think of the power they have and how not only they might have shape the culture of its country but by showing other cultures  in their movie, they create an image for them.
It is hard to get people to get interested in other countries issues and cultures. i honestly think that if you show a movie set in Africa ( a huge continent) in which everything looks yellow and there are many wild animals running around, that will be the image the audience will have of africa, which is not necessarily true. I understand that most of the movies are not based on  the present 2010, but do we really think of that when we watch them? do 8 year old kids think about that? How many times do we back up our toughs and opinions based on movies?, how many people became vegetarian after watching Food inc.

In any case i think it is up to the parents to decide what to expose their kids to. But they also need to be aware of the power of this media.
I think a great example of this "power" was when we watched the vide, a documentary that made us all think and want to say something about it.  Some people did not even want to watch it anymore, some were mad at it, some might have agreed etc.  Some think that TVs are not harmful at all others think it is a good education source ... 

I do like their movies, i think they have a very talented creative group of people that are passionate and work hard on the movies. I think that they just need to be seen as art and entertainment being open minded enough to know that is nothing but a fictitious story been  able to pass that thought to our kids.




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