Kimarous said:
Look, I can see were they're coming from with The Lorax, but Arriety? I don't know about anyone else, but I used to watch a TV series adaptation of The Borrowers and I sure the fuck didn't get a "liberal agenda" from it.
Well, I've never seen the version we're talking about to make a criticism, but the truth remains that the same source material can be used to convey very differant messages.
Back when we were both kids, decades ago, shows like "The Littles" (which is what I assume your talking about) were kind of under the radar. Using propaganda, especially left wing propaganda in children's media to "get them while they're young" was relatively new. Rather than politicians being involved, you had toy companies wanting to sell toys and creating half hour long commercials intended to get kids to beg their parents for toys. Aside from a requirement that there be a minimal amount of educational content involved, people left it alone for the most part.
I think we generally started to see the dawn of politically oriented children's programming with "Captain Planet" and the original contest that spawned it. From there we saw things like "Ferngully" and it spread into other messages connected to enviromentalism and general left wing politics.
Right now you have an increased awareness of such things, as well as something of a blockade against programming that carries a more right wing agenda. When you look at things like the recent GI Joe movie that saw "A Real American Hero" transformed into an international UN sponsored force rather than a Nationalistic group of military cowboys because that kind of outlook isn't well loved by the left wing, it kind of says something. Especially when the very name "GI Joe" comes from GI which was "General Issue" in the military, and "Joe" which was a slang term for Americans. The name originally being for a series of dolls, but turned into a sort of clever pro-American statement in of itself as in "this is general issue for America, we're this awesome! woohoo! Yo Joe!". Yes there WERE increasing numbers of soldiers on loan from US allies within the old GI Joe Canon, but it was still a US organization. Especially today children's media portraying another nation, like the Russians, as flat out bad guys (fighting the Russian version of GI Joe was a big deal in some of the TV episodes and comics) is Anathema, and updated having GI Joe laying waste to The Middle East with an American flag waving in the backround would have the left wing frothing at the mouth.
Enviromentalism is also a paticularly touchy subject right now as well, and that's probably why the right wing cares about stuff like this oriented at kids when it might not otherwise give a crap (and generally hasn't before). Right now the US wants to do things like tap oil and resource supplies that it owns but has been denying itself access to for enviromental reasons. Such as an offshore oil field I was reading about that we have joint ownership of with Cuba but won't touch because of our enviromental policies, while Cuba which doesn't have similar policies merrily exploits and sells while we don't even try and take our fair share. The same can be said of oil, minerals, wood, and other things in national parks. The US economny is in rough shape, and it was one thing to not go after these deposits while the US had other options, but right now our need is increasing.
The "green" portions of the left wing who believe their agenda are increasingly interested in heading this off as much as possible since they see the coming trends. That's doubtlessly why you are seeing a blitz of sorts. While aimed at the kids, part of the point is also that parents are going to be less likely to support something that makes them a boogie man in the eyes of their children.
It's an issue with multiple sides, and I think one of the reasons why Fox went on this rampage (even if not conveyed well) is simply that the other side is not being given anywhere near the exposure. If someone wanted to do children's shows about the adventures of a bunch of guys working out on an oil rig or whatever (something similar to say "Mighty Space Miners" but down to earth) you could almost guarantee it wouldn't fly, especially if the bad guys were a bunch of eco-jerks trying to shut it down.
All of this aside, don't think I'm some kind of enviromental ravager, I take it case by case. There are some cases where I believe the ecological damage is going to be too extreme to justify the gains right now (we'd have to be even more desperate and right to the line), in other cases like with offshore drilling of shared deposits that are already being exploited, opening or re-opening certain mining operations, and things like that I'm in support of it. It's very much a case by case basis. I do not however think that logging, drilling for oil, mining, and similar things, even at the expense of the habitats of some animals are inherantly wrong or evil.... and that's generally how these messages play out. Ferngully being one of the key examples of a movie that might have been entertaining on certain levels, but really went out of it's way to portray logging in general as ignorant at best, and outright evil at worst.... even literally becoming a focus for demonic forces.
