December 05, 2004
12/6 - "Entertain Me": The relevance of the excellent movie, "Super Size Me," to the oceans
I watched the excellent movie, "Super Size Me," recently. Anyone concerned about the environment should see it. The film is a major piece of commentary on American society. And it invites the making of a companion film titled, "Entertain Me," that takes the same approach to what the entertainment industry is doing with the minds of today's children.
A key moment in the film is when the narrator mentions that virtually every major junk food label employs a Washington lobbyist whose full time job is to make sure that congress NEVER legislates against the increased consumption of their product. The exact same thing could be said for the television/video gaming/movie making industry.
If any environmental group were to ever begin to speak the heresy of, "Get your kids out of the living room and into nature," do you think any video game maker, animated filmmaker, theme park company, or television programmer would support such a message? It would be the same as expecting Nestle to support a campaign to stop kids from eating junk food.
So many people think of a movie like, "Finding Nemo," as being educational for kids because it supposedly teaches them a love for the oceans. But I don't see it. What it teaches them is a love for animated movies. Taking kids to the ocean teaches them a love for the oceans.
People ask me, "don't you think you could create a really good video game that would give kids a love for ocean conservation?" All a video game gives to kids is a love for video games. Let's keep these experiences straight. It's no coincidence that the generation of kids raised on the largest amount of television ever has far less interest and concern for nature than their parents who grew up much more out in nature (who make up the backbone of the environmental world today).
So the bottom line is, "Stop eating junk food and get out into nature," is a tandem message you won't see our federal government communicating any time soon. Not that it needs to. We might as well have some fun and enjoy our society of crap (no need to be like Debbie Downer on SNL), but its also important to be a realist in terms of what the possibilities are for mass communication of messages.
For a little bit of introduction to the subject of the trivialization of nature, read the book, "Flight Maps," by Jennifer Price that is on our reading list and is calling out for someone to take it the next step with a movie like "Supersize Me" for nature.
"Finding Nemo": Teaching children to love and respect animated movies
(that use nature to make a lot of money for the creators).
But using that logic, wouldn't a movie like "Supersize Me" simply foster a love for documentaries? And how many little kids that saw "Nemo" or play video games actually got to see "Supersize Me"? There are many kids that have been turned on to sea life thanks to "Finding Nemo"--I think that's not something to be ignored.
"Super Size Me" had a voice and a message, that "our society is out of wack with respect to diet." "Finding Nemo," has no message and is partially set on a beautiful, vibrant coral reef at a time when all the news for coral reefs around the world is bad (either in the short term or the long term).
That's not to say it doesn't develop some fondness for fish and coral reefs in kids, but it is relevant to the basic issue of what is and isn't motivational when it comes to ocean conservation. And that's the big divide right now -- tons of educational stuff out there, very little that's motivational. Which is why we end up with a population that knows the oceans are sliding down hill, but aren't really motivated to do anything about it.
Not that "Nemo" is evil, but it is representative of what Jennifer Price starts to address with her book, "Flight Maps," -- that much of the public doesn't really need for nature to be healthy, they're happy enough just seeing representations of it at the Nature Store, in business logos, on sports team insignias, at theme parks, and ... in animated movies.
This is a large scale aspect of environmentalism that its a shame no conservation groups are really addressing. They are busy fighting the specific battles while this larger aspect of "the war" (probably the wrong metaphor) goes unaddressed.
Posted by: Randy Olson at December 8, 2004 11:17 AMFirst of all Nemo has caused some events to unfold.
1 giving people the false feeling that all coral reefs are lushious and wonderful
2 Kids becomeing temporarily obsesed with fish
3 Parents buying kids exotic and expensive fish. The kids then see the movie "Finding Nemo", remeber the line "all pipes lead to the ocean", want the fish to be free. And well, flush it down the toilet.
This is a post just to say that i put the wrong email and hte right one is on this one.
Posted by: Richard at December 12, 2004 07:33 PMShortly after "Finding Nemo" came out these rumors began to circulate -- that kids were flushing fish down the toilet. But has anyone ever seen anything factual in print on this? Seems like an easy indictment of the movie.
The more serious and undeniable fact is that the movie did paint a picture of coral reefs no different than 50 years ago, which just isn't true. It's like making an animated movie about the American Buffalo without making a mention of what happened to them.
However, I hate thinking about the buffalo because that really starts to undermine the whole question of "what is natural and do we want it?" Nobody really wants to go back to the situation of 500 years ago with millions of buffalo roaming the midwest (even though deer are beginning to approach the level of pest infestation).
Need to keep in mind Kilgore Trout's famous novel, "Gilgongo!" about the planet that passed so many endangered species laws it was smothered in a layer of endangered species.
This stuff isn't easy.
Posted by: Randy Olson at December 13, 2004 01:20 AM