Why I’m Mad at Curious George
// June 18th, 2008 // Family Life, Movies, Pet Peeves
I credit Curious George and Louis L’Amour with my love for reading. When I was a kid, Mom would take us to the public library. I was only interested in Curious George books. I would collect every one of those yellow books that I could find, bring them home, and devour each one.
I liked George because he got into trouble about as much as I did. I also loved the illustrations in the books. But, I always understood that the hero of the book was the Man in the Yellow Hat. He was the ultimate father figure. He was a safari adventurer. He was confident. He always corrected George when he did wrong, but he was also incredibly patient and understanding. He knew George was only a silly monkey and didn’t expect him to act like an adult human. He also loved George, but he loved him as a father not as a friend. He also had great fashion sense. He wore that yellow outfit before anyone else knew how cool it really was.
Recently I watched the Curious George movie. I was more excited than my kids were because I still really dig Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat. Boy was I disappointed.
The production value of the movie was high. It was very well done and the animation was amazing. But, what they did to the Man in the Yellow Hat was wrong. In the movie, he is a complete bumbling idiot. he was totally insecure and inept. He could hardly put a sentence together without saying something self-conscious or ridiculous. They had stripped him of everything that kids love about the character.
You know how he came to wear the yellow hat? He bought it because two salesmen sold it to him right after one of them said to the other, “You ordered the wrong color! What kind of idiot is going to buy a bunch of yellow safari outfits?”
For the entire movie, George is the smarter one. The Man in the Yellow Hat stumbles through the entire movie trying to make everyone happy and making a general mess of all his relationships.
I know that I should expect this from Hollywood. I’m not naive. It’s just that sometimes the way fathers are portrayed as idiots in our culture really steams me up good. What kid wants to be like this guy? I’d rather be the monkey with a brain the size of pea and a cute face than the whimpering idiot that got suckered into buying a yellow hat. At least George has a good time. As far as I can tell, being a father involves lots of wining, falling down, selfishness, and general stupidity.
Now, yes, the Man in the Yellow Hat wins in the end. But he does so because George is smarter than he is. I’m not kidding. The monkey figures the whole thing out first. Now, even monkeys are smarter than Dads. They also make better friends. Sad. So very sad.
[tags]curious george, the man in the yellow hat[/tags]
Oh. man. Now I feel less excited about seeing the movie.
Of course, any character played by Will Ferrell can only be but so wise!
Well, the animation really was amazing. They did some really cool stuff with “natural” lighting that was something I had not seen before in an animated movie. If you watch it, you’ll notice that there is almost never a scene that is lit with anything other than natural light through a window or something. Pretty cool to see. I don’t know how they did that.
I think the writers misjudged what makes those books work so well. It’s not just that George gets into messes. It’s also that the Man in the Yellow Hat always shows up to save his bacon and teach George a lesson in a non-preachy way. Take that element out and you have lost the essence of Curious George and perpetuated the idea that all Dads are idiots.
There is a war on “dad” in the culture, no doubt. It reflects the rebellion against our heavenly Dad, I think. If earthly dads have sense and wisdom and love and guidance that means one would have to listen to them. Kind of makes one feel like an alien in these part, you know!
Hollywood seems to have lost what makes the classics timeless.
I believe that PC is mostly to blame. It’s like their trying to mold them to fit the modern stereotypes. What makes good stories work is the fact that they stand out in a positive way.
It is the PC thing, I think. The narrative in pop culture is this:
Animals: perfect, and worthy of every sacrifice
Kids: inherently good
Adult Humans: destructive, and selfish: the world would be better off without them
Women: slightly better than humans as a whole
Men: the scum of the earth, and the source of all evil.
I’m being tongue in cheek, but the culture in general has been turned so upside down, it’s scary.