Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Does the humane society care if cartoon dogs get hurt in an anime?
I went to see the anime film, "Steamboy," with a friend tonight. The movie wasn't too bad. The animation was very good, at times approaching art. The story was watchable even though it did descend into the juvenile at times. The theme explored the perils of technological advancement in an era of nationalism, capitalism, and militarism. In that sense, it was a bit sophomoric for my taste. Capitalism has been the greatest engine for creating and distributing wealth among the general population the world has ever seen. The nation-state is not inherently bad, and where the people govern themselves it is a guarantor of liberty and human rights. It's hard to object to the film's portrayal of militarism, a bad ism I'll admit, but I will note that the military is as necessary to a peaceful society as the police.
But it wasn't the movie itself that struck me. Instead, the most interesting thing about the movie involved the audience's reaction to something that happened in the movie. The annoying girl character had a cute little dog that she hit a couple of times early in the movie. Don't ask me why. She was a rather loathsome little girl and she never got her comeuppance for hitting her dog. She even ends up the friend of the boy hero by the end of the movie. Maybe it's a cultural thing because no self-respecting western filmmaker would let her off that easy. The audience would not stand for it.
In fact, that's exactly what happened tonight. Each time the girl hit her dog a large percentage of the audience groaned and complained. This, for an animated character in a movie. Truly no dogs were hurt in the making of the movie. Still the audience reacted. Lots of human characters were hurt in the movie too. Some even died. Yet the audience didn't even cringe at that. Not once.
What does that mean, I wonder?
-tdr
But it wasn't the movie itself that struck me. Instead, the most interesting thing about the movie involved the audience's reaction to something that happened in the movie. The annoying girl character had a cute little dog that she hit a couple of times early in the movie. Don't ask me why. She was a rather loathsome little girl and she never got her comeuppance for hitting her dog. She even ends up the friend of the boy hero by the end of the movie. Maybe it's a cultural thing because no self-respecting western filmmaker would let her off that easy. The audience would not stand for it.
In fact, that's exactly what happened tonight. Each time the girl hit her dog a large percentage of the audience groaned and complained. This, for an animated character in a movie. Truly no dogs were hurt in the making of the movie. Still the audience reacted. Lots of human characters were hurt in the movie too. Some even died. Yet the audience didn't even cringe at that. Not once.
What does that mean, I wonder?
-tdr
Labels: Science Fiction
