I finally saw Happy Feet. We were going to see Blood Diamond or some other movie but realized I wouldn't have time because of the Christmas party. A good happy, fun, singing and dancing movie with great animation. Kids love it. Huge, huge box office. Great movie.
According to conservative Republicans this is liberal propaganda ruining America. When I write something like that I may get responses that I am taking a few nut blogs and taring the right side with the views of a few extremists. Here are some of the obscure nut jobs that nobody pays attention to ranting in this case.
Neil Cavuto, one of the Fox News anchors, said "big time objectional" and made the observation that "it was just like an animated Inconvenient Truth. I half expected Al Gore to pop up!" (There is nothing about global warming in the movie.)
Cavuto's guest, Christian family entertainment critic Holly McClure, said:
I went watching this movie thinking, "OK, great. A lighthearted, fun film. Love these animated pictures, and it's interesting how realistic it looks." And you get in there and you're enjoying all the fun and frivolity, and, yes, it's kind of a takeoff of the penguin documentary, and then along comes the subtle messages. And one by one they come in, and I felt like I was watching Dirty Dancing, penguin-style. You know, the preaching against the tap dancing and being liberal and stay conformed. And then it started to get into the other messages. Yes, we had that plastic ring around one of the penguin's neck. From there it got worse.I happen to know many people who love Dirty Dancing, which she may be melding with Footloose, and I don't believe I know anyone who objects to that movie. Note she is introduced just as an entertainment critic but her only gigs have been Christian conservative broadcasting shows and now Fox News. These Christian broadcasting networks have millions of viewers and listeners.
Glen Beck, conservative radio host with a show on CNN Headline News, also labeled it "propaganda" and an "animated version of An Inconvenient Truth" - demonstrating that he watches Cavuto on Fox News and not CNN.
His guest, Dr. Robert Thompson of the Center for the Study of Popular Television, told Beck he was blowing this way out of proportion and "I don't think this story is going to get you a Peabody." (Much like the Razzies are the anti-Oscars can some group make up anti-Peabody awards?)
Michael Medved, former conservative mainstream movie critic, now conservative talk radio host and columnist:
Crappy Feet - "This may be the darkest, most disturbing feature length animated film ever offered by a major studio... The propagandistic theme suggests that the biggest menace for the lovable penguins is the human race... There’s also a bizarre anti-religious bias operating unmistakably and gratuitously in the film... As in so many other recent films, there’s a subtext that appears to plead for endorsement of gay identity."So when the assertion that Happy Feet was pro-environment and anti-business didn't hurt the box office they started on it promoting the gay agenda. "There's a whole flock of penguins who are basically, well, gay." "When Mumbles tells his father 'Accept me for who I am, I can't change' that's going to go right over the heads of kids. But we know what he is."
This is crazy. First - They are saying that a movie that promotes following your own dreams and promotes tolerance is like so wrong. Second - who thinks conservatives have this finely honed animated penguin gaydar? It'll probably "go over the kids' heads" because the hero is hetero and is in love with a girl penguin and marries her and has a kid. All the other penguins are obsessed with finding their opposite-sex mate and having kids. Why don't conservatives go back to outing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Tinky Winky for their serious discussions and waste of cable news space?
BTW - what you should know about penguins if you are a conservative. Half the species are facing extinction, the majority of Emperor penguins get new mates every year, Emperor Penguins are in a dangerous decline, many penguins are gay parents, the Antarctic is rapidly shrinking and melting, plastic six-pack rings are bad for animals including penguins, penguins can't really sing American and Spanish pop songs or dance. No wonder conservatives hate penguins.
Some links for this rant. None to conservative blogs because I am treating myself by avoiding them until next year but many on the left observed this insanity. Links may contain adult language.
Media Matters.
The Greenbelt
The Carpetbagger Report
Lean Left
Pissed on Politics
Hillbilly Report
Hell Fell
You Are Dumb
A Penny's Worth
4 comments:
the Antarctic is rapidly shrinking and melting
You've got a messed-up idea of "rapidly" if you believe that. According to the Washington Post:
The Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as 36 cubic miles of ice a year in a trend that scientists link to global warming, according to a new paper that provides the first evidence that the sheet's total mass is shrinking significantly.
The sheet has a volume of about 30 million cubic kilometers, or about 7.2 million cubic miles.
The rate you call "rapid" is five ten-thousandths of one percent annually. Here's an analogy:
If I lose five ten-thousandths of one percent of my weight, that's about the weight of half a paper clip. I don't think anyone would call that weight loss over the course of a year "rapid."
The northern sections of the Larson B ice shelf collapsed in 1998 and 2002
Major Antarctic glaciers (Hektoria, Green and Evans) increased their melting rate 8 times between 2000 and 2003.
"If anyone is waiting to find out whether Antarctica would respond quickly to climate warming, I think the answer is yes," said Ted Scambos, a glaciologist from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre.
"We've seen 150 miles [240 kilometres] of coastline change drastically in just 15 years."
The 3250-square-kilometre Larsen B iceshelf on the east coast of the Antarctic peninsula collapsed in just 35 days in early 2002.
Roland Warner of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre in Hobart said the studies showed the glaciers losing volume rapidly.
Check out this story in the Guardian, where this and 10 other animated films are "examined" for their "political content. For instance, Antz, of which is said:
It's your classic anti-Nazi narrative, innit? The goal here is Insectopia, a land of ant plenty, where toil is set aside for fun. There is no ant-eating-ant here, no necessary judgmental wrath: antkind can live in total love and cooperation, if it can only stop scheming and strive together towards a realisable plenty. I think that's pretty leftwing.
Have you seen this article in the Guardian? Zoe Williams "decodes the political subtext of this film and ten other famous animated films, like Antz (It's your classic anti-Nazi narrative, innit? The goal here is Insectopia, a land of ant plenty, where toil is set aside for fun. There is no ant-eating-ant here, no necessary judgmental wrath: antkind can live in total love and cooperation, if it can only stop scheming and strive together towards a realisable plenty. I think that's pretty leftwing.) or 101 Dalmatians, or Sleeping Beauty...
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