Dealing in scrap ... Cars
For an industry that bangs on about the importance of satisfying your inner child, Hollywood is becoming scandalously neglectful of actual children. It's not that there has been a shortage of films for nippers in 2006. Far from it. The problem is that the movies are now so interchangeable that they congeal in the memory. When I think of the films I've seen this year with my youngest child, I recall a single homogenous narrative full of wiseacre animals spouting pop-culture gags for all eternity.
Last year's Madagascar - hardly a pinnacle of originality itself - was reproduced in the pale facsimile of The Wild and Open Season. Chicken Little recycled the father/son bonding story that has dominated most kids' films since The Lion King, contributing to a culture that leaves young girls feeling marginalised (it was no surprise to learn that Chicken Little's mother was killed off during early script conferences). And that's before you get down to the really shameless knock-offs like Barnyard, yet another anthropomorphic comedy that could double as a deterrent now that smacking's off the menu.
"Accusations of rip-off are hard to sustain," writes Andrew Osmond on the subject in this month's Sight and Sound, "since all these films had development and production schedules that go back years. However, to audiences watching the cartoons come and go in relentless succession, they can seem like so many computer-generated clones..."
The downturn in children's movies is about more than just a few coincidences; a mood that can only be described as desultory has crept into recent children's film-making. When the new picture from the once-dependable Pixar studio - the clapped-out Cars - falls so short in the originality stakes, you have to ask where family audiences can turn for nutritious entertainment.
Things haven't been completely moribund. There was Monster House, a delicious ghost story that recognised the importance of giving its young audience a hearty scare. And Over The Hedge had its share of proper mischief, though genuine anarchy could only be found in a revamped re-release - The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D. The new Aardman/DreamWorks collaboration, Flushed Away, has some sparky moments. As for the penguin extravaganza Happy Feet, currently number one at the US box-office - well, let's just say that it's not every day a children's movie opens with a female penguin singing Prince's Kiss ("You don't need experience to turn me on...") nor should it be. Good luck explaining that to the young 'uns.
Perhaps children's films have always been lacklustre, and the occasional Bambi or Toy Story only serves to cloud our perspective and convince us that the past was better. (Certainly I don't envy my parents having to accompany me to those pitiful live-action Disney comedies of the late 1970s like The Cat From Outer Space or Hill's Angels.) Not every family movie can match the standard of a Hayao Miyazaki, just as adult viewers don't expect a modern equivalent to Citizen Kane to open every week. But it would be ironic if the current vigilance over what children have on their dinner plates was not matched by a comparable concern for the junk they're expected to swallow at the cinema.
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