Robots: At least it wasn't a remake!

Took my boy to see Robots last night. We both liked it but neither of us loved it. If the writing had half the imagination of the virtual sets it could have been great.

Robin Williams had some funny moments as the comic sidekick, but if you're expecting a Genie reprise you'll be disappointed. Ewan MacGregor was just right as the earnest character -----INTERRUPTION----- I was writing this with my 3-year-old cuddling on my lap and out of the blue she started puking! Right down the front of my shirt! Luckily my shirt soaked it right up so none got on the computer. We're all cleaned up now. -----RESUME----- who doubts himself, then believes himself, then rallies the ragtag gang of misfits to believe in themselves too so they can band together against the nasty bad guys.

Did I mention the writing lacked imagination?

At least this film was a first--not a remake and not a sequel. Unfortunately, judging by the previews, that's all we have coming up this summer: memes from my childhood brought to life for my own kids.

First there's the new Herbie the Love Bug movie (but now he's just "Herbie", sans "Love Bug"). It looks as delightfully stupid as the original. Then there's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Tim Burton directing and Johnny Depp playing Willy Wonka. The preview looks surprisingly similar to the original, which was great, but why make it over again when you can just rent the DVD? Then there's the mercifully final edition of the tired Star Wars series. Let's just put that broken-down horse out of its misery. Oh, and I almost forgot: Nicole Kidman in Bewitched.

I thought the nostalgia remakes were a fad that would go away. I thought that after the Brady Bunch movie, the Flintstones (quite possibly the wrost movie ever made), and the Jetsons that enough was enough...then we had Scooby Doo, Fat Albert, and probably a dozen others I've chosen to forget. Will there be no end to this tired (or tiring?) trend?

Doesn't anyone make anything new anymore?

Speaking of Dora...

You wouldn't believe the endless stream of three-year old girls and their hurried parents and assorted siblings pouring in and out of the Opera House in Boston this weekend. I would have to say that Dora's Pirate Adventure is a big hit.

Fortunately we were only observers, having dropped the kids at my parents' for the weekend. We stayed at a fancy Boston hotel without any kids--just me, my wife, and Bambi.

(Who is Bambi? No, she's not a hooker. No need for that with hotel pay-per-view. Bambi is our greyhound, an ex-racer enjoying a second career as a couch potato.)

A television genius

Great piece in the New York Times today about Nickelodeon's Brown Johnson. Any parent of a preschooler in the past 5+ years understands the power of Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer.

"'People were making TV for kids that was lots of short pieces strung together like beads on a string. I thought 'We can tell a story that's longer, because otherwise they're all going to have A.D.D.,'' Ms. Johnson explained, using the abbreviation for attention deficit disorder. So she developed the narratives of 'Blue's Clues' and 'Dora the Explorer' to span the duration of the program."

I love Sesame Street too, but the pace and style of these shows really works for young kids, at least for mine.

Can you imagine an alternate universe where these shows never came around and "Barney" rules the airwaves? I'm shuddering at the thought.

Comments anyone?

Don't be fooled by the self-absorbed persona--this ego of mine is not sustainable without a little interaction with my reader(s). So, make yourself comfortable, put your feet up, and tell me what's on your mind.

Teenage Sex

Finally I can write about something in the news and to which I have a personal connection (it's not what you think!) and that is guaranteed to bring some search traffic.

I went to a prestigious (or substitute your own adjective) private high school in the Boston area that just made headlines for expelling five members of the hockey team. The offense? The boys, age 16 to 18, all engaged in a consensual sexual act in the locker room with a 15 year old female student. Apparently there was some bragging and the administration eventually caught on.

An op-ed piece by Joan Vennochi in today's Boston Globe looks at the legal implications of the situation. In Massachusetts, anyone under 16 cannot consent to sex, so anywone engaging in sex with a 15 year-old is committing statutory rape, as simple as that. The premise of the law is that children are unable to make a good decision about sex, which is absolutely right. The problem with the law is that in reality, kids don't magically gain this ability when they turn 16. A 16 year-old with a woody is perhaps the stupidest creature on earth, dumber than a bug flying into the light of the bug zapper.

The law as written makes no distinction between this dumb 16 year-old and a 45 year-old sexual predator. That's where those in authority need to exercise careful judgment in how forcefully to apply the law. It remains to be seen how this will play out with the prosecuters, but the school administrators, in expelling the five, failed to show any understanding of the situation beyond the black-and-white legal framework and the fear of being perceived as soft on discipline.

Immediate expulsion would be warranted if the case involved assault or explicit coercion, but that's not what happened here according to published accounts. By rushing to the zero-tolerance bandwagon, the Academy abandoned its obligation to help these 6 kids and their classmates grow to become responsible young adults. By expelling five and sending the sixth into exile, the Academy chose to turn away from the unpleasant reality of teenage sex instead of facing it head on. The sex isn't going to go away, yet now the administration has sent a message to the student body: We don't trust you. And you shouldn't trust us. Be paranoid.

The larger problem isn't that teenagers are having sex. It's that the school isn't helping students figure out how and a what age sex should fit into their lives. The fact that these six students have such a warped idea of sex and relationships shows me that the Academy is not educating its students in the art of life. That's something they need even more than U.S. History and Calculus.