When I was a child, I enjoyed watching various movies on television. There was the Wizard of Oz, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the Sound of Music, and of course Bugs Bunny. I note all of these for a very specific reason; as a child they are entertaining, but as an adult they are very different movies. Movies made to attract children have to have lots going on, very visually intensive, but dialog is not important. As an adult, the visual content of movies is nice, but dialog has to have some character or the movie is dismissed as an entertainment source for children. Each of the movies I list have both which to me suggests why they still have an attractive value.
For example, the Wizard of Oz as most know is about a teenaged farm girl that thinks no one understands her or appreciates her. So she goes looking for some adventure to fill that missing part in her life. She ends up with an incredible slam upside the head and has the hallucination of what we see is the land of Oz. We are taken through all sorts of ins and outs of her subconscious mind and ultimately find that the best adventure begins at home. As a child, the glamor of the colorful sets, the munchkin voices, the stories behind the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion weave an interesting story of looking for something that's missing. There's the occasional scary scene with a nasty witch and even the flying monkeys. Then there's the "Great and Powerful OZ" who comes out of fire and steam. It makes for a very interesting and captivating movie. But as an adult, I've begun to actually listen to the dialog. The munchkin ladies come from the "Lullaby League" performing On Point Ballet, and some guys represent the "Lollipop Guild" with their Celtic style of dance. Dance is so interesting because it adds a whole new experience to the already known visual context of the movie. Even the military march of the Witch's guards is of note, because I'm sure it was something that gave rise to Stripe's march. But if you list closely to the dialog, you'll find some really hilarious quotes. My favorite is from the Scarecrow, "Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking." First time I heard this, I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. It had been there all along, but I never noticed it.
Another example is Bugs Bunny. The content is cartoons where the characters commonly find themselves in unusual positions that cause pain and even death. Blowing each other to bits, shooting each other full of holes, and even skyrocketing because of a dragon that blows fire has a cold and sneezes into a room filled with explosives. It's hilarious as a child because it's the extreme on being ridiculous. But if you listen closely to the dialog, when Bugs is sick, he is usually told to take a teaspoon of medicine before bedtime, at which point he swallows the entire teaspoon. Everything is taken as literally as possible, which only extends the ridiculous, but as a child I was confused as to why he swallowed the utensil. Now I get it.
Finally, with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I had a recent revelation. I noticed several years ago that this novel was written by Ian Flemming, the same author of the James Bond series. Ian Flemming, according to Wikipedia wrote lots of novels, and only two that were different from the Bond series. Ian Flemming's content has always been beyond the current; they represented future possibilities in technology. Chitty was no different, for the context of its time, and even went beyond the 20th century in what was possible. But the movie version was most interesting to me. Over the last 2 years I've been working in a NASA group for creativity. One of the more important aspects of this group is the understanding that in order to come up with good ideas to solve a problem, you must fail. In the culture of NASA however, from Apollo 13, failure is not an option; we are risk adverse. So when I listened to "Roses of Success" I found lots of excellent quotes that really drives what we do today. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was produced in 1964, the year I was born, but today, 46 years later we are finally beginning to pursue the idea that "There's magic in the wake of a fiasco!" To succeed, you must fail and fail and fail. It simply teaches us how to move forward.
So as I get older, I'm learning not to dismiss the movies that entertained me as a child. For in them I find new meaning, and possibly, new ideas for the future.
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