Up – by Pixar–SPOILERS and a small rant

Balancing Lolita a bit, the play/film Doubt (which I haven’t seen) has been pretty prominent of late. Based on the film reviews it sounded as if there the mother of one possibly molested teenage boy did weigh that against the advantages he was receiving from a better education. Similarly, again I haven’t seen it but I believe History Boys involved a somewhat over-affectionate (but not outright molesting) older male teacher with exclusively male students).

Also, I think that one of the most notorious possible molestation cases was the death of Jon Benet Ramses (sp? I don’t really want to Google to check).

I do think there’s doubtless bias there, but I think it is fair to say the entire culture seems to be fairly freaked out about such risks. One way to test the hypothesis would be to watch the Law & Order SUV type shows and see what shows up more. That said, I prefer not to watch those shows, so I can’t speak to the data there.

That said, screw the culture, do any pairing you want for such a film.

Jennifer–good point about Lolita, though I am not sure it was acclaimed because people approved of the idea. Though maybe they did. Ick.

TallyCola, also a good point! Though in all conversations I’ve had, the universal sentiment from men and women both has been that child molestation is an unforgiveable crime regardless of the gender of the child. I am astounded and educated that people would make the kinds of comments you’ve heard.

The story of a mother abandoning her family or, worse yet, being the devouring mother who eats her children (figuratively speaking) seems to be told much less frequently than the story of a father abandoning his family. I think it is a bit scary to a lot of people to think that a mother can do harmful things to her children, especially if she is doing it deliberately. A mother is “supposed” to love her family and children; for fathers, it is more often considered optional, with little blame attached if they don’t.

I love the television miniseries, The 10th Kingdom, in part because it tells of a kind of mother that isn’t often portrayed–deliberately deadly and poisonous. I love it not because I approve of such a mother, but because it can be very healing for people, especially women, who have had such mothers to find out that there wasn’t something wrong with themselves, after all, but with their mother.

Greg is right. This story could have been told with any combination of genders, if it were kept sweet and innocent. The issues might have to change some, as mentioned by TallyCola, but they would still all be viable. However, in practical terms, I can almost see storyboarders presenting some of the combinations and being vetoed out of fear of what the public might think.

Taking a step back from the “could have beens,” I think the movie is just fine as it is–children do have fathers who have abandoned them, and the movie handles the topic very delicately. Children who haven’t experienced it will get it without being too saddened, and children who have, will perhaps feel some relief in knowing that it isn’t about them.

But I also meant that even when people are upset about male-female sex abuse, it just doesn’t seem to upset them as much as same-sex sex abuse.

Never mind how people seem to not realize that Lolita might not have been a precocious little vixen who lured Humbert Humbert into doing the things he did – the story was told from his rather twisted POV, and it seems rare for anyone to consider her an actual victim. At least as far as lasting cultural reference goes – I doubt people think “sexually abused victim” when they use the term Lolita to describe someone.

There is no doubt that male characters dominate children’s film and that females are rarely given the chance to be heroes. But what I found most troubling about Up were the messages sent by a character we never see – Russell’s dad.

As was noted in at least one comment here, Russell’s father is portrayed as a deadbeat. He is the parent who left and promptly broke promises to his son. He is the parent who doesn’t show up on one of the most important days of his son’s life.

In presenting fathers this way, Up continues a trend that is all too common in kids’ movies, books and TV shows.

Paradoxically, his father’s absence shows not only that fathers can be heartless, but also that mothers cannot assume the mantle of the departed dad. At the Wilderness Explorers ceremony, it is only fathers on stage. Why couldn’t Russell’s mother stand up there with him? Why is she sitting passively in the audience while a man who is a virtual stranger to her takes the place of the boy’s father?

Sadly, these mixed messages dominate kids’ TV and film. On the one hand, we see that men are pretty much useless as parents. Despite that fact, we also see that their absence can only be filled by a male role model – a message that certainly devalues females. For more evidence, just look at popular male characters who lose their mothers and end up in the care of one or more males – Anakin Skywalker, Nemo, virtually all superheroes – it is a very long list.

Up is just the latest in a string of films to present negative ideas about both males and females. I keep hoping to find a film that gets it right, but it is tough. The Incredibles comes close, so I would recommend it.

To Jennifer Kesler, you are absolutely right about mothers. I was alluding to that point a bit here when I talked about Russell’s mom, but I amplified the point about fathers because I thought it needed to be heard.

In actual fact, there are lots of problems with the way the mother/son relationship in particular is portrayed in pop culture aimed at young kids (my particular area of research). In many kids’ cartoons, she dies, leaving her son in the care of a male – either the father or a father figure – as though she needs to be removed in order for the boy to be raised properly. If she is there, she is typically shown doing domestic things and rarely working. She also tends to keep a distance from her son so she doesn’t impede his journey to manhood, often initiating an emotional break with her son with some kind of “you’re a man now” speech.

This is just a brief post – the topic is huge and one that I am writing about in detail. Much of the pop culture aimed at kids presents terrible stereotypes of both genders, with women and girls devalued and treated as nothing more than supporting characters and men and boys presented as aggressive “warrior” types who avoid emotional displays and equate femininity with weakness.

Achilles Effect, I’m curious as to the “virtually all superheroes” that you reference as losing their mothers and ending up with a male parent figure. The only ones I can think of are Batman, Robin/Nightwing, any orphaned X-Man (lose both parents, end up with a father figure), Daredevil (mother abandons the family, raised by his father), and the Ultimate incarnation of Iron Man (mother dies when he is a baby, raised by his father).

Not saying that this isn’t a trend (and Disney is especially guilty here), but I don’t see it applying to superheroes in sufficient numbers to be a trend there.

There is a definite trend, but again I’m not seeing it the the superheroes. Of the five you mention Batman is the only one with an absent mother and a present father figure.

Superman is almost always portrayed either with both of his adopted parents alive and present or with just his adoptive mother. He spends time around mostly male superheroes, yes, but none of them are mentor figures to him.

Spider-Man is always presented with his adoptive mother, with his adoptive father dead by origin story.

Iron Man’s parents are dead by the time he becomes a superhero, with no father figure. (Unlike Batman’s relationship with Alfred, Iron Man’s relationship with Jarvis is strictly employer-employee.)

Same thing with Wolverine. He’s actually the big exception among the X-Men, since while Xavier functions as a father figure to most of the X-Men, he and Wolverine are treated as equals. (Backstory-wise, Wolverine is decades older than Xavier anyway.)

So of the five most prominent superheroes that kids are exposed to currently, only one of them has a present father figure and no mother figure. That’s bucking the trend, not a part of it.

I’m sorry to bring this further off-topic from Pixar’s general fail on the subject, but I just don’t see this trend in the last decade-plus of superhero cartoons.

I just wanted to add to this discussion that I thought Russel’s dad wasn’t so much a deadbeat – yes, he was an absentee father, but there was a comment by Russel about his father’s new wife (girlfriend)… was it Phyllis? Anyway, I got the idea of the typical envious new wife trying to drive a wedge between father and son because she doesn’t want the old family around her new one – a trope that I have seen several times before, though often with the Dad belatedly realizing what’s going on and leaving the “shrew”.

I couldn’t see any reference to it, you may want be interested in Linda Holmes’s (I assume) piece ‘Dear Pixar, From All The Girls With Band-Aids On Their Knees’ for national public radio. http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/06/dear_pixar_from_all_the_girls.html

About the lady at the end, I assumed it was his mum, supporting him and taking photos. But I also assumed the father was there because they were divorced, and the only time his dad really bothered to spend any time with him is through camping/scouts. The mother, although happy to celebrate this moment with her son and take lots of lovely pictures, isn’t really involved with the scouts side so didn’t know about the father-ceremony angle. Maybe it’s a big assumption, but its mine.

And there is a chance, maybe, they thought if Elle and Russell were the same gender they WOULD blur. But probably not, I think the connection between lost youth would have been much clearer and it would have been quite nice. But the absent father plot, in my arbitrary opinion, works better with a boy. He’s not a born adventurer, he only came over to rake leaves.

“How cool would it have been if Russel had been a girl, carrying on Ellie’s legacy of adventure as much as Carl?”

As I was watching Up, I thought that would’ve made much better thematic sense, I even pretended that Russel was a fat Asian girl just because.

Hey, I’m not the only person who gender-flips characters as they watch a show, am I?

Incidentally, I more often than not end up making ONLY the main character female (and maybe the second lead), which often ends up with me “watching” a lesbian romance if there’s a love interest in the show…NOT THAT I’M COMPLAINING BD

(that emoticon has sunglasses)

Achilles Effect, you might want to take a look at anthropological literature before you commit too strongly to the idea that the theme of young men losing their mothers and being raised by men is a new and recent trend.

For probably thousands of years, in cultures around the world, when young men and women were considered to be of the right age, they have undergone coming of age ceremonies. Often, these ceremonies involved being separated from parents and other adults of the opposite gender and being sequestered with their age mates of the same gender, with only same-gender adults around.

Often (though not always) the young men and women would then pretty much stick with others of their gender, boys doing the manly things and girls doing the womanly things, with interactions with other members of their society happening as needed as they perform their daily chores.

I am not defending the coming-of-age ceremonies, but I also don’t consider them sexist. The point here is that they have been around for a very long time, and coming of age is a long-running theme in humanity’s stories and literature.

I have also read that psychological studies have shown that if only one parent is available, children usually are emotionally healthier, with stronger self-identities, if the parent who raises them is of the same gender.

In response to what others have said about Russell’s father, it seems pretty clear to me that he has abandoned his son, ostensibly under pressure from Phyllis. This could mean he loves his son, but is too weak to stand up to Phyllis, or it could mean he doesn’t love Russell at all. In either case, Russell has been abandoned and he knows it. He still loves his father and misses spending time with him, but he has also resigned himself to a life without his father. That is also, I think, partly (but not completely) the reason he is so eager to help Walter: he is trying to affirm his own worth through continuing the activities he shared with his father.

As for the badge award scene, I assume that a great deal of explanation has already taken place offscreen, especially since the mother had to have been frantic when Russell went missing. His showing up again in a giant zeppelin with Walter would go a long way toward proving the truth of their story, which would otherwise be pretty unbelievable. If the mother is now a better judge of character than she was when she married Russell’s father, she will see that Walter is a good man and is a good person to have in Russell’s life.

Maybe he’s one of those DOOOOOOUCHES (that’s becoming a meme for me, ROFL) that thinks they don’t have to write women/POC/gay characters in the lead because “Hey, Miyazaki/some woman/some POC/some gay person is already doing it! I can keep perpetuating the nice, safe, no strains-required boys’ club.”

Thanks for your feedback. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that the theme of boys losing their mothers and being replaced by men is a new trend. You mentioned coming of age ceremonies, but my area of focus is fictional portrayals. Certainly, the separation of boys from their families dates back centuries in myths and stories—the story of Achilles (the reference point in my book The Achilles Effect) is just one example.

My concern with depictions like those seen in Up are that they continue the longstanding trend of diminishing the role of women in stories about boys. This theme is seen in many current films and television shows, and the consistency with which it is delivered is troubling. Mothers are removed from sons, male characters dominate virtually every film aimed at a mixed audience of boys and girls, women are depicted in highly stereotyped ways, and they are rarely given the chance to be heroes. Even those females who are considered “spunky” or “sassy” are typically cast only as love interests/damsels in distress. (The new release, Megamind, is the latest to include the scrappy but, ultimately, weak female.)

The poor mother/son relationship, while certainly not universal, is portrayed frequently. It is one piece of a puzzle that, along with the others I mentioned in the previous paragraph, teaches boys to view women as less important or capable than men. Of course, one viewing of such a message is not enough to do lasting damage, but when this message appears regularly in TV, film, and books, it could start to colour a boy’s view of gender.

In the documentary Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power, Cardiff University journalism professor Justin Lewis talks about an “environment of images that we grow up in and that we become used to and after a while those images will begin to shape what we know and what we understand about the world.” It is the environment of negative images about females in children’s pop culture that concerns me. (There are also many negative images of boys, but that is a topic for another post.)

I didn’t elaborate enough in my original post, but I do not discount the importance of male role models in a boy’s life (whether he is fictional or real). I just wonder why, as happens so often in kids’ films, he has to come at the expense of the mother. And I am not saying that Carl would be a bad influence on Russell, I just don’t know why he has to supplant Russell’s mom in this important ceremony.

One more point. I might be missing something here, but I’m not sure the comparison to coming-of-age ceremonies is relevant to this issue. We no longer live in a society that has such rigid gender roles. As we all know, women and men fill a wide range of roles in society, a fact that producers of kids’ pop culture seem a little slow to grasp.