The Live The Adventure Letter 
I remember when Bambi first came out on VHS. (I’m dating myself!) My children were very young, five and six respectively, and Walmart had just opened its first store in our small town. This was before widespread Internet usage and Amazon; tech-savvy kids today would think it was the dark ages.
Being ever so careful about what my children were exposed to on television and in books, I looked forward to having a copy of this iconic classic in our home video library. I enjoyed animated shows and imagined a wonderful evening spent in front of the television with my children cuddled in close around.
I loaded the tape into the player, grabbed the bowl of popcorn, drew the children in around me, draped us with a warm comforter, and pressed the “play” button on the remote. The children and I chattered through the advertisements and previews of upcoming movies, and then a hush fell over the room as the opening credits started rolling.
About twenty-five minutes into the movie, things began to go south. With each scene, my heart sunk in dismay. This movie wasn’t even close to the real world. The owls weren’t meat eaters that would have taken a bite out of those mice, birds, or chipmunks. The birds ate flowers, not worms or insects. And there were no predators around to threaten any of the wildlife. The message of the movie was clear: Mankind was the ultimate bad guy; the sole predator and enemy of Eden. I saw a danger in personifying all the animals of the forest as human-like somehow, and in speaking about man in only harsh and unpleasant terms.
As a family that lived off the land, I wondered what kind of message was this sending to my children about the realities of the world. We ate the animals my husband hunted (and killed humanely and in season). We taught our children about predators, big and small, the balance of nature, and the gift of stewardship that God had granted to man to oversee His world.
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Are there idiots out there that break the law and hunt illegally? Of course there are, or we wouldn’t have the need for game wardens. But the vast majority of hunters are ethical, they don’t shoot indiscriminately, and they are very conscious about their role in preserving wildlife. They don’t shoot just for the thrill of killing something and they certainly don’t shoot everything in sight (as one scene in the movie depicted). In addition, when they kill, they either put meat in their own freezers or donate the meat to soup kitchens and other charities.
I took the movie back to Walmart and asked for my money back. When they asked what was defective about the tape and I told them the storyline… well, let’s just say they looked at me like I was some kind of kook. They gave me my money back, but they honestly thought I was nuts.
Bias Everywhere
There’s a very real bias in the modern interpretation and worldview found in most children’s movies and entertainment. They present a distorted view of reality and push an agenda that is anathema to freedom in general. People in media know that a visual message is powerful (even more so to our children) and it can alter our perceptions and desensitize us to the truth.
But what is the real truth? Let’s kick Disney’s interpretation of Bambi to the curb and look at what we really should be teaching our children.
Stewardship is important. Our Judeo-Christian heritage tells us that stewardship is inherent in our faith. We don’t take care of animals or people for what they might do for us. We take care of them because they have value and worth before God and simply because of that, they deserve our respect and attention. These very same principles conditioned our founding – that all men are equal before God and their rights come from Him, not the whim of mankind or government.
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Life is harsh. There are predators everywhere – in the countryside as well as the concrete jungle. Nature is not idyllic and without adversity. Predatory natures are woven into the fabric of life. While humans don’t have a monopoly on this, they do have the capacity to overcome their instinctive natures. God told Cain, “Sin is crouching at the door, it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” That’s why our Republic was formed as a nation of laws and not to be ruled by executive fiat or judicial activism. Too much power in the hands of one man or a few always spells disaster.
Those who control the media control the information. The media also controls the way information is presented, even to our impressionable youth. It’s important that we keep factual, truthful accounts of our past and present. Life is not a Disney movie. There is a saying that the winners write the history books. We need to make sure that our children are aware of the truth of our history, and not just a distorted version, even if the majority of the mainstream audience accepts that distortion.
Truth is truth, no matter how many or few believe in its worth or validity.
Jack Gleeson, the Irish actor and scholar, said, “Both villains and heroes need to have a steadfast belief in themselves.” However, as our children’s parents, it behooves us to ensure that the beliefs our children hold as self-evident are derived from truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Not the first time I have heard similar concerns (and worse) about Disney. I totally missed this with my my own and wished I hadn’t. Mistook it for simple cuteness because I grew up outdoors and never had confusion myself.
But as people become more divided and therefore “more difficult”, am noticing the negative consequences of “making animals into idealized people”.
It is worse for some of my grandkids who often live in front of a tv and really can’t compare fantasy to the real world. Have also noticed how pervasive and insidious the idea of “superpower” has become…a concept where humans take on god-like powers and thereby solve all human problems. Is this the cartoon front of secular humanism?
You are so right! I review movies…and books and games and music and even TOYS (many of which come with a story built in). Often the problem, as you note here, isn’t the storyline per se, but the WORLDVIEW that’s promoted. I’ve noticed this in almost every science book that comes from the public library where man is portrayed as the enemy of nature and of the environment. We MUST strive to help our children develop a BIBLICAL worldview. Many of us parents need to check to make sure that our own worldview is Biblically based (and this is a far more complex issue than just the age of the earth)!
Great article. I also have become very careful about the video images that are presented to my students. I know that they are going to see them, but I feel I am successful in educating them when they realize that their minds are also a stewardship, and as one astute child put it, ‘Nothing goes in my mind unexamined!” By that she knows that it is held up to a high standard of Scriptural truth and God’s Natural law as displayed in his creation.