"Danny the Champion of the World"

     There are so many ways to look at children's media, media made for children and media made by children. You can look at children's media and how it relates to spirituality. You can examine the media, studying how it teaches and represents spiritual principles. You can also examine children's media under the light of adventure and how that relates to a child's everyday life. However, the category that is arguable the most important is that of the family.

     The reason the family is probably the most important section is because, ideally, all of the other sections would all occur in the family unit. The family should be the main source of media for children. Parents should be deciding what things their children should be consuming, not somebody else's parents or random people. Also, the family should be where children learn about diversity, imagination and experimentation.

     Also, it is from the family that a child derives his identity. He is someone's son or daughter, someone's sister or brother. The family is one of the most important things in a child's life. And this is clearly seen in Danny, the Champion of the World.

     Danny, the Champion of the World is a book written by Roald Dahl. It is about a young boy, named Danny, who lives with his father in a gypsy trailer. Danny and his father are best friends. His father is a mechanic and teaches Danny everything he knows. Then, one day, Danny finds out that his dad poaches pheasants. And this leads them on a whole new adventure.

     The whole book is essentially about the relationship Danny has with his father. There are other characters in the story, but they are all subsidiary; the focus is always on Danny and his father. They are always present in each other's lives. They are each other's world. Danny does not like inviting friends over to his home because he likes spending time with his dad. I am not saying that children should not have friends, but that their father should should have a strong relationship with their children. After his died, Danny's father vows to give up poaching in order to take care of Danny, even though it was his favorite thing in the world.

     Even the moral of the story is familial. Towards the end of the story, after a huge fiasco with one hundred and twenty pheasants, a local doctors says, referring to the birds: "It never pays to eat more than your fair share." Just kidding. The actual moral is for parents not to be stodgy, but rather sparky, because that is what every child deserves.

     Because, supposedly, parents are the most constant thing in a child's life, it is important for them to be "sparky" because that will always stay with them. Danny's father taught him how to fix a car and to hunt pheasants. And looking back, I do not recall a time when my father similarly taught me things. I am not saying I had a bad father or anything, he was great. We just never spent the time together like Danny and his father did. And it makes me want to make sure I am sparky when I have kids.

     Family is one of the most important things in a child's life. It is always there, it is a constant. And ideally, the family is the gateway. The gateway through which media for the child is chose. And the gateway through which the child learns about diversity, inquiry and morality.

"The Iron Giant"

     Politics and ideology is something that is incorporated into all aspects of our lives. And they are probably the most noticeable in our media. Sometimes these ideologies are purposefully ingrained into our books, movies and art. Movies like Fern Gully and art like Otto Dix's The Match Seller are blatant and obvious in their political and ideological ideas. However, sometimes movies and books are infused with ideological ideas inadvertently. Everyone has their own ideas and opinions and this forms a part of them, forms a base. And whether they mean it or not, this base can inform how a piece of art or media is created.

     And because everything in infused with ideologies, whether directly or indirectly, it is important that we are careful in choosing which media to consume; it is even more important when choosing media for our children. We need to be critical when doing this. There are two kinds of critique when it comes to media. One kind is when the media itself critiques popular ideologies and ideas. Most of Hayao Miyazaki films do this. The other kind is when the consumer critiques and scrutinizes the media he or she is participating in.

     The film The Iron Gian (1999) can be looked at in both lights. The Iron Giant is a film that takes place in the 1950s, during the Cold War. A giant robot crash lands in Maine and is discovered by a small boy named Hogarth. However, as other people learn about his existence, they become fearful and violent, especially as the military is involved.

     The main theme of The Iron Giant, and which it is critical of, is anti-gun and anti-war. The Giant is harmless, unless threatened with violence; then he retaliates in self-defense, much like Gort. However, because of the Cold War, everyone thinks he is a weapon and is out to destroy him. Hogarth repeatedly tells the Giant things like "It's bad to kill, but it's not bad to die" and "Guns kill".

     The movie repeated calls attention to violence and wartime mentality and their downfall. The movies makes clear that violence is not the answer. Even when confronted by a giant, weaponized metal alien, the first thing we do to it should not be attack it. Only the people who take the time to get to know it understand that it is a docile entity; one to be sympathized with, not shot at. The movie ends with the threat of total annihilation for all of the characters; only to be saved by the one they were trying to kill.

     The Iron Giant, while being critical of some ideologies, can also become criticized by the viewer. The unit-violencec/anti-gun theme of The Iron Giant is pretty obvious, which may cause some people to balk. They may see The Iron Giant as childlike is it's crusade against guns. The very first instance of anti-gunnery comes when some hunters shoot and kill a deer. There is nothing wrong with using guns to hunt. To attack people who do so is wrong. And here is an example to prove my point.

     However, while the film is clearly against violence, it does not vilify the army. The leader of the army does not want to send in troops unless there is proof of potential danger. Also, he only attacks the Giant under the impression that he had killed Hogarth. Once he realizes that Hogarth is alive, he tries to stop the attack on the Iron Giant. So, while it is strong in its ideologies, it does not really vilify the opposing side, like many other films do.

     The messages we get from consuming media are as different as the media we consume. Because of this, it is important to consume media that is critical of extremist ideas, critical of people who think everything is black and white; because the world we live in is not like that, it is shades of grey. And to determine which media we should consume, we should also be critical of it.