'Cine'cism

A curious thing happened around the time the Pixar team started making masterpieces on a regular basis and arguably even when Sergei Eisenstein called “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” the greatest movie ever made: adults started watching kids’ movies for themselves.

So who are these movies really for? Are they for kids or the adults who pay for their ticket? Does it not matter what occupies a child’s attention for two hours or do we have no right to make them sit through the same garbage we wouldn’t?

Two recent films fall into the middle ground category of arguably being too weird, scary or mature to be classified as kids’ movies: “Where the Wild Things Are,” which I loved, and “A Christmas Carol,” to which I owe an apology for assuming it would be a disappointment.

These films are interesting cases, because whether a child can relate to the spastic frivolity of “Wild Things” or is desensitized enough to not be scared by the dark imagery of “A Christmas Carol,” they certainly do not have the innocent simplicity of this year’s “Up,” the comical, if typically nauseating action sequences of “Monsters vs. Aliens” or even the sheer joy of many of the old Disney classics.

In all these very different films, I can see both the heightened and decreased expectations of what kids are capable of embracing, learning from and enjoying. How is it in the same year, we can have four youthful gems (“Wild Things,” “Up,” “Ponyo” “Coraline”) and have just as many bland, immature monstrosities of chaotic comic action (“Monsters vs. Aliens,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “Aliens in the Attic” and “G-Force”)?

Kids are known to have experienced true love and affection when watching “Finding Nemo” and “WALL-E” and yet expect a certain level of busy and absurd fight and chase scenes from “Over the Hedge” for instance, growing into the new generation of Michael Bay fanboys.

With that said, it’s important for studios to give kids credit and begin to set a less juvenile standard. They will understand “Wild Things” in the way mom and dad will not, and although they may not recognize the hidden environmental agenda in “WALL-E,” they will appreciate it all the more upon watching it again as a teen.

In terms of the lesser movies, kids will like what they like, studios like Dreamworks will continue delivering on that, and it can’t be helped. It’s not all a bad thing though. The select moments of action in “A Christmas Carol” are beautifully rendered, and something like “Kung Fu Panda” is good wholesome fun.

But what all of this says is that kids are susceptible. In most cases, kids will like whatever their parents tell them to like, whether they consciously know that or not. No child will ask for a movie to be in 3-D. No child can say why they liked what they did. No child will appreciate one film’s animated look against another.

It all comes down to the patience a chaperone is willing to have. A parent amused by the gimmick that is 3-D will pass that trait on. A parent frustrated by the lack of dialogue in the first 45 minutes of “WALL-E” isn’t trying hard enough, and it would be impossible to expect their child to do the same. A parent too shocked by “Wild Things,” “A Christmas Carol” and “Spirited Away” will foster reservations that can’t be shed through generations.

Kids don’t need to mature to watching better films. I’m worried about the adults.