We were walking through a store the other day, Christmas paraphernalia already assaulting us, and I see this standing in the middle of the aisle. Yes, that would be your basic three-foot-tall, music-playing, voice-responding, ride-on dinosaur. Yeah. What is up with that? I mean, really I could write a whole post on how fascinating it is that when most people are trying to figure out how to do the holidays this year on a tighter budget, that we can still find animatronic Triceratopses in the aisles of our stores. Who buys that for their child? Who’s willing to have that in their house? I daresay I don’t actually need to write that post though, because the ridiculousness of the “Kota” speaks for itself.

But this thing reminded me of this childhood memory I have that must have been pocketed in the depths of my brain for years. Does anyone remember the movie Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend? It was that movie with the little robot Brontosaurus. All I can remember about it is this horrific scene where the mommy Brontosaurus is shot down right in front of Baby. From what I’ve read (because you know I went home and looked it up) she doesn’t actually die, although that’s how I remember it. Perhaps she is captured and the rest of the plot is based on Baby’s quest to find her?

I recently was trying to think of suggestions for my mom on a movie to get for my older son. And I never really realized before how difficult it is to avoid themes like that. So many children’s movies deal with separation from parents, and in several the parents actually die, often in front of the children. Think Dumbo, Bambi, An American Tail, The Lion King, Cinderella, The Fox and The Hound, The Jungle Book, Tarzan, The Secret Garden, Finding Nemo . . . I have to actively try to come up with movies for my kids that don’t touch on this concept.

The appropriate comparison from my perspective would be a movie that deals with the death of a child. And I specifically avoid most of these movies because most don’t earn the right, in my mind, to play at my heartstrings that way – I often feel they are just taking advantage of an universal response of all parents. I don’t have to go through a list of potential movies though and say, “Nope: kid dies in that one. Nah-ah: they spend the whole movie separated and searching for each other. No way: in that one the child is killed right in front of the mom’s freaking face.” When I do find a movie where something like this will happen, it will most likely be rated ‘R’ and will be recognized as a very dramatic and upsetting film (and possibly an Oscar winner). Mystic River? Hated it. Anyway.

Why is that? Why is one of the biggest fears a child could possibly have so pervasive in movies directed at them? I know it’s a fear to which they can relate and understand and most likely have anyway, but why is it ok to subject them to that with so little consideration? Or is it the other way around and this is being done purposefully to take advantage of that universal fear they have of being separated from their parents? Like I said, movie makers know that parents will always relate to the possible death of a child in a movie, but that doesn’t mean that adult moviegoers are taken advantage of in this way, at least not that often.

Is this not a little scarring for our children? I mean, I guess I saw these films growing up – I remember Baby’s mom being shot with darts and of course I know Bambi’s mom goes up in flames – but now I wonder how much sleep I lost over what I saw. How did it affect my psyche? If seeing a weird toy in a toy store brings it all back, and vividly, what does that mean?

I think I might be doomed to watch Cars every day for the rest of my son’s young life.