Zac Efron, Disney’s new tweeny-bopper idol, heart-throb and meal ticket is working hard plugging his new movie with Mathew Perry, 17 Again, which comes out this Friday. If you watched American Idol tonight, you saw the big marketing promotion in full swing and Disney continues to market to every prepubescent girl in America on the Disney Channel and buying spots on younger children’s programing, problem is, a minute little detail that is continued to be overlooked — the movie is rated PG-13. Now, I’m no prude and not necessarily opposed to taking young children to such a movie, but how many moms out there are going to take their little 7 year olds girls to this movie, thinking that it’s a Disney movie with the High School Musical safe cutie Zac Efron only to discover, uh….it may not be appropriate?

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We didn’t actually BOLT to see “Bolt”. First we talked about it all week.  Then we advance purchased our tickets to avoid being disappointed at the ticket window.  Then the kids drove me nuts all day Saturday. “Ma what time is it?”  “Are we still going?”  “Did you print those tickets Ma?” “I hope Mom put those tickets in her purse. You KNOW how she is.” (Hey! I heard that!) Then we worked on organizing the basement together. (Big Papa’s gone hunting so we have all kinds of projects & activities planned!) We totally forgot to eat dinner.  Got wrapped up in our basement project and the excitement of all the goodies we were finding (wait! weren’t we supposed to be throwing stuff AWAY?) that hours passed by and we missed our 6:30 departure time for early arrival to the 7pm show.  THEN we bolted out the door, cut to the front of the ridiculous long lines with our ADVANCED CONFIRMATION (muahaha!) and settled in just in time to see the preview for the upcoming “Race to Witch Mountain” starring Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson and the “Bridge to Tarabithia” girl.  Whew! What a day!

Was it all worth it?  Did the evening peak with a healthy climax?  Would we do it all over again knowing what we know now?

As usual, the answer lies with my kids.

Today is just like yesterday.  Only instead of constant chatter involving ANTICIPATION to see “Bolt”, my kids cannot stop talking about the movie and how much they loved it. For the car ride from the theatre to Big Boy (remember, we forgot dinner?) I was grilled like the bread on my Slim Jim sandwich. “Mom! What was your favorite part?” “What was your favorite words?”  “What was the best sentence you heard?” “Did you think the best action part was when…” “Oh you guys, wasn’t it sad when…?” You get the picture.

I can confidently recommend that your kids will enjoy “Bolt”.  But will you?

I did.  Do you remember that Jim Carrey movie, “The Truman Show”?  Where he had been born and bred as part of an elaborate reality tv show where everyone he knew and loved was an actor on the show? I just loved that movie and was reminded of this early on in “Bolt”.  Same concept.

I was engaged in the action sequences.  Especially the beginning with the helicopters and the bad guys on motorcycles… just enough intensity infused with just enough comedy.  As tough as Bolt was he still made my heart melt when he learned how to take advantage of his “puppy dog eyes” and found the joy in letting his head and tongue hang out the window in the breeze.

The lesson we took away? As Bolt’s lightning bolt “birthmark” began to fade away, and Bolt began to realize he was just a regular dog with no real super powers, he lost confidence in himself and didn’t think he had anything to offer his friends or the situation.  With the help of his friends (cat and hamster… hilarious!) he realized he was still special and brave and loyal.

The animation was fantastic of course and I am a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t realize beforehand that it was in RealD.  It is funny because we had our first encounter with RealD this summer at Universal Studios and went crazy over it wishing they’d use it for movies.  This is our second RealD flick since then (“Journey to the Center of the Earth” was first) and I am a fan.  Not going to talk too much about it here because I am working on a separate post about it.

I wasn’t planning on writing for Imperfect Parent today because I have that huge project in the basement beckoning me.  But since the kids are still buzzing about it and I can’t get away from it, I thought I’d ride the wave of excitement and put it to work for me.

Did anybody else see the “Bolt” sneaky peek?

Recently I stumbled upon a parenting debate about whether or not parents would take their children to “Gay Day” at Disney World. Although “Gay Day” isn’t an officially sponsored event, it is an organized one. In case you’re not familiar with it, one day out of the year gay couples, with or without children, go to Disney World to experience the park as the majority.

What caught my eye was the following comment on pregnancy.org:

So now you understand why there is a need for “gay day”…’cause every other day is “hetero day” at Disney World (and everywhere else), and it’s tough to have everything catered to another group’s interests. Doesn’t feel so good when you don’t see your family and your own family values widely represented, does it?

That statement seemed so ridiculous to me. Why does anyone’s and everyone’s interests have to be widely represented anyway? My question has nothing to do with whether or not I “agree” with the “gay lifestyle”. I couldn’t care less about that.

For some reason, this reminds me of the times when I’ve been in the minority. At one of my past jobs, I went looking for a daycare for my older son who was about 3 years old at the time. Lucky for me, there was a Montessori across the street. How convenient was that? So, I made an appointment to take a tour and given that the company was located smack dab in the middle of “Korean Town”, all the children and staff were Korean. I’m not exaggerating. There was not one other ethnicity represented besides Korean.

I kept an open mind looking at Korean lesson plans on the teacher’s desks and when I received an awkward outsider reception from the Administrator. As convenient as it might have been, I decided against sending him there. I didn’t want my son to feel like the odd kid out if I didn’t have to. I also saw no reason to submerge into a culture at 3 years old that he would likely not appreciate or understand. Granted, kids are resilient and he would have adapted, and probably learned some interesting differences, but I would have preferred a more diverse group. It had nothing to do with hate or racism or prejudice, but of cultural comfort. That is why a Korean Montessori exists to begin with — in order to find that comfort and simpatico and preserve a unique culture.

My point being, the commenters accusing those who don’t want to go to “Gay Day” as hateful and ignorant, aren’t they contradicting themselves when they point out that gay couples don’t want to have to always conform to the interests of straight people and the majority?

Human nature dictates that people like to be around people like them, even those who are the most accepting and tolerant people in the world.

I have to wonder if the people accusing others of being hateful have made a point to live in an area outside their own race and common interests? I’m sure the answer is no.

To: Prescott
From: The Disney Online Team
Subject: Your Disney Online Account

We are writing to inform you that inappropriate language has been found within a chat log attached to your child’s account, shown below:

15:14:04 : hell ball

15:18:05 : fuckin ball

15:24:01 : fuck ball

15:37:00 : FUCK

15:39:02 : FUCK SHIT CRAP BITCH DICK

15:41:01 : WHAT THE FUCK?

15:41:02 : FUCK!!!!!!!!!!

15:41:03 : F U C K

15:42:00 : F.U.

15:42:03 : F U C K

15:42:04 : @ss

15:42:05 : @SS

15:43:00 : F U

15:43:02 : F U HANAH

15:43:05 : OK F U C K E R

15:44:03 : fuck

15:44:05 : fuck

15:45:00 : F U HANAH

15:45:04 : FF.UU.CC.kk

15:46:01 : F..U..C..K

15:47:03 : YOUR A FUCKER HANNAH

15:48:01 : F U FU F U

15:48:04 : F U

15:49:05 : F U C K

15:50:01 : F U

We wish to create a friendly online environment, so using language that could be deemed inappropriate on Disney’s community of web sites is not permitted. Remember to keep it clean and keep it kind!

Thank you,

The Disney Online Team

————————————

To: Disney Online Team
From: Prescott
Subject: RE:Your Disney Online Account

To whom it may concern:

I’m very sorry about this infraction. Shit, I’ve been telling his goddamn mother to watch her mouth in front of the kids, I knew this crap was going to go on sooner or later. You can be sure as fuck that we will take care of this immediately, and I’m going to kick his ass if it happens again.

Yours in Mickey,
Prescott

It’s pahhhhttty time! And also time to make the Disney Company even richer.

Because kids are growing up way too fast these days, our 4- and 9-year-olds are joining the ranks of crying, love-sick tween girls in anticipation of High School Musical 2, debuting tomorrow on Disney Channel.

It’s hard to believe there is any money out there that Disney doesn’t already have, but you have to give credit where credit is due — they know how to pick attractive theater geeks and write catchy tunes, combined with blitz marketing schemes that span their many TV shows and turn robotic teens with mediocre singing and acting skills into franchise juggernauts.

If you haven’t heard that Corbin Bleu has, like, the coolest hair and that Zac Efron is dreamy, then your kids are too little to be in the know or too old to be so dorky. I cannot escape the dorkiness however, so our Tivo is set.

The cast of “HSM: 2″ gaying it up

If you don’t believe me, chew on these stats:

7 million: Dollars budgeted for “High School Musical 2″ (the original was made for $4.2 million).

2,000: U.S. schools and community theaters that have licensed to do “HSM” stage productions.

100 +:Countries in which “HSM” has been televised.

42: Cities visited on the sold-out “HSM” concert tour.

18: Age of Corbin Bleu, the youngest member of the cast.

9: New songs featured in the sequel.

2: Emmy Awards won by “HSM” (best children’s program and best choreography).

1: The ranking held by the “HSM” soundtrack in album sales for 2006 (3.7 million units sold).

Please don’t tell me I’m alone in having to listen to this crap, at least in the background while I write blog posts.