Yesterday I took the children to the Kids AM screening at the Vue Cinema near to us. I usually love this session (which starts at around 9.30am) as it costs just £1.75 per person (adult OR child) and they even do a Kids AM special popcorn combo which is not too badly priced either. For £2.20 you get a popcorn and a drink or for £2.75 they add an Oreo or a Milky Way; it’s literally the ONLY time I’d buy a snack at the cinema. The films are usually from a few months ago (or sometimes they show really retro screenings like Mary Poppins) but who cares about that?! It’s a great little treat for a weekend morning and because it doesn’t break the bank we can afford to do it often.
Yesterday morning there were two options, ‘Night At The Museum 2’ or ‘Fairytale: Story Of The Seven Dwarves’ which I’d not heard of. We watched the trailer to see if we thought it looked any good and after deciding it looked rather ‘Disney-ish’ (although it isn’t actually ‘Disney’) we thought it would probably be up our street. And it was for the most part but… It has to be the worst children’s film EVER as far as I’m concerned because in one scene, which goes on interminably, one of the characters threatens to commit suicide in a rather graphic way. This film is HIGHLY inappropriate because of this scene and how it has managed to get through the British Board of Film Ratings which states: For a U rating (which this is) potentially dangerous or anti social behaviour which young children may copy, must clearly be disapproved of.
It was baffling and I just couldn’t believe it was happening? The sweet story at the beginning shows the seven dwarves and lots of other fairytale characters like ‘Little Red Riding Hood and ‘Puss In Boots’ attending the 18th birthday party of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ who at midnight will be released from a curse set on her by the wicked witch Dellamorta… So far so normal. At the party she inevitably DOES get pricked and falls into a deep sleep with all of the palace except for the dwarves who escape and have to first rescue Jack (from the beanstalk fame) from Dellamorta’s tower (he is ‘Sleeping Beauty’s’ one true love and needs to kiss her to wake her and the entire palace) and then fight to enable him to do so. It’s all fairly run of the mill and what you’d expect with fun songs and cute graphics while the dwarves are very appealing. Dellamorta has a gravelly voice and is rather scary with her pet dragon but we know it’s going to come good in the end because it’s a kid’s film and well, it’s a ‘U’ after all… However… The dragon belonging to Dellamorta gets a flash of the guilts and when he reveals that really he loves to tap dance and wants to be good but is laughed at he ties a roped noose around his neck, attaches the other end to a big boulder and then threatens to end it all by pushing the boulder off the cliff… Urm… Bit unexpected and not terribly pleasing!
Now in the end he doesn’t jump but there is a hairy moment after he decides not to when it all goes a bit wrong anyway and for the entire scene he is either threatening to jump or accidentally stumbling and nearly falling, all the time with A NOOSE AROUND HIS NECK? How is this acceptable? Children DO copy films they see. All the time. I just can’t fathom how anyone made this film thinking it was the right content and I am flabbergasted that it has got to a UK audience of children? This film is no ‘Frozen’ for sure (‘Let’s face it, Disney would have more sense) but it was easily watchable and until this point absolutely harmless. Yet I have come home having to talk to my children about this topic…
I did not want my children exposed to suicide at age 2 and 5. I did not want them to be given ideas for game playing where you tie a rope around your neck and I did not want them to have the Kids AM film ruined. Yet this is what I have got. I Tweeted immediately about this to let Vue Cinemas know my opinion. As far as I can make out this film is being shown at Vue and nowhere else (I could be wrong, I got this information from another blog but couldn’t find anything anywhere to contradict it) and yet they haven’t bothered to respond to any of my four Tweets which suggests they’re not bothered. Whether is IS or isn’t exclusive to Vue Cinema’s someone at Vue made the decision that this film is acceptable to show and it is NOT. Absolutely not and I shall be making as many complaints to as many different people that I can about it. It should NOT be showing to such a young and vulnerable auduence and I will definitely question what we watch at this cinema in future – there’s clearly a reason why the others chose not to show ;Farytale: Story Of The Seven Dwarves’.
Shame on you Vue, I’m very angry and I can’t be the only one!
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