Okay, so I don't intend for this blog to get preachy, but..well, today I just have to. I'll promise to try to keep this as a leap-year tradition, which means that in four years when Obj. #4 rolls her eyes and says, "what the hell is a blog?!" I will unleash my inner Sean Penn. And then I will wash her mouth out with soap. For now, I'm just going to dip my toe in the pool.
The first time I heard that The Lorax was going to be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster, I was peeved. Then came the cast of vocal talent: Taylor Swift, Zac Efron, and somebody-famous-but-I'm-not-even-listening-anymore-because-the-disappointment-is-starting-to-eat-away-at-my-eyeballs-DeVito. But what finally broke me was the onslaught of absurd endorsements for products that are completely at odds to the message of the original book.
And I love this book. I mean, I know the darn thing by heart. I started reading it to Obj. #4 before she was old enough to understand what a tree was, let alone have the ability to empathize with those poor, miserable Barbaloots and their sad little tummies. I spent my childhood scratching out all the "euss'" and replacing them with "usan's" just so I could claim to have written such masterpieces. These are the defining texts of my childhood.
So I'm 100% in support of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and their fight against this shameless commercialism. Like I said, I'm not usually into cramming my opinions down the throat of anyone not related to me by blood. And there's a lot of messages aired by CCFC that I don't particularly endorse. But I can get behind this one, and it feels like an important one to pass on.
Plus, anything that gets Stephen Colbert to speak in verse is worth a second glance.
No comments:
Post a Comment