Heads Up, Ears Down

This blog accurately identifies depictions of violence and cruelty toward animals in films. The purpose is to provide viewers with a reliable guide so that such depictions do not come as unwelcome surprises. Films will be accurately notated, providing a time cue for each incident along with a concise description of the scene and perhaps relevant context surrounding the incident. In order to serve as a useful reference tool, films having no depictions of violence to animals will be included, with an indication that there are no such scenes. This is confirmation that the films have been watched with the stated purpose in mind.


Note that the word depictions figures prominently in the objective. It is a travesty that discussions about cruelty in film usually are derailed by the largely unrelated assertion that no animals really were hurt (true only in some films, dependent upon many factors), and that all this concern is just over a simulation. Not the point, whether true or false. We do not smugly dismiss depictions of five-year-olds being raped because those scenes are only simulations. No, we are appalled that such images are even staged, and we are appropriately horrified that the notion now has been planted into the minds of the weak and cruel.


Depictions of violence or harm to animals are assessed in keeping with our dominant culture, with physical abuse, harmful neglect, and similar mistreatment serving as a base line. This blog does not address extended issues of animal welfare, and as such does not identify scenes of people eating meat or mules pulling plows. The goal is to itemize images that might cause a disturbance in a compassionate household.


These notes provide a heads-up but do not necessarily discourage watching a film because of depicted cruelty. Consuming a piece of art does not make you a supporter of the ideas presented. Your ethical self is created by your public rhetoric and your private actions, not by your willingness to sit through a filmed act of violence.

Retro Christmas Classics!

Retro Christmas Classics! Various directors, 1950s and 1960s.

😸

Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.



The sixteen shorts and trailers in this compilation run as one feature.  I have added accurate start times to the descriptions copied from the Something Weird webpage:


1) 0:40 - Trailer for K. GORDON MURRAY’s Santa Claus (1960)


2)  3:15- Intermission Ad: “Merry Christmas!”


3)  11:40 - Intermission Ad: “Christmas Seals” (1957) – Santa Claus and CLARK GABLE want you to buy Christmas Seals and help fight tuberculosis!


4)  13:41 - Short: A Christmas Dream – Through the miracle of stop-motion animation, Santa makes a little girl’s unwanted doll come to life and run amok all over her bedroom: “Please don’t throw me away!” Wow.


5)  22:38 - Short: A Present for Santa Claus (1947) – Two greedy brats attempt to get the Christmas gifts they want by bribing Santa with cups of hot chocolate! And it works! Santa gives them lots of presents and a puppy!


6)  30:47 - Cartoon: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer – MAX FLEISCHER’s classic featuring everyone’s favorite luminescent caribou!


7)  39:22 - Trailer for the 1959 animated feature The Snow Queen!


8)  40:21 - Short: The Night Before Christmas – In the dead of night, Santa not only invades another living room, but lights up his filthy pipe and starts smoking in this retelling of the classic holiday poem!


9)  48:18 - Short: Silent Night – Join the ADA CRUSADERS QUARTET and sing along to the holiday classic with the aid of this “Hymnalogue”!


10)  51:34 - Short: A Visit to Santa (color) – Santa sends a young elf to escort little Dick and Ann to his castle at the North Pole where they hang with Mr. Claus, watch him in various parades, and take a tour of his Toy Shop. Santa shows Ann an array of dolls “to wash, dress, and spank,” then takes them to Toy Train Town where Dick nearly pees his pants with excitement! Whoopee!


11)  1:01:32 - Trailer for Santa’s Christmas Circus (1966) starring Whizzo the Clown!


12)  1:03:01 - Short: Santa and the Fairy Snow Queen – SID DAVIS, the mastermind behind such classroom scare films as The Dangerous Stranger, tries to persuade youngsters to take better care of their toys by showing a bleary-eyed Santa (who looks like a skid-row bum dragged in from the gutter) attempting to deal with a rebellion of toys that have come to life (played by a bunch of adults who should be ashamed of themselves)! Jaw-dropping.


13)  1:28:51 - Short: The Three Little Dwarves – In this delightful Rankin-Bass-style puppet production, an Asian-looking Santa drags his pals Hardrock, Coco, and Joe along with him on Christmas Eve!


14)  1:31:24 - Short: Santa in Animal Land – Puppet animals are upset that Santa Claus only brings gifts to kids, so Kitty Kat seeks out Santa, is made the “Official Santa Claus for Animals Always,” and delivers gifts for all his animal/puppet friends! As mind-numbingly goofy as it is oddly disturbing.


15)  1:40:21 - Short: The Spirit of Christmas – “The Night Before Christmas” is lovingly re-enacted by creepy marionettes!


16)  1:50:03 - Short: Christmas Rhapsody (1948) – A little fir tree feels inferior to all the larger trees in the forest until a forest ranger and his family choose it to be their Christmas tree! Get out those hankies….


at
Labels: ,