Anything Goes : Hollywood’s Monopolization of Creativity - The Effects on our Children by Thomas George Mazzola

Why does Hollywood insist on making unrealistic movies for our children filled (in many cases) with violence and villainous behavior, which in effect, says our children are too dumb to watch anything containing realistic, intelligent content? Hollywood insists children will not go the theaters to watch anything but the formulated animated features Hollywood gatekeepers have deemed to be what our children want to watch. What kind of research or psychological babble (if any) does Hollywood base such important tunnel vision on? Someone please give me one good reason for the narrow-minded dumbing down of our children. I profess and maintain our children are much more intelligent than we give credit, but if we are to scale our children’s intelligence by what Hollywood thinks they want to see in theaters, does this not raise some concern for us all? It’s not like Hollywood is giving the parent much of a choice when they narrow their vision to tightly dictated formulas for what they think our kids want to watch. Show me one child that honestly believes that dolls, toys, cars, planes or animals really talk. Or show me one child that will not take interest in a feature animation with realistic subject matter, which can be just as entertaining as the dumbed down, formulated animation feature shoved down parents throats these days. This is not a condemnation of the creative writers who conform to the Hollywood Standards of the “Animated Feature”, which has its own category in the Oscars. Lets face it, wining any Oscar is a feat in itself, promoting and launching careers while providing a plethora of work for some of our most talented actors and illustrators. However, to conform to the insecurities of Hollywood and its lack of faith in the audience, makes for these formulated conformist ideals and the tendency is to produce clones of past successes - thus the rise of intellectual properties, franchises, remakes, etc. and the fall of original content. Producers and gatekeepers strive to choose their material carefully, hoping that emulating proven formulas of past box office successes will propel projects into high profit margins. That’s their job and that’s fine in the adult world of bringing home the bacon to feed their children. But are they dishing out healthy food for our children’s growing minds? Can we do better with well-balanced, healthy, fresh ingredients for the growing mind, or do we stick to a formulated, serialized, condensed and processed product, which has been marketed for the very same reasons – to maximize profits and hook the consumer – our kids? At least give the parents a choice. Hollywood should not be so narrow minded and insecure in its decision making process. They should not monopolize creativity with formulated content. Hollywood has always done it’s very best (business included) by not succumbing to its fears and insecurities but by being brave and diverse offering its consumers a wide variety of content to choose from. Hollywood has only one thing to fear as we all do and that is fear itself. Food For Thought