CARS!

A few days ago, I sat down with Cordell and watched the new Disney movie Cars. Cordell had already seen it in the theater months ago, but when it was released on DVD recently he just had to have it. I hadn't seen it yet, but I was sure it was going to be just as good as the others and I was not disappointed (Finding Nemo will never be topped - it was the best).

Cars was really cute and touching just like all Disney movies are. It was absolutely amazing to see how the animators did such a great job giving cars and trucks accurate facial expressions. The whole movie was simply delightful...for children. Don't get me wrong, it was delightful for me also; but I just couldn't help noticing that the Disney movie I was watching with an 8 year old was flirting with sexual content. Or maybe it was just me.

Help me decide - did the movie contain language which was meant to be interpreted a certain way by children and a completely different way by adults, or am I just a gutter-minded pervert? Here's an example of one of the lines in the film. This was spoken by Tow Mater, a tow truck played by Larry the Cable Guy, "Oh man, you get to work with Bessie! I'd give my left two lugnuts to work with something like that!"

Funny line? Yes, it is. I chuckled, it cracked me up. But then I realized that Cordell had laughed also. Not because he understood the implications I understood it to have, but because it was obviously setup to be a joke and he knew it was meant to be a joke, so he laughed. Now, I don't pretend to know much about other 8 year old boys, but I certainly know a lot about this one and he is a kid who likes to tell a joke. He "attempts" to make up jokes constantly. He thinks he's freaking hilarious. So, what would happen if he went to school, the teacher tells him to help Jenny do something and Cordell seizes the opportunity to crack up the class with this joke he heard yesterday. "I have to work with Jenny? I'd give my left two lugnuts to work with Ben instead." Is it funny then?

Now, I'm really not trying to give Disney a hard time here. I know they expect millions of small children to watch their films and they are smart enough to know that the small children cannot drive themselves to the theater or watch the movie by themselves. They understand they are going to have a lot of parents in the audience and they are trying to entertain both age groups. It makes sense that they would have to do that. But, I think the content that is obviously sexual in nature should be left out. We all know kids are nothing more than little parrots and love to repeat anything they hear - especially if they noticed you laughed the first time you heard it.

There were all sorts of other lines in the movies that were aimed at adults that I didn't have a problem with at all. For example:

Lightning McQueen: Wow, this organic fuel is great! Why haven't I heard about it before?
Filmore: It's a conspiracy, man! The oil companies got a grip on the government. They're feeding us a bunch of lies, man!

Lightning McQueen: I'm serious! He's won three Piston Cups!
Mater: [spits out fuel] He did WHAT in a cup?

Filmore: [looking at a stoplight blinking yellow] I'm tellin' ya, man, every third blink is slower.
Sarge: The '60s weren't very good to you, were they?

See, if a kid repeated any of the above, no big deal. So what's the point of putting the lugnut line in there?