Brynne Valla--Student Choice #5

Instead of doing another religious movie review as my student choice blog, I would like to do something a little more lighthearted. I was thinking about how children view movies--what they like to see on screen, what they don't like to see. This made me think of the series "Veggietales" that uses vegetables and fruits to convey Christian teachings to small children.

There are countless Veggietales videos. My brother used to watch them a lot when he was younger, and kids I've babysat for always begged me to play those movies. The creators of Veggietals use animated fruits and vegetables to teach children about loving their neighbor, trusting in God, not being afraid of XYZ, etc. The movies include a song and dance number about every 5 minutes to get kids interacting with what they are seeing. Kids love watching Bob the tomato and Larry the cucumber dance around the screen and sing songs that are sometimes very serious or often very silly. Most importantly, these songs and images stick with the kids who sing along and see the films.

The creators caught onto something important--what we see and hear in film resonating with us after we have finished the film. This is especially important for movies trying to convey a religious message--taking what you have seen with you and applying it to your life. This got me thinking about the way that the film creators portray stories, and I wonder why song, or at least music, is not always emphasized in film.

For instance, I love musicals, and I think I can sing every song in the movie "Grease" and in most Disney movies. But more than that, movies with great soundtracks evoke images from the film when I hear the song on the radio or on my iPod. "Forrest Gump" is a great example of this--I love 60s music, so every time I hear "Free Bird" or "Time" I think back to images of this film. I am instantly happy remembering that film.

The placement of music also gives off certain effects. Think of the music in the movie "Jaws" that always plays before a moment of suspense. Or even in "The Bodyguard" that stars Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. Houston's song "I will always love you" plays at exactly the right moment, with pauses and beats of the drum hitting exactly where they should to create this moment of suspense.

I think it would behoove film makers to consider music more closely in their films. In this way, images and themes from the movie are more likely to stick with the viewer and reappear when the movie-watcher hears a song from that movie again. The creators of kid's movies like Veggietales have figured it out. Hopefully more filmmakers figure out how to make their films more memorable as well by incorporating song/music more intentionally into the film.