Worst Moral

[Squishy]

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Earth is endangered because whales were hunted to extinction in the 20th or 21st Century. This is Bad.

However, it is not Bad because of the loss to the ecosystem; apparently, Earth got along fine without whales, just dandy. It is Bad because a giant starship comes to Earth and starts to microwave it because it can't find the whales it left there eons ago.

...

Cough.

So, if I got this straight, the moral of the movie is: Be nice to Mother Nature (because if you don't, a giant burnt space-cigar will come and kill everyone two hundred years after you die).

Your turn.

[Brock]

Shrek.

I'll try not to spoil anything about the plot, but the moral is, essentially, "Ugly people deserve each other."

It had so much going for it up until the ending...

[Andrew K]

The worst, most offensive message to me is in the Ralph Bashki animated film Wizards. It's essentailly this: nature and mysticism=good , science and technology= bad. Hell, worse than just bad; science is equated with NAZISM . Some should show this film to Liz from And You Call Yourself a Scientist! She would have a field day.  As for myself, I can only respond to Bashki with a quote from my favorite cartoon character: "Screw you, hippie!"

[Apostic]

It's true.  Ugly people do deserve each other.

Fortunately, Shrek and Fiona were beautiful, in a "layered" sort of way.

regards,

Apostic (who, along with Mrs. Apostic, is beautiful in a "layered" sort of way....)

[Apostic]

"Hell, worse than just bad; science is equated with NAZISM"

I keep a model of an Me 262 in my office.  It's there to remind me what happens when good technology ends up in the wrong hands.  And I mean wrong not only as in "morally wrong," but in terms of competence, too.

Therefore, it strikes me odd that Bakshi relies on a method of technology (the motion picture projector) to tell his story about technology as evil.

regards,

Apostic

[Flangepart]

And, don't forget, the "Good" wizard shot his Evil Brother...with a 9mm luger! Is that hypocritical or what? Good idea, Apostic, about the ME 262. A beautiful airplane,but that bent cross on the tail.......Hummm. If the Empire had been given the X-wings, and the Rebels had had the TIE fighters...would the X-wings be concitered....well,attractive as they are? Or the P-51 mustang...if that had been a nazi design....my point is, the look of the TIE's was inspired by the Me 109 series, espchualy the later G series, and there was something in the asthetic that people identified in the TIE design that said,this is Evil. Even if it was subconscious, as most people arn't as likely to notice that asthetic as us "Wing nuts". well...thats a thought to conciter.   On topic: Wizards, and The Beast, and Fire down below....the moral that technology is EVIL!...and nature is some how Holy. Evil...is selfishness...and all means to express and execute that mind set are mere method and tactics. My friends, i have learned some things in my life, and one of them is: Good Intentions do no equal good resaults, nessisarily. OY, have i learned that!......

[Raffles]

Have you ever seen Mohagany starring Billy Dee Williams and Diana Ross?  I should just leave it like that but seriously, the end was really bad.  MIss Ross had worked her whole life to make it in the fashion industry but the big happy ending was that she gives it up to be with her colt 45 forty ounce politician husband Ol dirty Williams.  Like being a politician is more savory than a fashion designer.  I have the soundtrack on vinyl "Do you knooooooow what you're blah blah blah do you like the things that life is showing you..."

[Apostic]

I've seen the following moral in various movies:

If you are good, then you will get a large sum of money.  This is important because being rich will make you happy.  In fact, you have to be rich before you can be happy.

Where have we seen this?  Max Dugan Returns.  The Uninvited.  Many others.  How many can you think of?

regards,

Apostic

[Ken Begg]

Flangepart wrote:
> Good idea, Apostic, about the ME 262. A beautiful
> airplane,but that bent cross on the tail.......

That's *exactly* how I feel about the Hindenberg.

[Ken Begg]

On the other hand, the best moral might be in It's a Wonderful Life, where they refrain from overtly 'punishing' Mr. Potter because they expect the audience to get that he is alreadly his own worst punishment.

[AndyC]

"On the other hand, the best moral might be in It's a Wonderful Life, where they refrain from overtly 'punishing' Mr. Potter because they expect the audience to get that he is alreadly his own worst punishment." - Ken Begg


Agreed. It's a Wonderful Life is one of my favourite movies for a number of reasons, not the least of which is it's emphasis on the importance of community involvement. It might also be the earliest movie in which a character visits an alternate reality. I could be wrong about this. Anybody know?

Anyway, your comment reminded me of Saturday Night Live's "lost ending" in which George Bailey beats the living crap out of Mr. Potter. It had Dana Carvey as Bailey and John Lovitz as Potter, back when SNL was still somewhat clever.

[Steve.]

Surely the worst moral-message movies are teen-slasher movies. Teenagers have sex - they die. Teenagers smoke weed - they die.  Teenagers do anything remotely pleasurable - they die.

[Kurt]

Okay, I know this isn't a movie, but with a little 'un in the house it's hard to read Children's books and not realize how morally screwed up they are.  I specifically refer to "The Rainbow Fish".

For those who have never had occasion to read it: The RF is the most beutiful fish in the sea, but the other fish shun it when it refuses to give a little blue fish one of its scales.  Lonely, it stumbles across an octopus that tells it to share its scales.  It does, every fish (including the Rainbow Fish at the end) has one rainbow scale and now it has many friends.

My take on possible morals:

1. Shun those who are different,.

2. Communism is good.

3. Buy your friends.

4. If someone has something you want, make them give it to you.

5. Never be beautiful.

I know it's hard to cram a moral message into a twenty page board book whose sole gimmick is foil printing, but I'm amazed how many wrong morals they fit in.

[Mr.Smashy]

Yeah. Lots of kids stories are about communism if they were made his century. The smurfs were all about communism.

[Mr.Smashy]

I wonder if nature would be so hot to hippies if they were squating in the dark, covered in feces while hiding from wolves?

It is easy to criticise something when ya got it...isn't it? Sure, sour grapes works too, but I can never get enough of people who are mindlessly resentful of things just cuz they aren't perfect, when a complete lack of them (which they have never really experienced) would suck so much more.