Movie Subgenre: Children with Magic

Walt Disney Productions has produced many different films that give a sense of outer realm for children in their minds. Anything is possible in a Disney movie, where taking things in everyday life that maybe stand still and breathe life in them to become an entity in the movie whether it be an animal, a piece of furniture, automobiles, or anything of that nature. In 1975 Disney Productions made the movie Escape to Witch Mountain. Basically giving us real life people with extra ordinary abilities as the two children did in this movie. Taking events such as being able to think about something like picking up a pencil with your mind and drawing on the wall, or playing a harmonica to produce dancing puppets with no one playing with their strings were all early evidence that children who were given the chance to see this type of film, would spark an imagination of doing it themselves. It was an evident starting point to bring children and their imaginations together as one. As this movie was a great classic, it was evident that soon many were to follow.

At such a young age and a sense of complete innocence is one of the many enjoyments of seeing children grow. Playing with friends and being able to imagine that they are a powerful, helpful, or make a difference in the world type of character whether climbing trees staving off wolves, or using magical powers to become everything that they hope to be is nothing short of the best stimulation a child's mind can have. Which brings us to the area of animated movies with different types of characters that do many different things good and bad. You can pick a movie on a more recent scale such as "Cars" where they are in a world of their own without human life, but automobiles interacting just as people do in the real world. Movies of this magnitude that don't necessarily have magic in the movie, it creates a magical feeling for the children to experience cars talking to each other as you and I do.

However, children grow up and as they do they find that entertaining themselves in an independent state is much less as time goes by. Many start becoming friends with classmates, and other children in their neighborhood being able to create less time occupying their minds and doing other things such as video games. When this happens the movie industry still understands the time or era some grow up in and want to attract those type of children, adolescents or teenagers, even adults in many different stages. A great example of this is the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling that turned into millions and millions of dollars for the movie industry. Where as normally you will see one movie and understand the character, in this particular instance you get to see a boy with a troubled home life become the center of attention in a magical place. Where either they love him or hate him, his popularity is huge and creates animosity at the school (Hog wart's) where they learn to control their magical powers. As Harry gets older kids watching the films become accustomed to wanting more. Wanting find out what new powers Potter and his counterparts will have that will leave them yearning for the next installment. This translate into more revenue not only for the movie industry, but also the the video game world, clothing lines and more. Not only are children as young as five and six years old able to take something from these types of movies, adults tend to be fascinated with the teasing abilities of them to create a need to come back and see the next movie.

Lord of the Rings did just that, and moved into more of the adult world that still interacted with mystical mysteria of magic. Where this trilogy may not have been geared toward every era it definitely was geared towards those that are thirteen and older in age. Monsters become more graphic, blood more real, and events that maybe a child would not necessarily understand especially with things such as horrible deaths that could possibly lead to nightmares and other events. The movie itself portraying a long journey for many characters who have to virtually save the world is one of the most sought after story lines in history. However, these movies indulge you with so many characters and how each are shaped through courses of events that you are left with tunnel vision trying to keep up with everyones journey. This is where adults that are in their twenties through forties enjoy and some older depending of course on their interests. It makes those that are even wiser in age and leave their personal realm and stresses, and break through their walls to enhance their imaginations for their children as well.

While the years pace and life takes over through the course of a day, it is always nice to turn back the clocks every now and then even if for an instant. As we find our place in the world these days will be forgotten until we have a family of our own, where we can take our children to see movies filled with magic and imagination, and a well being that we were once their age and knew how important it was to indulge these fantasies. It shapes us not only as people as we are growing up, but also helps us to understand what is real, what is not, and with a sense of what might be.