Golden Age of Children's Movies

Just an observation today. I walked out the wonderfully awesome and heart-string-pulling How To Train Your Dragon Sunday afternoon and stopped briefly to marvel at the wide array of quality movies being released for young audiences today. The sheer volume of quality children's films that cut the mustard is rather remarkable. In fact, I am envious that I did not have such a lineup growing up (no, I did not dig on the old school sing-song Disney features of the late 80s and early 90s). The situation is even better for parents with these movies learning how not to patronize children but appeal to them and adults equally with universally resonating themes and content. We are truly experiencing a Golden Age for children's movies.

Pixar and, more recently and surprisingly, Dreamworks have been hitting on all cylinders with their animated features. And in a time where media in different mediums have been suspect in their responsibility for generating child-friendly content -- yes, I'm looking at you music and gaming industry -- it's fantastic to see a major medium like motion pictures communicate meaningful messages that matter to young individuals trying to make sense of the world. While most of the messages remain true to the most basic of childhood lessons -- be true to yourself, believe in and pursue your dreams -- the means in which they are being communicated are truly evolving with a masterful stroke.

I look forward to the days when little Krausologers are plopped down in front of the TV with Pixar movies playing back on infinite loops (and Kung-Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon from Dreamworks... you get two! Keep it up!). I'll even sit down and watch with them because I love all these movies too -- even at thirty. We can only hope that this exceptional movie quality trend continues and its influence spreads.