I remember being terrified of the wicked witch, covering my eyes when she came on screen. As the years went by I learned to deal with my fear of the Wicked Witch of the West, knowing she always got her just deserts in the end. One of my college courses in the School of Education at the U of M required us to read a book by Austrian born child psychologist, Bruno Bettleheim, called The Uses of Enchantment. Bettelheim believed that scary stories, like the ones compiled by the Grimm brothers, helped children grapple with fears in remote symbolic terms thus promoting emotional growth that prepared them for their future.
I remember loving being scared when my father read me the Tales from Grimm and my years teaching taught me most kids like being a little scared by stories and movies. One year I read my first graders a series of scary mystery stories. A fluent reader in the class brought in the first book of the series telling me the class would love this scary book. I decided to give it a try and the students did indeed love the the book. They begged each day for me to read them a chapter and we eventually read several books from the series. ( I can't for the life of me remember the titles or author of these books. They were sort of the Captain Underpants series of their day.) There was one little girl however who found the stories too scary and she would sit and play or read by herself in the back of the classroom as I read aloud. The stories would often end on a comical note sending the kids into peals of laughter and the little girl eventually joined the group to listen to the books seeming as if she was proud that she had overcome her fear.
A few years back Harry and I went to see one of the Lord of the Rings movies and across the aisle from us was a six or seven year old with his parents. The child spent most of the movie with his hands over his eyes. My ex-husband and I took Alexis to see ET when she was three. I remember she was transfixed by the movie but on the way out of the theatre she began to sob. My daughter has no memory of the ET movie but she will tell you with relish how her mother scared her to death when she read repeatedly read her the story of Little Red Riding Hood. I would knock on the fireplace wall behind the rocking chair we sat in together just as I got to the part where the wolf knocked on the grandmother's cottage door. My terrified child would scream out when I did this even though she chose to have me read her Little Red Riding Hood night after night. The scream eventually turned into both of us laughing and I remember after reading the book um-teen times, Alexis began knocking on the wall before I did. She of course only remembers her mother terrifying her.
Some might argue after hearing these tales of what I read to first graders, how I took a child of three to see ET and those sound effects I added to Little Red Riding Hood is proof I did not acquire the sort of emotional growth Bettelheim hoped I would have. Maybe the fact that my parents and grandparents let me watch The Wizard of Oz and listen to Tales From Grimm at such a tender age backfired.
On Friday afternoon, the semi-retired person I now profess to be, found herself on the way to the movies. I had high hopes that the new Oz would not disappoint at the ticket price of $11, but decided it best to go alone if it did. When I got to the theatre at noon on Friday to see The Great and Powerful Oz I looked forward being the only person in the theatre. Instead I found myself in a long line of young teenagers also buying tickets for my movie. I asked the young woman selling tickets why these kids were not in school and she said she had no idea. The large group of kids filled the theatre's upper rows and I found myself a nice seat meant for the handicapped as far away from the group as I could before I put on my 3D glasses. The kids did talk their way through most of the movie but I found it rather fun to hear how much they were enjoying it, especially the scary parts. The group was primarily black students and it ran through my mind that all the main characters were undoubtedly going to be white. It turned out that wasn't entirely true, there were a few black, Asian and Latino munchkins in this version. I guess an all white cast is nowadays scary to movie producers.
If you have fond memories of The Wizard of Oz I think you will very much enjoy this prequel devoted to the telling of what happened before Dorothy arrived in Oz. There are some very clever and humorous touches relating to the original film. The cast is excellent and the special effects are not overblown but truly add more magic to this magical tale. The movie is fun and scary, but not too scary. I didn't even have to cover my eyes!
Knock on wood.
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