Children's Media #5: Imagination

IMAGINATION:

When I hear the word imagination, what comes to my mind is the beautiful song, "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory (1971). When I talk with little children, I love to hear about creatures or adventures from their imaginations. Playing cops and robbers with little children is pretty easy because they can visualize the bank or runaway car environment like it's reality. Pondering about imagination with this class, I think it's important for kids to be able to imagine new and interesting things. Now one needs to be careful that a child doesn't imagine things 24/7 and understands that there is a reality we have to live in and learn things. 

From the short, "Shadow of Blue" (2012) we see the little girl sitting on the bench. She sees real life butterflies soar around her. She takes out a blue piece of paper and imagines what that paper could be. We then see a blue, handmade butterfly that she's holding up in the sky. We see her imagination lead to creation. I think that's important to remember that with the creation process, imagination is right in there. 

 From the film, 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953) the character, Bart Collins, is a young boy who is forced to do piano lessons. I bet Steven Olson in the class related a lot to this film. Anyways, the viewer is able to see Bart be forced to do something he doesn't want to do. However, one can't control his thoughts or daydreams. As Bart is forced to play piano, he wanders off into imagination and has many daydreams. I remember being a child I would do the same thing. When you're stuck somewhere that you don't like, you try to escape to a place where you want to be. I think of the phrase "go to your happy place". Again, one must understand, child or adult, that escaping to a dream land doesn't mean you can live there and never be in reality. As a child seeing this film, I wonder if they would maybe be frighten to daydream again.

 Movie Trailer for 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)


The film itself presents wonderful colors and many songs to entertain the viewer and to help the viewer enter into Bart's world. For example, "The Dungeon Song" one can feel the horror in entering a dungeon. The music is in a minor key and the voice of the dungeon master is low and harsh. We see Bart in fear as this song is performed. A child can feel the same emotions as Bart. I could definitely feel the Dr. Seuss influence throughout this film with the lyrics, the shapes of the props and sets, and the colors of the costumes.  

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