Nanci Kuykendall

I used to have real visceral judgemental attitudes
about kid's programming which I thought was "stupid."
I tried not to let on to my kids what I thought
mostly. I've learned it's not important enough to get
worked up about, and that my opinion is only that, no
more valid than theirs. My parents were and are still
very judgemental and sanctimonious so my "defaults"
were set there I guess.

My boys just recently discovered the Power Rangers
movies, being somewhat emotionally and developmentall
"young" for their ages. Some of them are pretty bad,
as in bad acting, bad writing, bad directing, bad
editing, cheesy effects. Some of them are not half
bad though. The boys are savvy enough movie viewers
to pick up on the bad/cheesy/poor quality stuff all by
themselves and we have quite a lot of fun laughing
together about characters falling 1000 feet screaming
only to dust themselves off without a scratch and then
later tripping and breaking their arm or whatever.
The boys like to go back and watch particularly funny
things again and again, laughing every time.

Just like the scene in Kung Pow (a favorite here)
where Steve Odekirk is making fun of poor continuity
between scenes with costuming and Evil Betty says "I
am a great magician! You're clothes are Red!" then
later "Your clothes are blue!" and so forth - there
are similar things in some of the Power Ranger shows
where we laugh about the magic hat that repeatedly
disappears and reappears, or the "Power Ranger Magic
Shiny Pants" that repel dirt and inexplicably go from
filthy to sparkling so often. All this seems to
enhance their pleasure and enjoyment of their movies.

The kids are intelligent enough and experienced enough
as movie viewers to pick up on that stuff and enjoy
noticing it, and I can put aside my dislike to be
respectful about their choices as well as being honest
about things that are well done, well acted or
scripted and so on.

Nanci K.