Children's Literature and... the Super Bowl/ the Movies

I generally don't watch television, much less sports (except for soccer in the world cup and some other competitions I shall mention shortly), even less American Football, a game about which I know absolutely NOTHING. However, tonight we happened to turn the TV on for the beginning of Super Bowl and... we were met with a paraphrase/parody of Dr. Seuss - of all things! Actually I shouldn't be surprised, because Dr. Seuss much loved here in the U.S. and his books have been made into movies and are known by everyone. I really like the book they used, Oh, the Places You'll Go! but I had mixed feelings about a children's literature book being appropriated that way. I mean... sure, it's great for the genre, which is often relegated to a "second rank" as far as literature is concerned, but on the other hand... I don't know... it's great for Dr. Seuss's estate, they're making tons of money from this venture. Whatever, I guess I don't really have an articulate opinion, but I still wanted to blog about it. It was very fun to watch, but I'm always critical of TV, particularly these huge "events" that mobilize millions of people and are mainly an outlet for the advertisement of products and the enrichment of big companies... (I was never the same after I watched the documentary about Noam Chomsky: Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, I'd go so far as to say that it is "life-changing").

I'm saying this, but there are a few sporting events that I love to watch. This year I will be watching the soccer World Cup, as I have done every four years ever since I was a child... (I'm sure I'll blog more about it). I've been so "out of it" that I only found out about the Winter Olympics in an NBC program the last flight I took coming from Brazil -- so in the next few weeks I'll be watching (mostly taping) some figure skating, which I love. I also enjoy the Olympic games, I mean, the "Summer Olympics" (I'm from Brazil, we usually don't follow the Winter Olympics there :) - or I used to enjoy until I came to the U.S. and got extremely MAD at NBC every four years for not broadcasting ANY collective sports (such as volleyball, basketball - only pieces of the games are shown). Anyway, I love to watch gymnastics, for instance...
I do watch, but I try to do it with parsimony, keeping in the back of my mind the analyses that Chomsky does (that most media, these sporting events included, are there to distract us from the really important issues, that are kept at bay -- war and suffering throughout the world, etc...).

OK, I'm really, really rambling today, am I not? One last thing:


We also saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on DVD tonight. I love Roald Dahl's book, and didn't like too much the old movie version from the year I was born (even though I think Gene Wilder is hilarious as Wonka).

What did I think of this one? I hadn't really read any of the reviews (I only know that people didn’t like Johnny Depp too much as Wonka), so my opinion is quite neutral, I hope…

[No spoilers ahead, I promise]

Well, of course book lovers will always complain about the changes, particularly additions, and this film is no exception. It is no doubt much more “faithful” than the previous one (down to the cute squirrels!! – that part WAS amazing!), particularly with the inclusion of the Oompa-Loompa songs. The main additions that bothered me were – Charlie saying he wants to sell the ticket (this one didn’t even make much sense, I thought!), and, of course, Willy Wonka’s flashbacks and the totally made-up ending. It’s an interesting guess at his reasons for being so weird, but not completely convincing. The emphasis on “family is important” was off (with another addition I didn't like, Charlie having to choose between two things), I guess, and I don’t know exactly why I thought it was weird since the book does put a lot of emphasis in the “lovingness” that Charlie feels for his family. I can’t analyze much more without spoilers, and it’s getting late, so I guess I’ll stop here, OK? And I'm saving this entry, in case it gets eaten as well!! (I'm still working on the other one; I'll try to get it out tomorrow).

Edited to add: Libby asked in the comments: "I actually watched the game, but missed the Dr. Seuss. Which was it? What did they do with it?"
And I responded: "It was the opening of the broadcast. Harrison Ford (and some other Football celebrities I don't know) read quotes from the book while animated images from the book appeared in the background. Of course they added a few images, in each scene there was a little TV drawn in the style of Dr. Seuss with corresponding football images in it. It was great, actually, I wish I had taped it...
This morning my son saw the book in the floor of his bedroom and told me, mama, this is the book that appeared on TV yesterday while we were eating popcorn!"