Thursday 8 July 2010

The Velveteen Rabbit (2009) [* * * * *]

I was impressed by two things: the emotional appeal of this tale of a loving child, and that the child was ... male! Most traditional writers believe that emotions are gender-driven, and colour-coding kids into blue and pink at birth helps them know their place.:p

But I've always believed the male child is just as capable of loving and getting desperately attached to a soft toy, like a velveteen rabbit, just as the adult male can. If he wanted to.

In this movie, the child is held at a distance by his father in a very 'proper' society and deposited in the home of his very proper grandmother. Alone and adrift, the child searches an attic and discovers a stuffed rabbit. And when he hugs the rabbit, it comes alive, as does his imagination. He builds a magic world of adventure around the toys until he gets scarlet fever. The same imaginary world now becomes an escape from reality, and he falls into a coma.

Its the story of 3 generations bonding - him, his grandmother and his father - and how love makes everything real. [Spoiler: A happy ending. The rabbit becomes real in the end in an unforgettable metaphor .:]

2 comments:

venkhat said...

i have always thought that emotions are more of a female oriented subject, and we men are different from childhood,i am beginning to realize,that we too have it if we allowed it as u said.

Local said...

I have seen fine emotions in a few cousins before they, their school, peers and family collectively work to wipe it out of existence. So I know it was there, but still-born.

Still, one can hope to meet an unusual and emotionally unstunted man someday - the Buddha and his followers, esp the Dalai Lama, seems to have preserved it.:)