I'll get straight to the point: My wife and have have two awesome kids, a 4 year old girl and a 2 year old (today!) boy. The typical routine in our house it to put a movie on in the morning so Wife can sleep in a little bit in the early morning, and I can get a little work done before the craziness of the day sets in.
Well, today's movie was Peter Pan - the original one. Having not seen it in close to 30 years, I wasn't prepared for my daughter's first comment prompted by this film.
"Dada, I don't like Indians."
Yikes!
This is why we sit and watch with our kids anytime the tv is on, but it still hit me like a bucket of cold water.
I hit pause on the movie, brought my daughter onto my lap, and addressed what she just said. Fortunately the boy was busy eating Rex the dinosaur's head, so I don't think he was paying much attention to the screen.
I started by saying some old movies where made by people who put mean things in them, things that made fun of other people, and that we can't take everything we watch seriously.
I then showed her a google map of North America, pointing out where we live and then zooming out to show the continent. She loves maps, so this got her attention. I said that there were people who lived on this part of the map for a long time, long before grandma and grandpa lived here.
We went to the wiki page for Native Americans, and read through a bit of the tribal names on the Population Distribution list, and looked as some of the photos there.
That about used up the attention span of my four year old daughter, but the point seemed to sink in.
20 more minutes in and the "Red Man" dance scene comes up on Peter Pan and off goes the movie. Double yikes.
So, other than "losing" the disc from Netflix, what next steps does this rich community suggest? I'd like to show my kids some media that is 1) age appropriate and 2) not cultural trash regarding Native Americans. Anybody have suggestions for kid friendly stuff? Anybody have any suggestions for other ways to communicate to kids that this kind of movie is just plain wrong?