By now, anyone with children under the age of 10 probably knows that there is a new animated movie out, Curious George. And pretty much everyone knows the story of the monkey, Curious George and his benefactor(?), the man with the Yellow hat (actually, he is dressed in all yellow). It is a cute story and one that I never felt was bad to share with my children. Apparently I was wrong, at least according to animal rights activist Robin Roth.
"The books are really irresponsible to me. It's sickening, really,"
Why?
Start with the Caucasian, gun-carrying Man with the Yellow Hat venturing to Africa (imperialism alert!) to harvest wildlife for a zoo (animal repression alert!). Continue with George being unsupervised and allowed to smoke a pipe and huff ether (bad parenting alert!),
To their credit, the reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle, no right wing rag, is very contemptuous of this person's claims. Indeed, sometimes a children's story is just that. A children's story. We would not expect to see elephants wearing clothes just because Babar and family do, than we would expect to see a monkey given free reign within someone's house.
But children love animals, so many children's books have a high animal content just for that reason. This does not mean the writers are advocating treating animals like humans, or children themselves, just that the story usually has a point for a child that they can understand. And indeed, with Curious George it is the trouble that he gets into and then is rescued by the man with the Yellow Hat.
No animals were injured, either physically or psychologically in the production of these books or movie, nor is it likely to start a stampede to pet stores for children looking at acquiring a monkey (Did Bambi produce a run for Deer? Rabbits? Skunks?).
It seems that animal rights activists, at least this one in particular, have lost the ability to laugh and play. And to understand the innocence of a child's mind. And that says more about them than it does any children's book.