Blurring Boundaries Between Reality and Fantasy
The success of the Harry Potter series inspired thousands of moviemakers to produce similar stories. Nevertheless, the quality of such movies is not always high enough to become interesting as well as valuable for children. One of such failures is Inkheart, the fantastic fairy-tale released in 2008. The movie tells the story of a father, Mo, who has the ability to bring characters out of the books into real life. Mo has a specific aim – to save his wife out of the castle inhabited by ‘bad’ characters. He travels with his daughter through the labyrinths of fairy tales to find his mother. While the movie Inkheart is fantastic in essence, many children, especially under the age of ten, do not have the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Being exposed to the message that reading books can have unexpected consequences (main characters are released and caught by bad guys), small children may learn that reading is bad because it results in bad things. Therefore, the movie Inkheart blurs the boundary between reality and fantasy.
Unlike other television shows, movies, books, commercials, and other popular media, Inkheart did not gain recognition as a masterpiece of fantasy. A child is unlikely to view Inkheart more than once because there is no attention-getter in the movie. Nevertheless, the fact alone that characters from fairy-tales can become real and that these characters can walk among people in everyday life distorts the child’s understanding of reality and fantasy. From one side, there is a clear line between reality (the world of Mo and his daughter) and fantasy (the world of unicorns and dragons). On the other side, Inkheart presents fantasy as part of reality. For example, the castle where released fantastic characters were imprisoned was located right outside the city.
Nevertheless, it would be wrong to say that Inkheart does not distinguish reality from fantasy. From the very beginning, the viewer understands that fantastic characters are released from the books because Mo has a special talent to do so. In other words, these characters were not real until Mo let them out. At the same time, Inkheart presents the ordinary people, teaches children about good and bad, and creates the picture of an ideal family: the father who is ready to risk his life to save his family, a mother who is devoted and loving, and a daughter who is an obedient and polite child. However, it appears that every character in the story is fully aware of Mo’s talent, fantastic creatures, and other magical acts. Thus, a child watching an Inkheart movie may get the impression that he or she is the only person who knows nothing about the magic happening around all the time.
Inkheart does not distort the reality because at the end of the movie all fantastic characters are gone back to their fairy tales. At the same time, children are not able to analyze reality and they tend to accept everything they see as real. It is a normal way to learn about the world. Thus, when a child sees that a person may release any fantastic creature by simply reading the book aloud, the child may learn that reading books is very bad. The long-term effects of such an impression cannot be underestimated. Fear of reading may affect the whole life, both educational and professional, of the child.
The problem is that Inkheart movie presents fantasy as a reality. In other words, the fantasy is embedded into the mind of small viewers as the reality. Ellen Seiter argued that parents rely on journalists’ accounts published in newspapers when deciding on leisure time for their children (p. 311). As a result, parents have no control over the leisure activities of their children. From one side, Inkheart movie is not cruel in essence and it does teach children such good things as friendship, loyalty, tolerance, courage, and even love. On the other side, Inkheart undermines the ability of children to distinguish between reality and fantasy.
Children’s understanding of what is real comes through the process of learning. However, modern children are potential victims of the television impact on their understanding of reality. In other words, children learn to distinguish between reality and fantasy by referring to television shows and movies. Inkheart and other similar movies have a special impact on children because there is no clear boundary between fantasy and reality. Daniel Chandler, for example, argued that preschoolers’ concepts of reality involve discriminating between the way objectives appear and the way they really are. Inkheart movies may impose the belief that reading is bad and that fantasy is a part of everyday life.
Works Cited
Chandler, Daniel. Children’s Understanding of What is Real on Television. Web.
Seiter, Ellen. Children’s Desires/Mothers Dilemmas. Chapter 17.