Right Mothering

Homemade pizza is the one meal of the week that we eat in front of the television.  Our daughter loves travel shows and nature documentaries, but one of my favorites to watch with her is “From the Top” on PBS.  Unfortunately, I can only find CDs from the series to purchase: From the Top Volume 1, From the Top, Volume 2, and From the Top, Volume Three.  But the series is excellent – the show highlights young musicians from around the country.  It offers brief biographical sketches, shows them rehearsing, interviews them, and then shows their performances.  It presents them as children, not miniature adults, but their talent inspires.  There is also a radio show, but for my five-year old daughter, I find the television show more effective.

Time for pizza!

I have one more gift to buy for my daughter -  the Sleeping Beauty (Two-Disc Platinum Edition).  But, I buy Disney products most sparingly, and my daughter knows why.

First, she understands that there is a difference between classic Disney animation and new Disney animation.  For me, the The Little Mermaid marks the beginning of new, less gentle Disney.  It was the first to use live action reference, but the last to use the traditional hand-painted cell method of animation, so it stands at a turning point.  Unlike Wikipedia, which labels the Little Mermaid the start of a Disney Renaissance, I see it as the end of the beauty of Disney animation.

Second, she knows that individually the classic movies of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella are beautiful, but the grouping together of these “Disney Princesses” with the newer ones in order to sell stuff is “gross.”  So, Cinderella the movie is beautiful, but Cinderella on underpants is gross.

My list of approved Disney cartoons, in chronological order.  We certainly don’t have all of them, and I tend to favor the non-Princess titles, just to balance out what she sees outside the home:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney Special Platinum Edition)

Pinocchio (scheduled for release in March!)

Fantasia (Special 60th Anniversary Edition)

Dumbo (Big Top Edition)

Bambi (2-Disc Special Platinum Edition)

Cinderella (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Alice in Wonderland (Masterpiece Edition)

Peter Pan (2-Disc Platinum Edition)

Lady and the Tramp (50th Anniversary Edition)

Sleeping Beauty (Two-Disc Platinum Edition)

101 Dalmatians (Two-Disc Platinum Edition)

The Sword in the Stone (45th Anniversary Special Edition)

The Jungle Book (40th Anniversary Platinum Edition)

The Aristocats (Special Edition)

Robin Hood (Most Wanted Edition)

The Rescuers

The Fox and the Hound (25th Anniversary Edition)

We also distinguish between classic Mickey Mouse et alii cartoons and the cartoons such as one sees on the new Mickey Mouse Club.  As a family, we love the cartoons in the following collections:

Classic Cartoon Favorites, Vol. 1 – Starring Mickey

Classic Cartoon Favorites, Vol. 2 – Starring Donald

Classic Cartoon Favorites, Vol. 3 – Starring Goofy

Classic Cartoon Favorites, Vol. 4 – Starring Chip ‘n Dale

I think it is important to create an aesthetically-discerning mind, even, if not especially, when it concerns Disney.