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room gold and waiting for the sunset. The other, Christian, church-going family is poor. In multiple scenes, their desperate economic straights are addressed. The father is the only wage earner, apparently, toiling away on his little scrap of land between shifts at the hardware store. They have five children and the boy must wear the pink hand-me-down sneakers of his older sister. The children of this family are often shown lounging in front of the television, where they argue over what to watch. The other family does not own a television, as it "kills the brain". The poor family drives around in a truck, forcing some of the children to ride in the back. The arty family has a Mercedes parked out front. The children from the poor family are haggard and harassed. The wealthy family is confident and cheerful. The poor family shows little or no fondness towards each other. The wealthy family gets along like Hugo Chavez and Castro.

Then the girl dies while the boy is off visiting an art museum with his teacher another implausible scenario, because the mother allowed him to go on this Saturday "field trip" because she was too tired to wake up and coherently respond to her son's inquiry. Later, when they learn of the girl's death and cannot find their son, they assume he was with her. The boy suffers through the guilt of not inviting his friend and finally breaks down in his father's arms claiming it is all his fault she died and wondering if his friend is going to hell. The father confidently replies that no God would send a sweet little girl to hell.

Whew. I suppose if you can make it through without sobbing, you might be able to calmly reflect on all the messages. Poor is bad, faith is bad, lots of children are bad. Money is good, lack of faith is good, cool is good. There were many more subtle messages throughout that reflected the inability of the poor, Christian family to appropriately raise and nurture their children. I did find it ironic, though, that the artistic, free-wheeling family was the one whose kid died. Maybe she was a little too free. Or maybe that was the one concession the executives at Disney were willing to make to the average Christian families who will flock to the film this weekend.

I'm sure my daughter is too young to have truly understood these messages. And I'm sure that my awareness is heightened. But come on, do I have to sit through these things all the time. Why does Hollywood feel compelled to shove this ^#!* down our throats at every turn? No, I'm not going to boycott Disney because, let's face it, they don't get much of my money anyway, so what effect would it have. Plus, if I did boycott Disney, having an eight year old daughter, that would just be punishing myself. I wish they would return to the good old days when a pretty young princess and a handsome young prince were enough to make a movie worth watching. No subliminal discrimination unless you were an ugly step-sister.

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