GooGoo Gaga Film Corporation

Enter, the world of the child. The world adults can tap into through media. Two types of children’s media; the goo goo gaga media and the stoop down to eye level media.

The goo goo gaga children’s films. We touched the topic in class. A film which either assumes that children are brain dead or the media that takes advantage of a child’s naivety just to see them smile so a company can get a profit. What a child is to them; a dolly to be left dusted regularly on a shelf, never moving, a simple being that cannot understand emotions. They speak to them with “baby talk” which reverses the child’s learning at worst and doesn’t grow learning at best. If the child is trying to speak, speak to them, don’t mimic them.

The Stoop Down to eye level children’s media. They don’t stand and tickle chins to please their own need to feel good that they made a child smile. They stoop down to the child’s height, looks in a child’s eyes and sees what they’re seeing. The new strange emotions they might be discovering or will soon discover, their simple wonder of the world and their hesitancy to the unknown. They see their individuality. They see their struggle to understand more and their desire for a fairy tale world. They challenge them to learn.

One sentence really stood out to me from the readings. It summed up Yuri Norstein’s beliefs when it comes to the creators of children’s media. “He thinks that only those who understand the psychology of children should make films for them: if one has sympathy and can play with them, one is able to look at the world their minds and eyes.”