"Over the Hedge" (DreamWorks 2006) is an animated family movie about a bunch of forest dwelling animals in modern-day north America. It is based upon a cartoon strip about a Turtle and Racoon who commentate on Human Suburban life over their hedge. Although an entertaining family movie it has a few subversive things to say about us humans and how we live.

This is not an isolated case. Everything from "Ice Age II" (Fox 2006) to "Robots" (Fox 2005), "Happy Feet" (Warner 2007) & "Antz" (DreamWorks 1998), you name it, there is rich vein of subversion and social commentary in the modern family CGI Animation. Why? I don't recall this in "Dumbo" or "Bambi" from fifty years ago. Audiences have clearly become far more sophisticated and there is an appetite for kids movies that tell us just a little about ourselves. Anyone familiar with "The Simpsons" would be aware of the phenomena. Quite why do large US Media Corporations spend money on such subversion? Because it makes money. Our fossil-fuel Capitalism has within it the seeds of its own downfall largely because we are all open to the idea that humans are arrogant and destructive. Hence there is always hope.

If you want to have a few great DVD's on the shelf and want to influence young minds in a positive-sense, then you can't go far wrong with the ones I named above. You may not even need a DVD player as you could probably download them from the Internet. Think about that! Movies made on computers that never manifest themselves in the real world other than as a stream of 1's and 0's. THIS is the future of the movie industry. Socially responsible movies with no waste. Sustainable films without Film. For this reason we can feel GOOD about watching these. Too many ordinary folks see environmentalims as being all about sacrifice and discomfort. Boy that hair shirt and sandals really chafe. Your DVD Player or Laptop computer use litle power and can be powered by Wind Turbines or Photo-voltaics. THIS has a future.

Right now my little twenty-month-old is jumping up and down on the sofa to the Ben Folds songs on "Over the Hedge". She loves it. Too often this post-Carbon Life is about what we stand against. Let us not forget those little things that we stand FOR. There are some great humans out there producing some great art. This is a message of hope. Our kids watch too much TV. I haven't watched any broadcast Television in months. It is ALL JUNK, but a TV can be put to good use. Free your lives of all those commercials for crap you don't need. Your kids don't need it and neither do you. Free your mind.