So.

Out of both nostalgic interest and boredom, I watched Ferngully for the first time in 15 years. I had never had strong feelings one way or the other about it as a kid, and now, I find the backgrounds and some of the soundtrack to be nice, but everything else rather blah. One thing struck me, however: It's one of the most opinionated and ridiculously preachy movies ever, animated or otherwise.

If you haven't seen the movie, the rainforest (LAST rainforest? The hell?) is portrayed as a mystical utopian wonderland with lush vegetation, crystal clear rivers, and magic all around. And then the villains- Two dumpy, stupid lumberjacks using A GIANT MACHINE OF DOOM to cut trees, and some evil spirit of destruction who's basically a living glob of oily goo- come in. The lumberjacks aren't really given the clearest of intentions aside from, "cut down absolutely everything and leave desolation behind". Forgive me for arguing, but I don't think the industry works that way- they're a bit more selective about what to cut down and try not to destroy everything willy-nilly. Don't get me wrong, this has been proven to be harmful in the long run, but they try to be careful about it.

Also, the rainforest is not a utopia. The South Park guys' opinion is the polar opposite of Ferngully- they have an episode where it's portrayed as a hellhole of snakes, giant bugs, and cannibals. I don't base my life around these guys' opinions and am against quite a few of them (No proof of global warming exists at all? Michael Jackson was framed?), they raise some points. The rainforest is not a good place for a person to live in, but it is an ecosystem important for many species.

This got me thinking about other things TV and movies seem to want us to believe are the absolute truth. Here are some of them:

All lawyers are evil, money-hungry liars. These guys do a lot of good for people, and almost all of them are honest and hard-working. At least we have Harvey Birdman and Phoenix Wright.

Parents are stupid. This is especially evident in children's entertainment. It really would be nice to see stuff more often with parents who have at least the same intelligence as their children, as stuff like The Incredibles shows that it adds some good dynamics and dialogue.

All gay men are fruity, girly sissies and all lesbians are fat, ugly and butch. Huh?