They are fun, they introduce children to the basic patterns inherent within all stories: the sense of peril or conflict the restoring of the equilibrium at the end of the tale the patterning of three seen so clearly in the story (the bears, the porridge, the chairs, the beds) and the need for heroes and villains to make a compelling narrative. (Call of nature, perhaps? They are proverbially renowned for it…)īut then fairy tales aren’t known for their realism, or necessarily even for their moral lessons. One could take such an analysis further, and wonder why the bears have made porridge and then caused each of the servings somehow to manage to fall to different temperature levels or why, after they’ve gone to the trouble of making and serving up the food, they then choose that precise moment to go out. She’s lucky she doesn’t come a-cropper when the bears get home indeed, in some early versions, she only narrowly escapes being devoured by them – a high price to pay for a bowl of porridge. (Mind you, the insurance company would doubtless throw out any claim made by the bears for their broken chair: after all, they left their property unlocked.) She’s been allowed to wander off on her own (where are her parents, one wonders, and what happened to parental supervision?), and then when she finds a place that is very obviously and recognisably Someone Else’s House, she decides to walk right in and help herself to whatever she can find. Goldilocks is not a particularly pleasant child. But where does curiosity give way to downright rudeness? The Goldilocks story might nevertheless be viewed as a classic cautionary tale about the dangers of going off and exploring unknown places. Paul’s churchyard, which would make sitting down in any chair, whether yours or someone else’s, difficult for a good while after.) (By contrast, in an earlier version before the female intruder became Goldilocks, the old woman ends up impaled on a steeple in St. She’s a child and so, we are to infer, doesn’t really understand why her actions are wrong. The fact that in each case, it’s the hapless Baby Bear whose porridge is eaten, whose chair is broken, and whose bedsheets will have to go straight in the wash, aligns the child Goldilocks with the child of the ursine family unit. But then in most versions of the tale, Goldilocks gets a quick fright and nothing more: she undergoes no punishment or real peril, and there’s no sign at the end of the tale that she’s learned her lesson. Starting Now (Are You Ready for Service? No.At best, it’s implicit in the story: don’t go about nicking other people’s food or using their stuff, because if you take your eye off the ball they may find you out – and they might be big and fearsome and present a real danger to you. Taking Responsibility for Your Actions (1953) Puritan Family of Early New England (1955)Ĭlothes and You: Line and Proportion (1954) Our Wonderful Body: How We Keep Fit (1968) Our Wonderful Body: How We Breathe (1968) The filmography is downloadable here, and the vast majority of the films are available at the Prelinger Archives. The fact that they were so popular then says a lot about how things have changed in society in general (“Sometimes you may see a man doing this kind of work, but usually women are preferred”).Īs such I’ve been going through their filmography searching for titles that would inspire me to knock out a few titles of my own. Coronet are one of the foundations for this entire project – from the mid- to late-forties there were producing educational films that (for the most part) nowadays are completely out of touch with society.
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