Mr. Popper's Penguins
We gathered around in March as a family and I read the original Mr. Poppers Penguin's by Richard and Florence Atwater. This was before I heard of the movie. Lovely little book. A poor family, that don’t live in New York. They live in Stillwater. Work ends for the Poppers in Sep. every year. They live off beans.
They are gifted a penguin by a friend. This little boy emperor penguin is named caption cook. It gets depressed so they manage to get another penguin from a zoo. Greta is her name. They have ten little penguins (Climate change or something led to a large nest.). The penguins were give wonderful names: Ferdinand, Nelson, Scott, Victoria, Jenny, Adelina, Magellan, Louisa, Columbus, Isabella.
They work together training these penguins. They work everyday together as a family bundled up in the basement. There is a small pot of beans and a whole lot of love. They get the break and do a large tour across America. Read the rest if you want the ending.
The movie on the other hand was just depressing. Yea, parts of it are funny as heck. The Dew knows the full difference between book and movie. She has been driving me nutts asking why its not the same. I told her they just didn't read the book. Which was true. There is no correlation between book and movie.
Is it just out of fashion that a momma and poppa hang together. That the family bonds through just about anything. Be it Poppa show off a penguin or his new bra. Whether it be momma pounding on the keys of her piano in gloves (training the penguins), or finding an alternative sexual route to avoid scratching eyes out. Can the kids be raised without the hatred they are taught to gain now at such a young age.
Can we not show a poor family on the screen? Are you just not "it" if you don't have large apartments in New York, and an assistant? Are you out of vogue if you do not have alternative weekends for your children? Do we really need to see another family split, a snooty teenager, an all about the firm daddy? Is our mainstream culture stagnating?
What is that doing to our language? Language is so important to the human species that many philosophers argue that a deterioration of language is a deterioration of ourselves. Is it just one too many years I have spent in sociology and humanities?
The Dew has demanded a reread of the book. She had me print out penguins and I for once didn't have to help her past them on construction paper and cut them out. I did write all their names on their bellies. I also glued on small pretty flowers for the girls, and a special star on the leader.