Dobson and Medved warned of purported pro-gay "subtext" in Happy Feet

[Ian David]

Dobson and Medved warned of purported pro-gay "subtext" in Happy Feet

During the December 11 edition of his Focus on the Family broadcast, FOF founder and chairman James Dobson hosted syndicated conservative radio host Michael Medved to discuss the film Happy Feet (Warner Bros., November 2006), an animated feature about penguins living in Antarctica during a period of environmental upheaval. Medved claimed that the film contains a "subtext, as there so often is, about homosexuality," prompting Dobson to wonder whether the filmmakers are "getting at the idea that homosexuality is genetic."

As Media Matters for America has noted, in a November 17 entry, titled "Don't Be Misled By Crappy Feet," on his Townhall.com weblog, Medved called the animated movie, "the darkest, most disturbing feature length animated film ever offered by a major studio." He further alleged that the film contains "a bizarre anti-religious bias" and "a subtext that appears to plead for endorsement of gay identity." Medved also attacked Happy Feet in a November 29 op-ed in USA Today for its purported "pro-environmental" propaganda, as Media Matters also documented.

During the December 11 Focus on the Family broadcast, Medved repeated his warning of Happy Feet's purported pro-gay propaganda:

DOBSON: There is a movie that's out now, called Happy Feet. It's about penguins. It's obviously designed to pull children in and yet, you don't like it. I've read some of the things you've said about it. I haven't seen it and don't plan to see it but from what I've heard, I don't like it either. Explain why.

MEDVED: Because it's depressing and it's dark.

<...>

MEDVED: And then there's this whole subtext, as there so often is, about homosexuality. Not that the penguins are gay -- they're not gay -- but the one penguin hero doesn't fit in and the religious authorities -- the so-called religious right in the penguin world -- are very judgmental. They say, "You are not a penguin. You're not a real penguin." And then he makes this heartfelt plea, he says, "Dad, you have to accept me as I am. I can't change." And --

DOBSON: Are they getting at the idea that homosexuality is genetic? Is that what the subtle implication is?

MEDVED: Well, how many times do we hear that in the media? That it's not a matter of choice, it's not a matter of change, and my problem with that -- as I understand, that there are some people, who -- for whom that may be true, but they're other people -- and you and I know them -- who have changed their lives and have turned around their lives.

More:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200612150002

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. These idiots think about gay people more than gay people do.

I believe it's called projection.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Indeed. To paraphrase The Bard...

Methinks the laddies do protest too much!

[calimary]

21. Well, if you want to make a leap like that, you could just as easily

apply it to - "Just accept me as I am - an intolerant, judgmental, closed-minded, superstitious, paranoid Pharisee who sees spooks around every corner and personal threats under every rock. That's who I am. I can't help who I am." Medved is such an astoundingly embarrassing priss.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. According to these bozos, there can never be any generic praise of diversity.

It must be always about TEH GAY!!1!11cos(0)1!!11!

[trotsky]

10. cos(0)

:rofl: CPD, you are a funny funny guy.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. Don't make me sic the Riemann Zeta function on ya!

!!11!!!!!111lim(x⟶∞ )(Zeta(x))111!!!!!111!!

[BOSSHOG]

4. American Family Radio has a pro-pedophilia subtext.

Its dark and ugly and if you play it backwards it encourages men to have sex with their children to relieve stress.

[kenny blankenship]

5. What about the foot fetish subtext?

[Cocoa]

6. If Medved came out of the closet

imagine the shock. Not Michael Medved!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

7. Oh, I think he's already in the living room.

:D

[Debi]

8. Damn gay penguins

[ClassWarrior]

9. What about the pro-gay subtext in the House Rape-Publican caucus?

That doesn't seem to bother them.

NGU.

[scarface2004]

11. so...

everybody knows penquins are gay, not that there s anything wrong with that!

[formerrepuke]

12. Medved has praised "The Nativity"..which is why I don't want to see it.

In fact- any film which he praises is highly suspect to me.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

13. I thought there was a documented case of gay penguins

in some zoo. So Medved is wrong about that--and everything else. What's this with people being anti-environment? Don't they want to live? Or are they really aliens from Xortan and long for their natural sulfur dioxide environment?

[Warpy]

17. There was, sort of

Two male penguins stayed together for one breeding season, caring for an egg that had been abandoned by its mother (we don't know if she was killed or just flaky). They raised the chick together and then parted company. No one observed them trying to mate and no one has observed them as a pair since then.

[Warpy]

14. Can we all say "latent?" All together now: LATENT!

In any case, I'd rather see these two sanctimoniously repressed cretins spend every waking moment chasing cartoons and other childrens' fare than possibly doing something to make the lunatics in our government even crazier than they already are.

[la la]

20. well, at least

the teletubbies are not being attacked!

:hide:

[Left Is Write]

33. I have often suspected some latency in Dr. Dobson.

[deepthought42]

15. Gay penguins and the environment!?

We're not supposed to care about our environment. Just abuse the crap out of it, future generations be damned! :sarcasm:

I've seen Happy Feet twice so far, and I love it. The baby penguins are so adorable. :loveya: It's coming out on IMAX here in MD later in the month. ^__^

[jobycom]

16. Almost every kid film ever made has that basic subtext.

Every film has the basic subtext of a child not being accepted by the community until his or her "difference" makes him or her the savior of the community. Hercules, Mulan, Beauty and the Best, Old Yellar, The Lion King, Bambi, and a million tv shows and even folk tales about the littlest kid who eventually finds that his size is an attribute. It's such a basic part of a children's films that if the theme were removed, there'd be few left. Mulan and Hercules even have songs about that exact theme--Reflections and Where I Belong.

Weird that there minds jump straight to homosexuality. I think the real issue for them is non-conformity and hate. They are conservatives, they feel that it is wrong for children not to blindly and obediently follow the herd. And they can't define themselves without finding someone to hate. Homosexuality is just their bigotry-du-jour, since they can't lynch black people legally anymore, and they killed enough Native Americans to make them harder to find.

Weird, sick frickin' people. Dobson and Medved would have been Tories in 1776, you know they would have.

[gollygee]

23. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

Even one for this season!

[jobycom]

27. EXACTLY! And how about that Jesus kid? Born freakly, still just trying

to get people to accept him for the way he was born.

So The Nativity is just another liberal film with a gay subtext. :rofl:

[WCGreen]

19. I guess American Families would rather see "Gay" friendly

than The Nativity Story...

After two weeks The Nativity is averaging about 1.36 million in box office receipts per day...

While Happy Feet is raking in 5.18 million per day after 27 days...

And the Nativity Story is showing, as of today, in 400 more theaters than Happy Feet...

The Nativity Story may or may not break even while the film Happy Feet will probably more than double the production costs...

I guess that the Christian Right needs a blood orgy like the Passion of the Christ in order to draw them in while the gentle tale of the birth of Jesus gets a big YAWN.....

[Batgirl]

22. it's more the asshole subtext that I watch out for

I don't understand how Medved appeared on Dobson's show because after all, where did they find a room large enough to hold their collective intellect?

Since Medved just can't find any respite from the homosexual subtext (they're everywhere! they're coming for you!) what better shoulder to cry on than the person who traced the origins of 911 to those damn gays demanding their civil rights. When it comes to fear of subtexutally gay cartoon penguins, who but Dobson could offer Medved the same special understanding and validation.

"My observation is that women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership."
James Dobson

[gollygee]

24. I think the reason they dislike this movie

more than the million other kids stories and movies about a kid who is different and ridiculed and then later accepted as he/she is, is that this one is particularly specific about religious authority figures being wrong. In addition to hating the idea that it's OK to be gay, they hate the idea that religious authority figures can be wrong.

[TlalocW]

25. Just about every other freakin' children's cartoon

Has a protagonist that's different from everyone else, and the plot revolves around how he or she resolves that issue. Dobson and Medved don't like Happy Feet's pro-environment message so they try to lump it with the so-called homosexual agenda.

I mean, Rudolph should be considered a raging homosexual, and that dentist elf he hung around with too. All of the Disney female protagonists starting with Ariel from, "The Little Mermaid," should be considered lesbians.

Morons.

TlalocW

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

26. Medved's getting his outrages confused.

He's mixing up tap-dancing cartoon penguins with those penguins from that children's book about gay penguins.

Yeesh.

[2bfree]

28. That darn Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer must be gay as well.

Disgusting! ;)

I wish Medvid and Dobson would fall into hole and never be heard from again. Ugh.

[HuffleClaw]

29. those two need a new hobby

if you want SUBTEXT, watch 'the veggie tales' (if you can stomach it)

[AndreaCG]

30. Sick, sick, sick

[KG]

31. medved is seriously disturbed.

[Left Is Write]

32. It's a good thing I don't take either of them seriously.