101 Dalmatians, 101 Times.

The Pongos watching their favorite television program.

Clearly, I am not one of those overly ambitious mothers who attempts to shut television and movies out of my son’s life. We enjoy movies and it seems only natural that he would too. It’s a convenient mutual interest and while we are careful about content, and faithful to watch with him, I don’t fret about his occasional study of the many delights of the boob tube.

As he has grown and developed, so have his entertainment preferences. Baby Einstein’s digital board books only interest him in that he likes to yell out the names of the things presented on screen and I believe he enjoys the music. It’s more like baby Muzak to him—it’s good in the background while building Mega Lego towers.

Lately, my son has been going through these obsessive phases with different movies. It all started with Elmo and that dreaded Sesame Street segment, Elmo’s World. That opening tune of “La la la La, La la la La Elmo’s Wooooorld” threatened to take out all my last living brain cells in a Kamikaze style bombardment of the mind! His need to watch Elmo’s World every night and day thankfully morphed into an interest in other shows as well. It wasn’t long before his nightly cries of “Couch?!” meaning Big Comfy Couch, began the steady invasion of catchy Canadian kid’s songs about hurting your doll’s feelings, and learning that “it’s the thought that counts” into my already weakened, under challenged mind. At least it offers an intellectual step up from Elmo’s simple repetition of the day’s theme word to the tune of “Jingle Bells.”

Finally, my son has graduated from the world of TV on DVD to discover the endless world of children’s movies! In my opinion, this is the most significant media related developmental milestone yet, at least for me, the co-watcher of all! It began with Toy Story. He found the DVD box and as any observant child would, he immediately related the brightly colored drawn figures on the cover to something that should belong to him. He demanded we present him with the contents of the box and only moments after inserting the Pixar classic into the DVD player, we created an animation addict.

He is now working his way through a retrospective of classic Disney animation. Currently we are fixated with 101 Dalmatians, a movie he refers to simply as “Doggie.” Watching him watch this movie is like watching Lucky, the would-be stillborn Dalmatian puppy with a spotted horseshoe pattern on his back, watch “Old Thunder” defeat his villainous foes on the dog’s favorite television show sponsored by Kanine Krunchies… of course.

This embarrassing notation of the details of 101 Dalmatians brings me to my point. If a two-year old boy can watch this movie twice a day without a waning interest, how do his parents manage to endure the onslaught without losing all mental function entirely? The answer is that a keen ability to pick up all movie minutia develops. You become that person who writes entire blog entries about the film’s plot and scene discrepancies as well as the fact that the human, Anita, who is the “pet” of Perdita, the Dalmatian wife of Pongo, our hero, has shockingly similar mannerisms and speech patterns to that famous animated housekeeper turned princess, Cinderella.

You might wonder why then do I actually watch this latest filmic obsession with my son when he would happily watch it alone. The truth is that one of the greatest simple pleasures of parenthood is to be able to snuggle up next to your skinny, long-legged child and hold him next to you as you “discuss” the events of the story. While he still loves and wants me to join him, I’ll never turn down the opportunity to do it.