Show Dogs, a new kids movie starring Will Arnett and Ludacris, is being accused of showcasing more than dogs to children. Terina Maldonado of Macaroni Kid got an advanced screening and what she saw raises my mom hackles.
What could have been solely a fun movie for kids that would get my highest recommendation is damaged by a dark and disturbing message hidden, not so subtly between the fluffy dogs and glamorous parties of the show dog lifestyle. As part of any dog show, contestants are judged on their abilities and physical attributes. One part, in particular, is the inspection of the dog’s private parts. Being that Max is new to competing, he needs to learn the process so his partner, Frank, along with a former show champion work to get him ready for the final round of the competition. Since the inspection of the private parts will happen in the finals, Frank touches Max’s private parts to get him use [sic] to it. Of course, Max doesn’t like it and snaps at Frank for him to stop. Max is then told by the former champion, who has been through the process before, that he needs to go to his “zen place” while it happens so he can get through it. More attempts are made by Frank to touch Max’s private parts, but Max is still having trouble letting it happen and keeps snapping at him.
The day of the finals come and if Max doesn’t let his private parts be touched, he may lose the competition and any hope of finding the kidnapped panda. It all rests on his ability to let someone touch his private parts. The judge’s hands slowly reach behind Max and he goes to his “zen place”. He’s flying through the sky, dancing with his partner, there are fireworks and flowers-everything is great-all while someone is touching his private parts.
The tone-deafness of Hollywood has no bounds! How can they be so obtuse in the age of Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement? Or is this intentional corruption of minors? My bet is on the latter considering the long and disgusting history of child abuse in Hollywood, most of which hasn’t even been uncovered yet. For years we all wondered why child actors had such terrible lives with sad ends like Corey Haim, River Phoenix, Heather O’Rourke, Dana Plato among a long list of others who died tragically and way too young. It has begun to drip out, thanks to Corey Feldman and others in the industry making it clear that child sexual abuse was and still is rampant.
One such actor, Brian Claflin, killed himself in 2014 after alleging he was abused by rich and powerful men in Hollywood, according to the L.A. Times.
On his 18th birthday, he said, the man flew him to L.A., where he was taken to an Encino mansion and “introduced to what I was told were the most powerful people in Hollywood.”
The mansion would become notorious as a site for sexual exploitation of underage boys. It was home to the three co-founders of Digital Entertainment Network (DEN), an early internet content streaming experiment with investment from wealthy Hollywood figures including Goddard, stock filings show.
DEN co-founder Marc Collins-Rector pleaded guilty in 2004 to engaging in sexual activity with underage boys he lured to California with the promise of jobs and an extravagant lifestyle, boasting he “belonged to a powerful group of people who could influence [their] participation in the entertainment industry.”
Keep in mind these “wealthy Hollywood figures” are still writing and producing movies for your kids. None of them, other than Collins-Rector, were ever caught. Filmmaker Gary Goddard, who Claflin accused of drugging and raping him, was accused by no fewer than eight other alleged victims who claimed he had molested them as children in a theater group. Goddard is still a free man.
PJ Media reached out to abuse survivor Moira Greyland, author of The Last Closet; The Dark Side of Avalon, for her opinion on Show Dogs’ messaging. “This is absolutely infuriating,” she said. “No child should watch this. No adult should watch this,” she said. Greyland suffered child rape at the hands of her parents, authors Marion Zimmer Bradley and Walter Breen. “‘Go to your happy place’ is a description of dissociation, which is something sexual abuse survivors often do when they are abused and later, when they remember their abuse,” she explained. “For some, it is like floating outside their body. For me, as a multiple trauma survivor with Complex PTSD, it is as though I stop being able to feel anything, or to move, or even to talk,” said Greyland. “It is usually accompanied by learned helplessness, where one cannot even fight back, because you know what will happen if you do. This movie teaches kids to dissociate when being sexually abused!”
Perhaps producers and writers in Hollywood need to spend more time talking with victims, or maybe they should just go to prison. I’m voting for the latter.
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