If you live in a frum neighborhood, you have probably been inundated with advertisements for the new animated movie titled Megillas Lester.
Megillas Lester is over an hour in length, and features a talented crew who re-create a parodied version of the Purim events. Whereas Mordechai HaTzadik and Queen Esther are the protaganists of the Megilla, here we find a boy who after messing up the sequence of events, must figure out how to save the Jewish People from the evil Haman.
While the director and film crew have certainly raised the bar for Jewish entertainment, mimicking Disney, I questioned whether children who see this film will come away with a distorted view of what really took place in Shushan.
Much effort was taken to depict Shushan as it actually was by using Rabbi Yehuda Landy's fascinating work on Ancient Persia. Much effort was taken to extract from the Megilla and the Medrash as many details as possible. Yet all this was perhaps for naught, as children will be unable to differentiate fact from fiction.
One website used a guesstimate that half a million dollars was budgeted to create this picture. There is much genius inherent in the film, many cute puns and much word-play which make watching it enjoyable for adults also. My favorite moment is when Zeresh calls all her children - in one breath.
Yet there have already been calls for a ban. As the film "denigrates and makes profane the holy". While I agree that this film warrants parental guidance, there still ought to be some license to create parodies, especially Purim time, as there has been a long tradition of "Purim Rav's" and "Purim Shpiels".
Consult your LOR.
a moderate, well-balanced, dare I say sober, approach
ReplyDeleteAt least for my community. Elsewhere I'd be run out of town.
DeleteLakewood rabbonim and Roshei Yeshiva have signed a kol koreh against Megilas Lester. So I suppose that you obliquely refer to Lakewood. Question is how much tziyus is there to such a kol koreh? i imagine that there are still neighborhoods in Lakewood where you would not be tarred and feathered.
DeleteIn our digital era, a ban can move around the world very quickly.
DeleteIn this case, a ban will have resistance, as the creator of the film is the SIL of a published author for Artscroll, also, Artscroll has been distributing it.
Furthermore, there has been a significant amount of money invested in the project. Also, there has been backlash from recent bans. Hence I imagine that the end result will be a "warning" about the content, but I don't believe there will be an outright ban.
As stated elsewhere, what is appropriate for Teaneck is not necessarily appropriate for Lakewood.
I, OTOH, am a wild-eyed Havdalah-intoxicated fanatic. I would sooner have my kids watch Snow White or even Frozen than something like this. Down with the sesamestreetification of chinuch. Keep a large constitutional wall dividing education and entertainment.
ReplyDeleteTov sichlus me'at.. I'd rather have young impressionable children stay ignorant of the many Midrashim, even for a lifetime, than to have any of the ishei haTeNaC"H reduced to cartoonish fogures in their minds eye for a lifetime.
Which is why I never watched "The Ten Commandments".
Deleteunfortunately ...I did. Which probably explains a lot of things
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ReplyDeletethe above is not an LH-free comment. Mr. Gorbachev ... tear that comment down
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ReplyDeleteI am not part of the rabbinic establishment. LH by definition is true, so that doesn't excuse you posting LH on a non LH blog. I will await my blogger-rebbe bray to determine whether to let this comment stand.
DeleteThanks for stopping by, and in the future, please post your comments in a non LH manner, and choose a pseudonym.
G-d save the King
Deleteand BTW I'm no ones rebee. My own sinful blog is hardly LH free
ReplyDeleteI believe what lurker said above is very true. When Rav Shimon Bar Yochai emerged from his cave, he was unable to fathom how some people could engage in worldly affairs.
ReplyDeleteThose who are privileged to learn all day can not fathom the entire movie culture phenomenon.
That, coupled with tampering with the purim story is apparently what brought about the protestations.