ChildCare Action Project: Christian Analysis of American Culture (CAP)
<http://www.capalert.com/>


CAPCon

ALERT
Click on CAPCon
for explanation
Entertainment Media Analysis Report

MAR03299
Baby Geniuses (1999), PG
CAP Score: 54, CAP ID: 0.71

Thomas A. Carder
CAP President
YOUR
AD
HERE

AND/
OR
HERE

AND
OR
HERE

AND/
OR
HERE

Executive Summary / Commentary
Findings / Scoring
Become a

CAPtain
Click Here For GodsCounter.com
ALERT: To fully understand this report you should first visit the topics suggested by the CAP Table of Contents.



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / COMMENTARY:

"Baby Geniuses" (PG) -- With this movie by the producer of "Porky's" (R), some understanding and sensitivity on your part will be necessary to accept this analysis; likely a sensitivity only a parent can appreciate. The movie was a delightful romp into 'remembery' about raising toddlers and can be an entertainment treat for adults and older adolescents who have an affinity for toddlers. As long as the viewer is chronologically/intellectually removed far enough from the behavioral preference stratum of the toddler actors and actresses, the movie should be safe, pleasant, and a good laugh. But this analysis addresses specifically the possible impact on the younger adolescent: the ones from those who can use "NO!" to those who have not yet completely graduated from the social and intellectual stratum of the toddler actors/actresses. I suppose if an age group were to be assigned, it might be from 3 to 7 years old -- the *PRIME* target for behavior and ethics shaping.

"Baby Geniuses" possessed the magnitude of a PG-13 movie of 1995/96 using toddlers to effect adult "PG-13" behaviors. Granted, toddlers are incapable of *thinking* of most of the behaviors in "Baby Geniuses" let alone acting them out, but as parents and grandparents we are well aware of the imitative behavior of toddlers and some older kids. Do you want your youngster to try such behavior as revealed below? Do you want him/her to WANT to try or commit such behavior? Do you want your youngster to LEARN of such behavior from something as ethically questionable as a movie?

About 99 and 44/100% of "Baby Geniuses" cannot be understood by a toddler. If you take your toddler to see it, s/he might fall asleep or do the other things toddlers do to express boredom in a movie theater. BUT, your older kids won't be bored with it. They may embrace the ethics- and behavior-shaping properties of the movie to attempt on their own issues of unmerited dangerous control, independence, and autonomy. Remember the Bible verse -- [Prov. 22:15] "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child..."?. Well, this movie FEEDS that foolishness. Evidence of this was the frenzied see-me-laugh laughing and screeching by the adolescents in the audience. It sounded as though they did not really know what it was they were laughing at but knew it was supposed to be "funny" in a sense of disobedience and naughtiness.

While the TV commercials and other advertisements for the movie presented the slapstick comedy as light and breezy, do you want your toddler to traipse up and down the middle of a busy city street or walk the streets alone? Would it be natural for your toddler to never be concerned about where YOU are? Only two of the toddlers in this movie -- Sly, the quintessential figure and his brother -- had any parents, and Sly's seemed quite unconcerned about him being "imprisoned" for research. And Sly could not have cared less where his parents were. Not once did the kids other than Sly and his brother express any concern about where his/her mother was. NOT a good signal, not good at all! But definitely a signal welcomed by Hillary's Village and its tentacles.

The usual gambit of PG language was there. None of the most foul words nor any of God's name in vain with the four letter expletive. But His Name in vain without the four letter expletive was. Sex talk by toddlers, expressions of toddler arrogance against adult authority, and sneaking to escape were there. Hypnosis of toddlers, toddlers slapping adults, and toddlers involved in physical fighting with adults dotted the choreography. The hateful talk by and at toddlers, the use of language that approaches foul language, and worldly characterization of toddlers were not needed. Please read the listing of ignominy in Findings/Scoring below for a full listing of problematic influences.




FINDINGS / SCORING: Baby Geniuses (1999) CAP Thermometers

Wanton Violence/Crime (W):
  • a toddler in an incredibly dangerous traffic situation
  • a toddler walking the streets of a big city -- alone
  • the pain of separation
  • planning a kidnapping and kidnapping
  • hypnosis of a toddler
  • keeping toddlers in "captivity for testing and research
  • a fall by the [only] father from a helicopter ladder
  • a toddler throwing an iron at an adult

    Impudence/Hate (I)(1):
  • 8 uses of the three/four letter word vocabulary by a toddler plus mimics of foul language
  • punk dress and adornment
  • arrogance toward fair authority
  • hateful name-calling by an adult at a toddler

    Sex/Homosexuality (S):
  • hits to adult privates by toddlers
  • sex talk by toddlers
  • husband ad wife in bed together in bed wear

    Drugs/Alcohol (D):
  • a threat to use drugs to control a toddler

    Offense to God (O)(2):
  • satanic symbol
  • tattoos (Lev. 19:28 "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.")
  • body-piercing jewelry (Lev. 19:28 "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.")
  • psychic/mystic communication between toddlers
  • 5 uses of God's name in vain without the four letter expletive

    Murder/Suicide (M)(3):
    None noted


    (1) As noted in CAP Special Report-001, "Investigation Area and Scoring Trend," of the six CAP Investigation Areas, Impudence/Hate was the strongest presence in all four movie classifications. It has a strong revelation about the entertainment media.

    (2) The use of the three/four letter word vocabulary without God's name is incorporated into the Impudence/Hate Investigation Area. The use of God's name with or without the three/four letter word vocabulary is incorporated into the Offense to God Investigation Area. There is no duplication. As required of the Holy Scriptures, unless God's name is used with reverence to His glory and praise, its use is considered in vain, whether literal or euphemistic.

    (3) Only portrayal of successful murder or suicide are incorporated into Murder/Suicide. Presentation of attempts to commit murder or suicide and deaths by police action or war are incorporated into Wanton Violence/Crime.



    Additional reviews of this movie may be located at "Movie Review Query Engine at Telerama."




    The ChildCare Action Project (CAP) is a nonprofit Christian ministry. We rely on public support. If you wish to contribute to the CAP, please send your donations to

    ChildCare Action Project
    Post Office Box 177
    Granbury, TX 76048-0177

    Tax exemption applies in accordance with Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Tax Codes.

    Please feel free to write to us.



    You are welcome to
    Go back to the CAP Reports Page
    or
    Top of the CAP Home Page
    or
    CAP Table of Contents

    or leave me an email message or comment at

    cap@capalert.com





    Thank you for visiting us and may God bless you. Prayerfully, we will provide you with some of the most revealing commentary and investigative reporting you have ever read.

    In the name of Jesus:
    Lord, Master, Teacher, Savior, God.

    Thomas A. Carder
    President
    ChildCare Action Project: Christian Analysis of American Culture (CAP)

    Copyright ChildCare Action Project (CAP)