Tuesday, September 21, 2010

That's a Boy's Movie.

I have theories about things.

Sometimes these theories make other people confused or angry. Example: mango flavoring is "white trash".

Sometimes these theories threaten my "indie" credibility. Example: the guitar riff in the bridge of "Here Comes Your Man" by Pixies is inspired by the guitar bridge from "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart.

Certain movies, no matter how widely loved, are, at their essence, boy's movies.

Let's break these down, shall we?

I know that my feeling about mango flavoring comes from my time as a server at Chili's in a small town serving mango iced tea and mango margaritas. I also know that I would never have even thought about "Here Comes Your Man" and "Maggie May" at the same time except that I heard both songs back to back on the radio (on different stations, of course). And probably, my love of Mash-Ups helped that a little bit. Also, I'm pretty sure that I don't have "indie" cred to lose...

But the things about movies being BOY's movies... well, that seems to make people react in all sorts of ways. I suspect the reason for such varied reactions is because I never proclaim that movies like "Rambo" or "Heat" or "Terminator" or, especially, "Porky's" are boy's movies, the same way "Sixteen Candles" or "Dirty Dancing" or "She's All That" are girl's movies. I feel like that's kind of implied and isn't the point I'm trying to make. Obviously these a movies are created fora specific demographic.

My theory is this: "Toy Story" is a boy's movie.

"Toy Story 3" came out this year, and I don't know about your friends, but basically every guy that I know when bananas over this release. Boyfriend was surprised when I confessed that I didn't remember a thing about "Toy Story 2" and promptly sat me down to watch the first two films. (I think that I had created some imaginary plot that had never happened and THAT was my vague memory of "Toy Story 2").

I'm not saying that no girls liked these films. I'm sure they did. But whenever I talk to a guy about these movies, you can see what a profound mark these movies left on their childhood. That's just not something that you hear from girls typically. Sure, they like the movie, but it wasn't life altering.

People get outraged when they hear this for some reason. I'm not sure why. It's a buddy movie that happen to feature toys. Toys that are not only boys, but boy's toys: a cowboy and a spaceman. These toys that are also owned by a boy. To me, it's obvious why this speaks to boys more than girls.

Discuss.


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