The King and I Warner Bros., Cert. U
This is a cartoon remake of the classic musical film starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr, which tells the tale of a 19th-century missionary/ schoolteacher who travels to become a governess to the children of the king of Siam. That film was great, this one is very definitely mediocre.
The animation leaves much to be desired and children's films have moved more and more in recent years to change the original stories which are remade into cartoons. We have seen this with Pocahontas and most drastically with The Little Mermaid.
Children's stories in the past had a major function in developing a child's moral faculty and preparing them for adult life. Fairy stories and fables, while having much pure wit and excitement, also contained indications of the fact that there is real evil in life, and often excruciating tragedies to be faced. A moral education which catches a child's imagination in the form of a story is of immense value. But under pressure from our current 'fun culture' which suppresses the truth about the nature of human existence, cartoon-makers like Disney seem to be doing their best to cut such realities out of the stories it touches. In this remake of The King and I, the story is changed again. Though it brings in a supernatural (Buddhist) element in the dealings of the evil adviser to the king, the reality of evil is undermined by the (rather unfunny) comedy of his assistant who keeps losing teeth throughout the film. Of course, in the end the king does not die. We must not let the children be sad.
