Creating child-friendly cities: lessons from Monstropolis
Creating child-friendly cities: lessons from Monstropolis
Presented by Dr Paul Tranter
Recorded at the National Museum of Australia, 27 October 2007
ISA MENZIES: It gives me great pleasure to welcome Dr Paul Tranter to the National Museum of Australia. This is part of the Museum’s programs for Children’s Week (20-28 October 2007). Thank you very much for coming.
PAUL TRANTER: ‘Lessons from Monstropolis’ - if you haven’t seen the movie Monsters, Inc. (2001), you might be wondering why Monstropolis? When we talk about child-friendly cities we’re talking about something that is very serious; we’re talking about children’s rights. But even though we’re talking about a serious issue, that doesn’t mean we can’t look at it in an entertaining way. So we’re going use a critique of the movie Monsters, Inc. to get some insights into the ways in which we might be able to create child-friendly cities.
I’m not suggesting that the creators of Monsters, Inc. did this intentionally. I might be seeing some messages that the creators did not intend, but the messages are there and they’re very important. Monstropolis is a monster world in the Pixar animated Disney movie Monsters, Inc. It’s a child-friendly environment, at least for the monster children, but not for the human children.
Monstropolis is a peaceful, quiet, unpolluted environment, and this makes it a child-friendly place. The street is safe enough for the child monsters to come along on their skateboards on the sidewalk and skate straight onto the road and off into the distance. There’s also a sense of connection between the adult monsters and the child monsters. On their way to work the adult monsters have friendly exchanges with the child monsters. We can see evidence that, for the monster children, Monstropolis is a child-friendly environment.
What about today’s children? A lot of parents reflect on their own childhood and they think, ‘Today’s children have got so many opportunities that we didn’t have when we
Presented by Dr Paul Tranter
Recorded at the National Museum of Australia, 27 October 2007
ISA MENZIES: It gives me great pleasure to welcome Dr Paul Tranter to the National Museum of Australia. This is part of the Museum’s programs for Children’s Week (20-28 October 2007). Thank you very much for coming.
PAUL TRANTER: ‘Lessons from Monstropolis’ - if you haven’t seen the movie Monsters, Inc. (2001), you might be wondering why Monstropolis? When we talk about child-friendly cities we’re talking about something that is very serious; we’re talking about children’s rights. But even though we’re talking about a serious issue, that doesn’t mean we can’t look at it in an entertaining way. So we’re going use a critique of the movie Monsters, Inc. to get some insights into the ways in which we might be able to create child-friendly cities.
I’m not suggesting that the creators of Monsters, Inc. did this intentionally. I might be seeing some messages that the creators did not intend, but the messages are there and they’re very important. Monstropolis is a monster world in the Pixar animated Disney movie Monsters, Inc. It’s a child-friendly environment, at least for the monster children, but not for the human children.
Monstropolis is a peaceful, quiet, unpolluted environment, and this makes it a child-friendly place. The street is safe enough for the child monsters to come along on their skateboards on the sidewalk and skate straight onto the road and off into the distance. There’s also a sense of connection between the adult monsters and the child monsters. On their way to work the adult monsters have friendly exchanges with the child monsters. We can see evidence that, for the monster children, Monstropolis is a child-friendly environment.
What about today’s children? A lot of parents reflect on their own childhood and they think, ‘Today’s children have got so many opportunities that we didn’t have when we