I went to see “African Cats” on Earth Day, and it may have been the worst experience I’ve had in a theater in the 5 year that I’ve been a critic. Dozens of people, kids and adults, talking, texting, getting-up and walking around. There were crying babies, and little kids talking non-stop (including one sitting on his father’s lap in the seat next to me who about every five seconds kept asking his father “Daddy, what animal is that?”).
Just because this was a nature documentary, that doesn’t mean that audience members should think they can treat it differently than a “regular film”, with real actors. What, it’s o.k. to be disrespectful because it’s only animals on the screen? I don’t think so. And what about the other people in the theater, who came there because they wanted to see this documentary and paid good money for tickets?
And, frankly parents and grandparents shouldn’t be bringing little ones to see “African Cats” because of all the killing and deaths with the animals. Would you let your three year old watch a Discovery Channel or Animal Planet show about lions attacking and eating antelope? Then why would you bring them to a theater, with a huge screen, to let them see that? Kids five and under don’t know how to properly behave in a theater. Being scared by large animals makes things even worse.
Sadly, it’s the parents are to blame for kids misbehaving in theaters. Many of them don’t have a clue as to how to act. And at movies like “Born to be Wild” and “African Cats” they think it is like being at home, so that it’s o.k. to talk and text and make noise. And they are setting terrible examples for their children.
I’m thinking of making a documentary about people who don’t know how to behave at movies. And then make them all sit quietly and watch it.