Hey There Gang!

With the Pandemic keeping most people at home, and even more people in a mask there has been a distinct lack of many of the things I thought would ablways be a staple in my life. One is going to the movie theater. I was always a huge proponent of going to see films in theaters. Whether they were new films, old films, remastered, Japanese classics, what have you. 

If it was a movie, that I was interested in, I was in the theater watching it. I’d been that way since I was a child, one of my fondest memories would be seeing Harry Potter in the theaters for the first time, mesmerized by the magic on screen, and chuckling at the fact that my entire family was asleep in the seats around me. 

Even as an adult, I’d go so often that my local theater knew me by name, no matter what my hair color was that day. I recently started working at a movie theater for the first time last year in February after my favorite restaurant shut down, and I had stayed away for so long because I was stupidly afraid that it was going to ruin my love of films. I was so dumb, I really wish I had did the job much earlier, and now there’s the possibility I may never get to go back. 

But for some Levity, Let’s talk about We Bare Bears! Cartoon Network recently released the movie on Amazon Prime and I rented it for my birthday! I was excited, expecting peak cuteness, which I got, but I was surprised with how dark and timely a story I received. 

If you’ve never seen an episode before, We bare bears, follows a group of well adjusted bears who sometimes wear clothing and who talk. Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear, who are all orphan bears that banded together to become closer than family, to become brothers, and their hi jinks in the city of San Francisco. It is absolutely an allegory on what it feels like to be a minority in the US. 

They live in a cabin in the woods, along with many other woodland creatures and the Sasquatch, whose named Charlie, and love eating hipster food, and making content, that sometimes isn’t good, but they have a good time making it and honestly that really is all that matters. 

In the film, they are up to their usual antics of trying to make a viral video, when Grizz gets this idea to have Icebear *best bear* hack a satellite so that literally anything that can host a signal will receive their video, and then they decide to host a compilation of internet culture. Due to the fact that, its highly illegal, and shorts out every device, and all the electricity in the area, the city holds a town hall to figure out what to do about the bears. 

They wrongfully listen to Inspector Trout, a Nature service officer, who wants to take them back to nature “Where they belong”, in order to avoid being trapped like Rats, they pack up and head out on a fugitive escape, or as Grizz calls it, a Road trip to Canada, which just looves bears. 

I don’t want to spoil too much of the film for you, so I’ll stop there, but what I want to talk about today is We Bare Bears attention to detail and most importantly the importance of Diversity. They have an entire episode full of black animation, where people look completely different from each other, full of appreciation of Black culture, we learn more about Ice Bears past, where he was a secret agent for a Russian Spy, We learn that Panda, escaped from China, because he was tired of just being stared at. 

The film is very clear that they will always stand on the side of Diversity, and it truly is the right side. So many times media has always portrayed Humanity in its truest form, terrified, and scared of anything different from itself. But Diversity is part of Humanity, an integral part, we are all different and no one deserves to be treated as a second tier being because of it. 

You shouldn’t be scared of something because you don’t understand it. You shouldnt be scared of something because its different from you. This is 2020, if you are unsure about something, research it. Google is literally available everywhere, you can’t get away from it. Seriously, my dad has been trying for the last several years. 

My point is instead of being scared and spewing racist ideals, open a book, a conversation and website tab, and learn about what terrifies you. You will find that cultures different from yours are amazingly beautiful in technicolor ways that you can’t possibly fathom. 

And why on earth would you want to destroy something like that? 

Until Next Time,

Moriartie

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