RE: Suicide scene in a Dr. Seuss video

Tatar, Becky (bltata@aurora.lib.il.us)
Sat, 1 Sep 2001 15:01:54 -0700 (PDT)

I can understand with the climate today that this could bring complaints.
However, where do you put your Bugs Bunny cartoons? Or Disney? Many of
these have violent scenes, which are often scarier, since the violence may
not be exactly shown. We had some complaints a few years ago about the
Fairie Tale Theater series - that there was too much sexual content! Our
director had us move it to the Fantasy category, which was an adult section.
However, since only people with an adult card could check out . . . I don't
know if this helps or not. Good luck.

Becky Tatar
Unit Head, Periodicals, Audiovisual
Aurora Public Library
1 E. Benton Street
Aurora, IL 60505
PHONE: 630-264-4100
FAX: 630-896-3209
www.aurora.lib.il.us
E-mail: bltata@aurora.lib.il.us

-----Original Message-----
From: Rebecca Locke-Gagnon [mailto:beckjj48@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2001 1:05 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Suicide scene in a Dr. Seuss video

We received a complaint about a scene in a children's
video called Horton Hatches the Egg (the scene is not
in the book, BTW). In it, Horton is sailing across
the ocean, sitting on his egg. A fish pops up out of
the water, his face morphs into Peter Lorre, says "now
I've seen EVERYTHING!" and pulls out a gun and shoots
himself in the head. Needless to say, it's a pretty
shocking scene for a children's video.

Now we understand that this Bob Clampett cartoon was
meaningful/funny/appropriate for 1942 (probably adult)
audiences, but we've cataloged this juvenile and
children of all ages can check this out. We're
exploring options right now: making all copies adult,
withdrawing them, putting a warning label on each copy
(!), asking Turner to market an "edited" version, etc.
and there are problems with all of these solutions.

Would any of you public librarians care to share what
*YOU* would do?

Thanks!
Becky Locke-Gagnon
Toledo-Lucas Co. Public Library
Toledo, OH

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger
http://im.yahoo.com