I thought I was crazy last night.

Visiting a friend who has a brand new LCD projection television coupled with a killer sound system, I asked for a demo, and my friend obliged by plopping in a DVD I had never seen before: "Finding Nemo."

As a demonstration, the machine worked so well that it was mind-boggling. The sound and the picture, the colors and special effects, the flawless computer animation, all left me breathless.

The problem -- something I had not planned for -- was the film's content. What I thought would be an innocent, most likely boring kids' film turned out to be a slick political tear-jerker obviously intended to brainwash impressionable children (and it's good enough to brainwash many a parent, too). To call it manipulative would be an understatement; I really think that to subject children to hard-hitting propaganda like this borders on evil. Kids who see this could instantly become emotional leftie activists or (in the case of the smarter ones who see through it) deeply cynical before they're ready.

Which is why I went to bed deeply disturbed, and thinking I must be crazy. I mean, I don't have any kids, so why the hell should I care what Disney is trying to do to other people's kids?

Because there is such cunning deception, that's why! Even I (a cynical, suspicious person who has seen and expects to see the worst in everyone) had seen the ads for "Finding Nemo" and just thought it was a nice kids' film. I never suspected that it was political propaganda disguised as a nice kids' film. I mean, I have no problem with the existence of films showing man as the enemy, men as evil rapists of the environment, Americans as stupid and bad, the military as evil -- but the films ought to be marketed as such and the bias disclosed.

Apparently, I am not alone. One blogger asks:

Should we be worried by this obvious attempt by the American entertainment industry to brainwash children into believing this kind of post-modern disingenuousness? Are children being conditioned at an early age by the media to view political correctness as an unassailable secular truth? Are we setting them up for a fall in later life?

The best review I found confronted the film's manipulative nature head-on:

The final straw came for me when they showed a picture of the dentist’s little girl, portrayed as a "fish killer", and her holding up a plastic bag with a dead fish in it. It had taken me a little while to put the pieces together, but by now it was evident. This was not a story, but a political statement.

Whoever was in charge at Pixar (I can only assume it was Lasseter) came up with the idea of using this film to scare the willies out of young kids for the sole purpose of sending out the message that "humans are bad because they’re killing fish". Let me guide you through some of the symbolism I saw.

The lame scene with the sharks happens in an old WWII minefield, with a submarine as a home base for the sharks. Human leftovers are to be equated to the worst of the sea’s predators. Okay, that’s a slight stretch. But they didn’t leave anything to chance with the picture of the young girl "fish killer". Also, there was Nemo himself. He was the character that kids were supposed to identify with, and he was a disobedient and unruly brat.

Hence, kids are disobedient and unruly brats that kill fish. What can we do to prevent this? Let’s scare a few years off of them, so they’ll never bother fish again! And for some kids, it’s undoubtedly worked. The IMDB reviews contain several examples of kids who had less than a good time at the theater (and nightmares after). I did notice that the IMDB refused to publish my review—I guess the truth hurts.

So Pixar’s made their political statement—humans, don’t go near the water.

Ironically, the environmentalist brainwashing has not done a very good job of saving the hapless clown fish. Instead, "Finding Nemo" triggered a "101 Dalmations" style run on these little fish, which aquarium and pet supply stores couldn't keep in stock.

And of course, many children, now wracked with anthropomorphic guilt, have been reenacting the fish liberation scenes, flushing the poor little pet fishies down the toilets! (Another Hollywood idea as bogus as the grotesque fish anthropomorphism.*)

I guess that's good for the economy after all.

Can't these Hollywood commies do anything right?

* Speaking of fish anthropomorphism, how about the clown fish as a role model for humans? Consider the following:

....[A]ll Clown fish start life as males. As they grow, the most dominant one in a social group will transform and become a female. The next dominant fish will become the breeding male.

UPDATE: ERIC YOU BLASTED FOOL! You've just given away the plot for the sequel!

UPDATE: And as if we needed further proof of the clouds which cover every silver lining, one of the commenters below supplies this wonderful link to a review of "Little Nemo" by Iain Murray in the National Review. The whole film is basically an attack on the "Precautionary Principle":

a pernicious and retrograde idea that has enthused regulators and nanny statists all over the world.

I stand (harrumph!) politically corrected.

UPDATE: (Precautionary Principle at work?) Little Nemo would have a heck of a time getting onto an airplane, as Arthur Silber illustrates.

Little fish are now a national security issue -- and it's time to get tough!