Watching a movie, observing a piece of art, reading a book, or
listening to a song; might be easy to interpret when doing it on our
own. It is a different story when explaining those artifacts to other
people. For example, my 12-year-old son and I love watching movies,
and we often find ourselves expressing how the movie made us feel
and sharing observations about the film. I once had to explain to him
the impact of the similarities between Harry Potter and The Lord of
the Rings. The first thing that I said to answer his question was that
the writers of both films were from the same country and that both
movies were in fantasy. While thinking and analyzing my answer, I
realized it was not enough explanation for a 12-year-old, so I thought
of a better way to describe the similitudes between the two movies,
which was a little challenging. Subsequently, I decided to start
breaking down the movie's plot. For instance, I told him that Harry
Potter and The Lord of the Rings develop in a world that we know
nothing about, a fantasy world that can only exist in our imagination.
However, I encouraged him for these explanations to not let them
negatively impact his love for fantasy movies. Thankfully he is still a
big fan of fantasy movies! I then understand that for an audience of
this age, it would be better just to put it into simple words than going
into facts and detail. Regardless, I always tell my kids the complex
version and then explain it in a more plain version for them.
