In (rudimentary) developmental terms, Mormons who leave the faith often go into what they should have done at 12–17 years of age: their teenage rebellion against authority. BUT…what happens when you reach age 12 as teens in Mormondom? That’s right… The religion’s tenants and the consequences of opposition become more serious, more stringent; the shame and fear-based teachings get amped up, become more pronounced in order to maintain control of the Wild Shadow (to mix a metaphor) within.

I remember terrifying lessons on sexual feelings and the presence of Satan–if I had sexual feelings, “He” was close at hand. How horrible! One teacher told of a time she had “gone too far” with her then-husband while they were engaged (she was 19, I was an enthralled 13 year old). That night, she felt a demonic presence in her bedroom and a pressure on her chest pressing down on her, as if some unseen force was laying on her. She also felt a force, like a hand, encircling her wrist, squeezing painfully. Sexual metaphor aside, this terrified me as a teen. TO THIS DAY, I can’t have my arm hanging off of my bed at night while I sleep.

Didn’t keep me from being sexual, but it sure changed my sleep habits. Night lights became my friend.

The point is, we all have a Shadow and in the culture of “Sunshine in My Soul Today” Mormonism, there is no room for acknowledgment of said Shadow. This keeps many Mormons stunted developmentally. This is good news for the Faith. If it had a bunch of rebellious, questioning-authority teenagers as members, it would last about a week (the back-talk alone would kill the apologists). If Mormonism can effectively keep a hold on a young man until his mission–the ultimate indoctrination process, then it has a better shot of keeping him. And young women? They use the fact that being married in the temple and having children is the most glorious of callings. If you don’t remain “pure”, no respectable RM will have you–you are sullied; you are unclean. It’s a daunting task, especially if you have a healthy libido. Trust me.

Once an individual has quashed their natural tendencies to question, rebel and think for themselves, they are much easier to control. Questioning is no longer an option or priority; raising all of those kids and managing the callings is where the focus lies.

But there are some, a few, who JUST can’t get that rebellion out of their craw…the thinkers, the intellectuals, the questioning…and the fact that some of these people (like you it seems) stay involved in the Church is interesting and fascinating to me.

For me? I had to be a Wild Thing with a little Mormon sprinkled in, as opposed to a Mormon with a little Wild scattered about. It just feels more…natural.

Broken homes: kids have to deal with that one every day. Just like they have to deal with the wild emotions inside themselves. I think adding that element (the book didn’t have it) was important for the movie.

Character development: I agree with everything you said. Apparently I just enjoyed that aspect but I can see how it might be tedious. My daughter and her friends certainly were bored by it.

For this movie, several things I didn’t like:

1) For something billed as a kids’ movie, it started out on a really dark premise, with broken families, etc. While this is actually close to reality, it was nowhere near as whimsical as the book might have you think. It’s ultimately up to the director how he/she wants to portray and develop the story, but I didn’t think it had to be as dark for kids

2) The effects were actually really cool. The animation was great.

3) While the characters were developed much as you so aptly captured, it was done in a very slow and tedious manner. I love long movies. I could have watched the Lord of the Rings movies for twice as long. Most movies end before I want them to. In this one, by the half-way point, I found myself looking at my watch wondering when it would end. It took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get anywhere.

4) I didn’t want to prejudice anyone I was with (I saw it with 4 of my own kids, several of their friends, my wife, and some grandparents) as I tend to think movies are great that most other people hate. When we talked about it afterward, it was fairly unanimous that everyone hated it. They didn’t particularly articulate why, although the adults tended to think it was a bit dark and boring for a “kid’s show”.

Overall, the story is loved since I was a kid. It’s very short so obviously a lot has to be added to it to make a movie. The effects were wonderful. But the pacing was so slow that it overshadowed the good. And you got the point of the characters fairly early on – so rehashing the character development over and over just bored me to tears. They could have done so much more…

Just my 2 cents.

The film didn’t keep my kids’ attention, however. And my dad who saw it with us thought it was horribly boring and pointless. He doesn’t even remember the book though (I wasn’t aware of that until afterwards)! And he’s at a different stage of life, so I guess he doesn’t remember childhood as vividly as I do.

And there are a LOT of movies that are A LOT worse. First, Armageddon, and almost anything with Ben-a-fleck. Second, Ghostrider, and almost anything with Nic Cage.

But, still, nice analysis.