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Reviews
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (2004)
A study in childhood imagination
The opening shot of a movie or TV series traditionally provides the setting for the story, and McCracken very cleverly reminds us that this setting is *imagined* when we watch "Foster's Home" drawn and colored onto the white screen. With this ploy McCracken blurs the lines between reality (a cartoonist's drawing) "imagined reality" (an animated television show) and "imagined imagination" (imaginary characters within the show) and subtly bring the viewer back to "reality" (For who can the "real" little boy "Mac" be, if not Craig *MC*Cracken?). We are confronted with an especially nice boy, Mac, who has a rather obnoxious and selfish imaginary friend Bloo. Bloo has been exiled to Foster's home because Bloo (or Mac?) is causing too much trouble at home. That Bloo IS an alter-ego for Mac can be easily surmised by viewers young and old, but Bloo is also a part of a regular gang of imaginary friends at Foster's: Wilt, the athlete; Edwardo, the Spanglish speaking gentle monster; and Coco, a feminine bird- like creature that says only "co-co." We are not told that Mac made these imaginary friends up, but we are not told some other "real" character did either. So we are able to speculate that Wilt-- injured-- yet forever friendly-- is the athlete Mac once imagined himself to be or aspire too, before injury and failure. Nor can we altogether reject the idea that Edwardo is MAC's attempt to conjure up a "friend" who is racially or ethically other: scary on first sight yet ultimately a gentle "fraidy cat." And Coco: a feminine part of "Mac"-- not intirely inarticulate-- that needed to be left behind when 8-year-old Mac's identity finally solidified as masculine?
Three other regulars have origins clearly distinct from Mac: Mrs. Foster and her granddaughter are "real" people, and Mr. Harriman (reminicient of Jimmy Stewart's 1950 Harvey) is a large dignified rabbit created by Mrs. Foster when she was a child. A kindly grandmother, an older sister, and a character much like one from a movie where an adult has an imaginary friend can all be understood as possible supports for a child not ready to give up his imaginary friend.
But are any of us ready to give up our imaginary friends? Is my love for Lt. Cmdr. Data or Lt. Columbo any less an imaginary friendship than Mac's friendship with Blooregard Q. Kazoo?
Just Ask My Children (2001)
This story had a happy ending
In this particular case, the brothers had each other, and (off and on) their supportive grand parents as reality checks, and even then, one of the boys is convinced for a long time that the abuse really happened.
In the McMartin branch of the witchhunt-- to this day-- some of the "victims" still believe that there were secret tunnels under the pre-school, that they were spirited away by private jet to Saudi Arabia for sex (with turn-around times of less than 8 hours) etc.
If parents or care takers are constantly reinforcing the "memory" of abuse, and there is no one around to bring those memories into doubt, many such children grow up to believe whole-heartedly in the reality of their abuse. In those cases, rectifying the many injustices done is nearly hopeless, as the State will only very reluctantly reverse convictions, and will destroy or lose the original interview tapes, etc.
Some posters here contend that one crazy old lady is at fault, but really we are all at fault-- for electing the officials, for buying newspaper that hyped the scandals instead of those few that were questioning them, for taking a wicked, perverted pleasure in being outraged spectators to the whole process that was going on at that time, and still goes on today.