I started Illuminating Shadows because I see two major problems with kid & family movies.
First, these days there's a lot of objectionable content buried in movies that are made for kids. This is further complicated by the fact that what each family finds objectionable varies based on their family values, children's ages, and children's personal fears.
Secondly, most adults don't have the time to personally watch every movie before they show it to their kids, nor do they have the desire to watch kid movies in their free time. However, it's very difficult to know the content in a movie without actually watching the entire thing yourself. There's a few places (especially if you're looking for a Christian perspective) that will give a narrow summary of the violence, swearing, and sexual content in a movie; but they don't discuss the messaging or things that can cause emotional responses in children (like stuff related to fears and traumas).
My Solution
Therefore, I decided to start Illuminating Shadows to shine a light on the content hidden in kids movies. I can't replace the thoroughness of personally watching a movie beforehand, but I hope to equip you with enough knowledge to weed out the vast majority of movies that are personally inappropriate for your family. If, because of a movie's objectionable content, you've ever abruptly turned a movie off in the middle, regretted showing your kids a movie after it was over, or had to have a difficult conversation too early... then you'll understand why I do the Content Reviews here at Illuminating Shadows.
I personally feel a very strong conviction when it comes to the content I expose my children to. I feel compelled to watch every movie before I show it to my kids, which I actually don't mind because I enjoy these type of movies more than most movies made for adults. I also watch the movie alongside my kids the first time they watch it, then discuss it with them afterwards to get their take on it and go over the message.
So if I'm that invested into screening these movies for my own kids, I may as well share what I've learned about them with everyone else. I try to structure the Content Reviews mostly like a download of facts, so you can form your own opinions. I also don't give the movie a numbered rating or thumbs up/down because that's personal to my values, not yours. That's not to say the Content Reviews I write are opinion free; they just have a lot more facts and a lot less opinion than a normal review because they're focused on the content in the movie rather than if I personally liked the movie or not.
About Me
We each have our own set of values that we use to determine if a movie is acceptable for our children to watch. I hope that the Content Reviews are filled with enough facts for you to make your own determinations no matter how different our personal views are from each other; but for transparency's sake, here's a little about me:
- I'm a Husband and father of grade school children, with a strong family unit that comes second only to God.
- I'm a Holy Spirit filled Pentecostal Christian
- I deeply value Freedom and the United States Constitution
- I have an Engineering mindset that influences the way I see issues and approach problems
Contact Me
IlluminatingShadowsBlog@gmail.com