Disney Intelligence

Dads are notorious for mixing up certain things. Maybe it's a Hollywood stereotype, or maybe they just care about other things like having fun and teaching their kids how to work hard. Regardless, my dad has been guilty of mixing up kids' names and ages. I have been called Bubba more than once in my life.

Children like to be experts in some sort of field. Kids pick a "major" when they are young that they can be a know-it-all about. One kid I nannied for chose dinosaurs. He dropped his dinosaur coloring book and exclaimed "Oh no! My field guide!" JW, my friend growing up, was a Scooby-doo expert. 

I, personally, was an expert on many things. They included, but were not limited to: gorillas, Disney, Harry Potter and cultures. The anthropology kind, not the petri dish kind. 

My father was not a Disney expert. I took this into account and tolerated his questions while we watched movies together. Still, there were some days where I found his lack of knowledge disturbing.

Once when I was 5, I was watching Robin Hood and he paused as he was walking past the living room. In an honest attempt he said "What are you watching Julia? Cinderella?"

I tried to hide my chagrin, but I'm sure I shook my head and put my hands over my eyes as I said patiently, "No, Dad, It's Robin Hood." 

He smiled, said "ohhh" and walked away. My attention had been adverted from the animated foxes as I watched my dad and contemplated how to help him. He couldn't go through life mixing up Ariel with Aurora! If you don't know Disney, what do you know?! Nothing!

My plan was to periodically and stealthily test his abilities to probe just how much he did or did not know. I started with some fairly basic Disney movies, Snow White, Peter Pan, etc. 

I would put the movie in and wait for my dad to walk by and then casually call out, "Hey Dad, do you know what movie this is?"He would watch for a few minutes and guess something like "Pinocchio?" (I was never watching "Pinocchio." That movie is awful.)

As I grew, I realized that the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. I found that there are more important things in life than Disney knowledge and that my dad knew quite a lot about business strategy, making dumb jokes, not sweating the small stuff, and helping people to feel important.

He still doesn't know the difference between Baloo and Bagheera but I know the difference between a good dad a great one.