Friday 15 January 2010

BELTS FOR SWINES

[11.00 - French Time] Here's a story reported by Broadcast I don't know what to think of: Astley Baker Davies, the production company of Peppa Pig, has to spend three months adding car seats and seatbelts in old episodes of this wonderful animated series for little children because of health-and-safety fears!

Peppa Pig is about Peppa, a young anthropomorphic girl pig, her parents - Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig - and her little brother George, who is obsessed by dinosaurs. We also see her eccentric granddad and her grandmother, her animal friends and many other animal characters. The show is one of the cutest, nicest animated series ever made and it's one of my 17-month old daughter favourites.

According to Broadcast some episodes of Peppa Pig see Peppa and her brother George in the back of a car without seatbelts, or standing up or leaning forward to talk to their parents. One mother complained to one of the channels which show the series in the UK that her daughter refused to wear a seatbelt because she wanted to be like Peppa (http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/indies/peppa-pig-to-belt-up-over-safety-concerns/5009634.article).

Well, how could I put it... Peppa Pig doesn't live in the real world, you know. She's an animated character and in real life pigs don't drive cars (I know, I've checked). I'm also quasi-sure that in this formidable world that we share, rabbits don't drive school buses, or at least I hope so... On the opposite, we humans drive cars and school buses - er, not me because I can't drive. And we must all, driver and passengers, wear seatbelts and sit quietly.

Anyway, there so much more health-and-safety concerns in Peppa Pig. The gentle Daddy Pig drives his car on steep slope hills or mountains which would be accessed easier with a jetpack. When in the mountains Peppa yells ignoring avalanche risks. Peppa and George could easily confuse quicksands and their beloved muddy puddles, etc.

And, worst of all, their teacher Madame Gazelle is French.

http://www.peppapig.com/
http://www.astleybakerdavies.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8460753.stm

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