King Kong and Old Earth

The story in my family is that my dad took me as a two or three year old to see "King Kong". Apparently for a good while after that I was petrified to go to sleep or be alone and I kept saying "the big monkey will get me" (mom can provide the correct quote). Who would take their toddler to see a movie like King Kong and expect them not to get scared!?

Well apparently the same kind of father who would take their three and half year old son to see "Cosmic Collisions" in a 360 degree planetarium theater. Looking back on it, it's pretty obvious that a completely immersive theater experience with planets exploding at high volume might be a little much for the 'Noggin' demographic.

When I was two or three I was fearful of "the big monkey," and now "old earth" is forever burned into Levi's mind. We were doing well the first two minutes of the film. The whole ceiling was covered in stars and then a comet shot across the sky. He was getting a little nervous but after climbing in my lap he sat in wonderment. Then the narrator said something like "In order to see how the moon was formed we have to go back 100 billion years ago when the earth was a molten mix of..." At that moment from behind us a huge red fiery planet comes over head with a low rumble that shook the seats. From the horizon just in front of us comes a streaking comet that's getting bigger and bigger until the red "old earth" collides to thunderous effect with the oncoming comet showering the entire theater with debris (the pic above is the moment of collision). At which point Levi screams out in absolute terror. I mean pure terror. "No daddy, no daddy." His eyes are gigantic and they are fixated on the center of the dome. Brandon is with us and we both are talking to him telling him it's ok, but he can't hear us because he is crying and screaming so loud. In fact he is louder than the explosion in the theater. I asked him if he wants to leave (dumb question) and he says yes and I carry him out of the theater with him screaming all the way.

I think I adequately explained that what we saw was just a movie and that there is no such thing as 'old earth' anymore and that we actually didn't leave NYC. He was very disoriented and very surprised that we weren't in space. Which is understandable (here is a picture of the planetarium) considering how disorienting the theater could be. So let that be known to all the parents out there. Obviously taking your toddler to see "CLOVERFIELD" isn't a good idea and taking them to any of the movies at the Natural History Museum isn't either.