Our society values the innocence of children, but when is it time to grow up? In the film Bubblehead, we see a little boy who at first is obsessed with time: he constantly looks at his wristwatch and tells his mother they're late (could be seen as trying to conform to reality). But at the end of the film, the child decides to make up his own time and returns to fantasy (remaining in a bubble).
The idea of fantasy versus reality is also played out in the story read out loud by the fill-in teacher (a story within a story/film). The story is about a bear waking up and finding the forest gone-replaced by factories and he's told he has to work and that "being a bear is not an excuse not to work." This bear story also ties into the bear flag of California. I guess that's my question for this post: how does the bear story relate to the bear flag of California, if everything/symbols in films all have meanings?
When it comes to my position concerning the film, I related to the little boy because my mother was always late picking me up for school and I was always late to school. But no one ever asked me if my constant tardiness was "cultural."
As for the contribution of Bubblehead in a class called Asian American History in Theatre & Film, I believe the film documents a certain experience of being the Other from the perspective of a child, which makes the experience that much more vulnerable and really draws in the audience.
I was also uncertain as to what the bear symbolized in the film. The bear on the flag I took to represent the people of California. As for the story, however, the bear seemed to reflect Cyrus. Like Cyrus, the bear has a different appearance from the others. Furthermore, the strict teacher's accusation seems to parallel the story: Cyrus' presumed ignorance of Western cultures, "being a bear," is no excuse for his mother's lateness every day.
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