Wow!  You and I are on the same page without realizing it.  Must be the Holy Ghost plowing the field again.  I really like the path He took with you.  I didn't even think the word "scruples" but it was what I was trying to get at.  Love the short cut.

Excellent points about scruples, Myrna and Trinity.

And Goose, that movie trailer does sum it all up.

I didn't know why, I but I always found that movie a little creepy. Now I know why.

Scruples are only a problem where there is actually no danger. But when a warped mind produces a work, the very fabric of that work is warped.

The problem is, most of us were born after television and movies, and so we're used to seeing all kinds of things we really SHOULD object to, but which now seem perfectly normal to us. And the more you watched, the more "normal" or "fine" all of the obvious evils in them seem.

People can laugh, but once you begin watching television with your brain turned on, you begin seeing all kinds of things which we should have very different reactions to (than indifference). Why should we watch, for instance, movies where ideas like divorce or even affairs are touted as normal and even dignified? (Many black and white movies are guilty of those!) Why should we ignore that in many old movies, the costumes of the women are no better than the miniskirts of today are... just that they're immodest on the OTHER half? Why do we overlook witchcraft when it's Mary Poppins, and not when it's Harry Potter? Why is it commendable and satisfying for the Von Trapp children  in the Sound of Music to defy and sneak around behind their father's back, when it's not only not commendable, but sinful if children do it in real life? Why is femminism fine in old movies, but not fine in our real lives?

The minute you begin realizing what it is you're sitting there watching with your brain turned off, the more you begin to be horrified that you'd ever watched it. From the plunging necklines of Pride and Prejudice, to the same coupled with sensuality and atheistic thought in Brigadoon, and from the feminism and rebellion of the Hollywood Maria (Sound of Music) to the witchcraft and magic of so many Disney movies (also often coupled with rebellion against authority and so forth)... Hollywood has given us not just a decade or so of complete garbage, but really, when one looks back, it has rarely ever given us anything else, no matter HOW far back you go.

This may seem like a trifling thing on the face of it, especially if you've watched all of the black and white or older movies for years thinking they were so innocent (especially compared to modern films which are downright blasphemous and should be x-rated), but the fact of the matter is, the ideas we see in them work like poison... (Speaking of the audience,) you sit there like a dope and eagerly take it all in with your Catholic brain turned completely off, so that things that ought to boil your blood seem not only not objectionable, but even commendable, because of how they are presented. And you come away none the wiser concerning the poisonous ideas you have just imbibed. Imbibe them enough, and over time they won't bother you at all, but you will come to see them exactly as hollywood planned... Plunging necklines (rank immodesty) are merely "the fashions of the times," rebellion (because of the way it's presented) is cute, brave or otherwise seen in a positive light, and even something like magic, which NORMALLY is associated with the devil, becomes something perfectly "harmless" because the witch, in this case, sings sappy songs and makes the children happy.

The danger is real and actual, here, not imagined. Most of us have fallen prey to it, but thanks be to the Good Lord, most of us have woken up and realized what we were doing, and had the good sense to stop doing it. There may be some old movies that may not be utterly sinful to be watching, as long as you know where the poison is so that you can consciously reject it. But most of us grew up with these movies, and grew up loving them, and thinking them perfectly innocent and fine and wonderful and good, just because we had them in our lives and they gave us warm, fuzzy feelings. Chances are, our parents thought they were too, which is probably how we first got to see them at all. However we're adults now, and so we ought to own up to the responsibility we ourselves bear if we watch them now that we ought to know better.

We're Catholics. Errors and immodesty and sinful ideas, wherever they are found, however they are presented, no matter how sugar-coated, should evoke in us the same reaction as if we were present when Our Lord was carrying His cross, and saw someone spit on Him. It is the reaction we ought to have for sin and error PERIOD. A violent, repulsed reaction, and a seething hatred for anything and everything that offends God, to the point that we couldn't stomach it, simply because it does offend Him. That is the proper reaction we should have to these things. But since most of us grew up watching them, we instead have no reaction at all, and by the time we realize what it is we've been watching, we're left to try to realize the extent of the poison we've been taking in, and to try to begin to form in ourselves that reaction we ought to have had all along.

If we aren't outraged and offended by errors and sinful ideas and visuals presented by movies... movies HOWEVER old... then we ought to certainly start watching out for it now, and try to instill in ourselves a sincere revolt for those things that are dangerous to our faith and morals, wherever we see or find them. If we haven't got it, we ought to get it now. That's not being scrupulous. That's being Catholic.

It's easy to live as a Catholic if it doesn't mean stepping out of our old ways. But here it may require some sacrifice and effort. Here we must admit for the love of Our Lord that we've been duped, that we've been wrong, and strive to not be blind to the evils in movies anymore. If we're not offended by sin or error wherever we see it, then our consciences are far too lax. Errors are errors and sinful things are sinful things, even when there's a tub of popcorn between them and you.

Excuse me, I meant "out there".  By the way, I'm sure we can watch Pride and Prejudice without tearing the top part off our blouse.  I would be more concerned about corruption not so obvious.

An evil tree cannot bear good fruit. If the mind is warped, the fruit of that mind will also be warped, whether or not we recognize it as such.

Then there was Bl Margaret of Costello.  Her parents weren't even naturally good, but she became very saintly.

How about Peter Pan?

Haven't seen or heard anything about Peter Pan being part of the occult, though it wouldn't surprise me if it was. Afterall, Disney was founded by a 33 degree freemason, so you would expect occultic stuff to make its way into Disney products pretty easily. If I find an article on Peter Pan being occultic I'll certainly post it!

Oh, come on!  I wish Mary Poppins was the worst ting we had to worry about.  

You may not care that Mary Poppins is part of the occult, but we care. Perhaps you don't care if something is part of the occult or not, if you like something you won't stop liking it regardless. I can't speak for what you believe, but you should care if something is occultic.