Tween girls in wonderland

I'm wondering what's up with all those tween girls in wonderland films that are coming out these days? They all seem to be about a lonely girl entering a fantastic dark world of computer generated imagery:

Tideland
Pan's Labyrinth
Mirror Mask

11/17/06

Today's LA Times has an article on just this issue. Here's an excerpt from Fairy Tales for a Mean New World—

Still, not every filmmaker shares the director's protective attitude toward children. Case in point: Terry Gilliam, whose Gothic fantasy "Tideland" follows the plight of 10-year-old Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland) after the back-to-back drug overdose deaths of her junkie parents. A paranoid taxidermist, a lobotomized epileptic and a bunch of talking headless dolls vie for her attention in the film's creepy, pastoral Wonderland.

Although the Motion Picture Assn. of America gave the film an R rating for what it describes as "bizarre and disturbing content, including drug use, sexuality and gruesome situations — all involving a child …," Gilliam insists Jeliza-Rose is never in peril. Moreover, he dismisses the notion that children are any more deserving of sympathetic treatment in films than adults.

"We seem to be trapped in a lot of middle-aged people's idea of what a child is," Gilliam says. "That usually means some delicate little creature who's a victim and who needs care constantly. I think that's nonsense."

He adds: "They're much less vulnerable in many ways than adults. They are tough little creatures. I find it shocking that people don't want to believe that.