Three middle school children band together, sabotage a construction site, gag a land developer and take him hostage. But their criminal conduct, aimed at saving the habitat of burrowing owls from "greedy land developers," isn't reality-based.
It's the subject of a new movie that one entertainment reviewer labels "soft core eco-terrorism" for kids.
The movie, "Hoot," opens Friday, May 5. It features environmentally conscious teenage characters vandalizing heavy machines by stealing parts off of them and flattening tires in order to hinder a development project.
The teens, who ultimately succeed in halting the project, spray paint a police car that is providing security, trespass, rip up surveyors' stakes, place alligators in portable toilets, release poisonous Cottonmouth snakes at the construction site and evade the police. The teenagers also debate stealing the construction trailer and sinking it into a nearby canal to further delay the project.
The teenagers in the PG-rated movie face no repercussions for the illegal acts and instead are portrayed as heroically preventing the construction of a pancake house in South Florida to save the owls' habitat. There are consequences, however, for the pancake company.
In addition to facing construction delays and cost overruns because of the kids' actions, the company's project manager is arrested at the end of Hoot for violating environmental protection laws.
The film's
trailer urges viewers to "break the rules" and features one of the lead characters saying, "You gotta start thinking like an outlaw."
Wil Shriner, the movie's director, dismissed the notion that the movie portrays eco-terrorism and instead called the teenagers' vigilante actions on behalf of the owls "mischievous." The teenagers in the film are merely reacting to the illegal behavior of adults, said Shriner, who hopes Hoot will inspire kids to take a stand to protect the earth from too much development.
Cybercast News Service attended an advance screening of the film on April 29 in Washington, D.C., where Hoot's portrayal of law-breaking for the greater environmental good seemed to find a receptive audience with those attending the preview.
"If it's a really, really good cause and you aren't like really hurting someone, it's sort of like it works out okay," responded 12-year-old Alex Kacher when asked by Cybercast News Service whether he was troubled by the kids' criminal behavior in the movie.
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A seven-year-old girl who identified herself as Dillon noted that "it was a fun movie" and said she learned that "it's not good to kill animals."
The New Line Cinema and Walden Media film was co-produced by singer Jimmy Buffett and is based on Miami Herald columnist and author Carl Hiaasen's 2002 award-winning novel. Hoot tells the story of newly relocated Florida middle school student Roy Eberhardt's battles with a bully. This conflict leads to his environmental awakening and his friendship with a runaway boy named Mullet Fingers and his half-sister, Beatrice Leep.
Hiaasen's environmentally themed novels have drawn critical praise and earned him fans like former Vice President Al Gore. Many members of the extremist group Earth First are also fans of Hiaasen's novels, according to the Palm Beach Post. Hiaasen's 2005 kids' novel "Flush" sympathetically portrays a man who sinks a casino boat that is illegally dumping sewage into the ocean.
The burrowing owl featured in Hoot is not included on the national endangered or threatened species
list, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Instead, the owls are listed as "species of special concern" by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The birds have adapted to the development in South Florida, according to Brian Mealey, the president of the Institute of Wildlife Science in South Florida.
"These owls immediately started moving into the front yards of people's homes. And that was the first step in the urbanization of these owls," Mealey explained, according to the production notes provided to Cybercast News Service by the movie's publicity agency, Grace Hill Media.
"If we want to look at a positive story for development, these animals have been able to survive urbanization," he added.
'Sort of mischievous'
Hoot's portrayal of teenage law-breaking prompted entertainment columnist Jeanne Wolf to recently
label the movie "a little soft-core eco-terrorism." But Shriner, who also wrote the film's screenplay, dismissed Wolf's characterization.
"I call it more mischief. Pulling some stakes out and slowing down construction, putting an alligator in a toilet -- that is sort of mischievous," Shriner told Cybercast News Service.
"The only time that he [Mullet Fingers] really breaks the law is when he takes -- when [the pancake executive] is starting to kill the owls and he then takes him captive. I mean that, you know, that is a desperate act. That's a law-breaking act brought on by the adult breaking the laws as well," Shriner said.
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He insisted that the teen characters in the movie only break the law in response to the developers' violations of the environmental protection laws.
"There is basically law-breaking on the developers' side. So the kids decide to take matters into their own hands since nobody else is and do something about it. So the adults are the lawbreakers initially, and the kids are just responding to it," he explained.
Shriner acknowledged that the teenagers featured in the movie face no negative consequences for their law-breaking activities. "There's no punishment for the kids. They just -- they succeed," Shriner noted, while insisting that the movie "doesn't promote terrorism."
"This is not about setting Hummers on fire or doing any of that sort of thing," he added, referring to the large SUVs that have been targeted by eco-terrorists for their alleged damage of the environment.
Shriner sees Hoot as wholesome family entertainment with an environmental message. "This movie is a very family-friendly film. It has no smoking, no swearing, no indecent behavior. It is a film that is supposed to send a positive message," he explained. "This is not a movie with a lot of farting and sophomoric humor. This is a smart movie, with smart kids and a smart message."
'Step across the law'
The book's author, Hiaasen, has been defiant in defending the criminal acts committed by the movie's teen characters. "There are times when you have to step across the law to do something right. It's nothing new in literature, and it's nothing new in our history," Hiaasen told Jeanne Wolf in a recent interview.
"I think this country has a long and glorious history of civil disobedience. Without it, there would be no United States. How far do you go for a cause? Hollywood hasn't been ignoring the question," Hiaasen added.
He admitted to also having engaged in similar antics when he was a kid in Florida. "Since the statute of limitations has run out, I can tell you I did the same thing as a kid to try to save burrowing owls. And I would submit that any kids in the audience would make the same choice. It's about taking a stand," Hiaasen told Wolf.
Hiaasen, who estimates that 450 acres of undeveloped land disappear in Florida daily, is optimistic that his novel and the new movie on which it is based will help inspire a generation of kids.
"There are times when I think all is lost and I've just got to find a place which isn't all paved over. Then kids write me about fighting the fight. And I think they couldn't possibly grow up to be as greedy and self-centered as my generation was," he said.
Buffett also is hopeful that the movie will inspire today's generation. "The message of this movie is not only that our kids are smarter than adults, but it's our world that they're going to inherit, and it's great to see activism at that early age," Buffett said, according to the movie's production notes.
Hoot's characters echo Hiaasen's anti-development sentiment frequently during the film. "They put up these giant hotels and only goober tourists are allowed. The same thing is happening everywhere. There is nothing to stop [developers] from bulldozing from one coast [of Florida] to another," declares the character Mullet Fingers.
Hoot is already ruffling the feathers of at least one expert on eco-terrorism. "Hoot is not just pushing eco-terrorism. It's pushing social and political terrorism as well," Ron Arnold, author of "EcoTerror: The Violent Agenda to Save Nature: The World of the Unabomber," told Cybercast News Service.
"Hoot's so-called harmless 'mischief' is training a generation to look cute while burning homes and cars and stores. Eco-terrorism is serious. Eco-terrorism is arson and pipe bombs and hate that hurts people and destroys lives," Arnold said. He had not yet seen the film when interviewed by Cybercast News Service.
"Hoot's Hollywood producers wouldn't think it was so cute if it was their studio the kids destroyed," Arnold added.
But Shriner sees the movie inspiring kids to take positive action. "If you don't send a positive message to young people to care about the environment, then there is really no chance. Our ice caps are melting. Our cities are grossly over-polluted. We are way too dependent on oil. They're the ones that are gong to have to do something about ozone depletion and all these elements. The answers will come from the education and awareness of the generation that follows us," said Shriner.
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