Adults for Pokémon!

In last week's "Don't buy it: Pokémon 2000 aims to inspire another spending spree," the film reviewer Mark Slutsky makes some rather ridiculous remarks about Pokémon. Being a rare adult Pokémon fan, I was rather insulted by his asinine comments about the film being "consumer oriented."

I found that Mr. Slutsky did not watch the movie while paying more than a rudimentary amount of attention to the plot. To properly criticize a movie based on a TV show, you have to watch the show for a few episodes, starting from the beginning.

While it is true that most Pokémon can only say their names, there are exceptions to the "speaking rule." For example, see Team Rocket's Meowth in every episode after the first; Ghastly in the episode entitled "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak;" and Slowking in P2K. Also, the movie should be reviewed as a movie, not just a kids' movie. Many of the plots in Pokémon are too complex for children to understand (e.g. "Pikachu's Goodbye," Pokémon: The Movie)

Pokémon is about friendship, not selling video games, toys and other merchandise. If adults would give the show a chance with an open mind, they would probably understand this.

--Anonymous

Irate anglos

The comment by Scooter Pegram ["Vive la French language!" [e]mail, July 20] describing Quebec anglophones as "a spoiled minority" is nonsense. The English language and culture has been systematically legislated out of existence in this province. English is illegal on most commercial signs.

The comparison made by Mr. Pegram between the anglophones in Quebec and Hispanics in the United States does not make sense: Hispanics have the right to operate their businesses in any language they want. I would get fined if I did this and, to further the absurdity, the Quebec government wants to police the language of Web sites.

I have just as much respect for the French language as most Montrealers, but it is insulting to hear that Quebec anglophones are "spoiled" from someone who has lived here for only six years. Obviously, this is a result of the propaganda that comes from the mouths of our politicians. Pegram's letter is another example of the attempt to legitimize the cultural genocide of English-speaking peoples in Quebec.

--Gary Isaac

I think it's wonderful that an American came to Canada to get back to his ethnic roots. And I do agree with Mr. Pegram that people who live here should try to learn French.

However, my biggest problem with the separatist elites is that they go out of their way to have their children learn English, but they restrict the learning of English for the poorer classes, in order to keep them on the bottom.

Meanwhile, the anglo community is becoming more bilingual all the time--we don't have much of a choice. Anglo and franco Montrealers both want their children to become bilingual; we really could show the world and the rest of Canada that different linguistic communities can learn and grow from each other. Yet the PQ has made the possibility of, for example, a bilingual school board unlikely.

--Kelly (last name withheld)

In his criticism of Kristian Gravenor's column, Mr. Pegram repeats the lie that French is a dying language in Canada, when the facts clearly state the opposite. Drive out of Montreal and throughout Quebec and tell me where it is disappearing? According to Groliers, the French-speaking population has increased over five times in size in the last 150 years. Is that a dying language? Give me a break!

In Quebec, the linguistic majority abuses the groups they call anglophones and allophones. A more accurate analogy for the situation in Quebec would be if in South Florida the Spanish-speaking majority of the area banned the use of English on all traffic safety and commercial signs, and created a language police to enforce these laws.

Mr. Pegram, growing up in Louisiana, probably never learned in school that the French Revolution ideals of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" bypassed and missed Quebec completely.

--Dan Rankin