Imagination Lost?

So a little while ago I went to watch Pixar’s new movie “UP”.
It was a great movie and I completely recommend seeing it, but alas this is not a review of the movie. After watching the film I had a realization. During “UP” there are a number of events and scenes that are beyond the scope of reality. The movie jumps very blatantly into fantasy at points. While the movie is obviously fantasy, the story is set in a semi real world. Yes, a house floating with balloons is not possible, but it felt natural in the world of the film, but a pack of dogs flying airplanes is a little to unrealistic to believe. I’m not criticizing the dogs. The dogs flying airplanes worked within the story. I accepted them without a thought, but only after did I realize that as an adult my mind wouldn’t jump to the option of having dogs flying fighter planes.

As a child you are so new to the world that you are not sure how things actually work. Anything is possible because you don’t know what isn’t possible. The idea of what is possible and impossible or what exists and what doesn’t hasn’t sunk in yet. Kids spout off crazy stories of Dogs flying planes and rocks in the center of the earth that can cure aids that we as adults would have a hard time coming up with because our minds our so rooted in the realm of reality that we limit ourselves. Most of us tend to think logically, and our thoughts conform to our understanding of the world and how it works. Our departures into fantasy are weak at best compared to a child’s, and even when we do venture off into a fantasy land we have to justify these departures from the reality. We are not able to just blindly accept that people have magic powers. We’ll see someone flying and then ask ourselves “well how can they fly, do they have magic powers, is this a mutation in their DNA, did God grant them a gift…” Science Fiction is the most shining example. It’s fantasy that is logically justified. It is difficult for adults to blindly accept departures from reality, while a child wouldn’t give it a passing thought.

Are our imaginations slowly being stunted as we learned more about the world we live in. Are we incapable of thinking as freely as a child unrestricted by the bonds of reality and previous experiences, or does our understanding of the world work as restriction that in the end foster creativity?