「芝麻街」一直都很政治

There’s a rule in politics or at least there should be: Never get into a fight with Big Bird. You end up spitting out feathers, and the 8-foot fowl just strolls away singing about the alphabet.

政治有個規則，或至少應該有一個規則：永遠不要和「大鳥」吵架，否則最後你會一嘴羽毛，而這隻八呎高的鳥則是唱著字母歌踱步離開。

In the 2012 election, Mitt Romney repeatedly argued for cutting public-TV subsidies and having the beloved character share the screen with ads — “I’m afraid Big Bird is going to have to get used to Kellogg’s Corn Flakes” — opening himself to attacks that he cared more about Wall Street than about “Sesame Street.”

2012年總統大選時，羅姆尼頻頻主張要削減公共電視補助款，以及讓這個備受喜愛的角色出現的節目開始播廣告，「恐怕大鳥終究得習慣家樂氏玉米片」，羅姆尼因此遭到圍剿，批評他關心華爾街更勝「芝麻街」。

In November, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, became the latest pol to find the big yellow target irresistible. After the Twitter account for Big Bird announced that the character had gotten a COVID-19 vaccine, following a CNN and “Sesame Street” town hall on vaccines for kids, Cruz called the tweet “Government propaganda…for your 5 year old!”

11月時，共和黨德州聯邦參議員克魯茲成為最新一位忍不住去招惹這隻黃色大鳥的政客。美國有線電視新聞網和芝麻街合辦一場為兒童接種疫苗的市民大會，接著大鳥的推特帳號宣布，大鳥已接種新冠疫苗後，克魯茲稱這則推文是「政府針對你家五歲兒童的宣傳！」

Leave aside the dubious claim that promoting childhood vaccination, a cornerstone of public health and schools, is “propaganda.” Disregard how Cruz ignores that Big Bird was promoting the measles vaccine a half-century ago. And forget that, for decades, liberal and conservative parents have loved “Sesame Street” for its noncommercial wholesomeness.

作為公衛和學校基石，姑且不論推廣兒童接種疫苗的是「宣傳」的說法很可疑。也不管克魯茲如何無視大鳥在半世紀之前就推廣過麻疹疫苗。而且也不管數十年來，自由派和保守派家長都愛芝麻街，因為它有益身心，且無廣告。

Cruz was at least on to one larger truth: “Sesame Street” is political, and it has been from the beginning.

至少，克魯茲說對了一項較重要的事實：芝麻街確實很政治，打從一開始就是如此。

It is political not in a partisan sense but because the way we teach and protect children — and choose which children to teach and protect — is inevitably bound up in politicized ideas.

它的政治性並非出自政黨，而是因為我們教育和保護兒童的方式，還有選擇教育和保護哪些兒童，皆無可避免的和政治化的想法密切相關。

“Sesame Street,” which premiered in 1969, was the project of Joan Ganz Cooney, a TV executive who was originally more interested in the civil rights movement than in education but came to see the connection between the two. “The people who control the system read,” she once said, “and the people who make it in the system read.” And she believed that the best way to get the kids of the 1960s to read, paradoxically, was through TV.

1969年首播的芝麻街，是電視製作人瓊．甘茲．庫尼的企畫，比起教育，她原本對民權運動更感興趣，但發現兩者間的關聯。「控制這個體制的人會閱讀」，她曾經說過，「而且在這個體制內成功的人也會閱讀」。她相信，讓1960年代的孩童閱讀的最好方法，弔詭的是透過電視。

“I saw it as a political show,” says Sonia Manzano, who played Maria, because of its casting and its determination to raise conversations that kids’ TV wasn’t used to having.

「我將它視為政治節目」，曾飾演瑪莉亞的桑妮亞．曼札諾說。因為節目的選角和促進對話的決心，都是以往的兒童節目未曾有過的。

魔鬼剋星再臨 吸引影迷懷舊買周邊

If it seems that the only movie Big Hollywood knows how to make is the one they made last year — and the year before that — there’s a reason. The industry’s franchise fever is real, though much depends on timing.

如果好萊塢似乎唯一懂得拍攝的電影是去年拍的那部，還有前年的那部，這是有原因的。系列電影的熱度如假包換，但多數仍取決於時機。

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” was directed by Jason Reitman, whose father, Ivan Reitman, directed the first two movies in the 1980s, and was in line to take on the third. Over many years and after many more studio notes, a new director, Paul Feig, was brought in, and the third movie became a female-driven reboot.

電影「魔鬼剋星：未來世」導演是傑森瑞特曼，他的父親伊凡瑞特曼在1980年代執導頭兩部「魔鬼剋星」，當時已排定要導第三部。經過許多年以及更多的片廠意見後，新導演保羅費格獲引薦，第三部電影變成一部女性為主的重開機之作。

Before it even opened, the reboot became the target of viciously sexist and racist trolling and rage, a casualty of the culture wars. But much like the troublesome apparitions that haunt this series, profitable franchises (and even barely profitable ones) rarely truly die in Hollywood. And “Ghostbusters” is simply too goofy, too smart about dumb fun and too potentially lucrative to stay buried for long.

電影甚至未上映之前，這部重開機作品成為惡意的性別歧視者和種族歧視者圍剿及洩恨的目標，變成一場文化戰的傷亡者。但是就像在此系列中揮之不去的惱人幽靈，有利可圖（和沒啥賺頭）的系列片在好萊塢很少真正陣亡。而且「魔鬼剋星」實在太好笑，對不用大腦的趣味發揮太精準，而且獲利潛力實在太高，很難被埋沒太久。

And so: “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” which is as cuddly and toothless as you would expect from a relaunched studio property in which the main characters are children and Paul Rudd plays a love interest. They’re all predictably adorable and have big, easy-to-read eyes, the better to widen in feigned surprise or mock fear when various ghosts come a-calling.

於是，重出江湖的片商資產「魔鬼剋星：未來世」主要角色都是兒童，一如你的期待，既可愛又無害，保羅路德飾演的角色有愛情戲。他們一如預期的令人喜愛，有著能輕易被看穿心思的大眼睛，在各種鬼出現時，更懂得誇張表現假裝的驚訝或看起來害怕的樣子。

For their part, the cartoonish apparitions range from the cutesy to the PG-13 snarly and include a roly-poly metal muncher, a pair of slathering hellhounds and some puffy, gurgling creatures whose wide-open arms and demonically cheerful smiles have been engineered for toy shelves and maximum nostalgia.

就鬼魂而言，卡通風格的幽靈從裝可愛型到13歲以下兒童不宜的易怒鬼，也包含一個圓滾滾、啃食金屬的鬼，一對大塊頭惡魔犬，以及一些咯咯笑的膨膨物體，它們張開的手臂和不懷好意的開心笑容，一直都是為了玩具貨架和最濃烈的懷舊感精心設計。

Franchise sequels bank on dependability and giving the audience exactly what it expects. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” certainly makes good on that contractual promise: There are ghosts, and they are busted.

系列電影的續集仰賴的是信賴感以及精準滿足觀眾的期待。「魔鬼剋星：未來世」確實說到做到：片中有鬼，也碰上了剋星。

The movie leans heavily into the previous installments in an effort to create the kind of self-generating franchise mythology that can support further sequels (and so on). It trots out the familiar gadgets, ghosts and goo as well as beloved faces and Ray Parker Jr.’s indestructible earworm of a theme song. Like the younger Reitman, Phoebe and her Scooby Gang battle ghosts on every front.

這部電影很依賴前幾部的架構，以嘗試創造自我生成的系列神話，能支持未來的續集（以及其他）。電影誇示熟悉的機關設計、鬼魂和黏答答的物體，還有可愛的臉孔，以及小雷派克不絕於耳的洗腦主題曲。如同小瑞特曼，菲比和她的抓鬼大隊和鬼魂全面作戰。