A little bird landed on my bar cart this evening and told me some news.
Apparently the young man who voiced Ethan Clade this November in Strange World is also an actor and a singer, and quite vocal on Social Media. His name is Jaboukie Young-White and he is openly gay, as most of us now know. In September, just weeks before Strange World opened in theaters, he released a new dance club song that has a double-meaning title that I can't repeat, and obscene and raunchy lyrics that I can't repeat. His music video includes sexually provocative dance moves that would have gotten me thrown off the dance floor at
The Velvet Turtle if I had ever dared try them in my youth.
I will not link to the video or the lyrics. But Google the words
Jaboukie new song if you dare and aren't at work.
This song was apparently what set many parents into high alert online over Strange World in November. He's the young star of the movie, after all.
Believe it or not, I'm not a total prude. I don't think he should have
not released the obscene and raunchy song, if that's where his artistic talents in life truly lie. I get it that times change and many young musicians feel the need to discuss sex, raunch, and profanity openly in songs now. But if Jaboukie felt he needed to release that song, he should have perhaps waited for a month or two
after his Disney animated film is released at Thanksgiving and marketed (poorly) at children.
Just thought I'd throw that out there as a piece of this baffling box office puzzle. Apparently many parents were discussing it online in parenting groups a month ago, even if it never got brought up here by most of us childless adults.
(Or if it did get brought up here, it was in one of those posts that was quickly deleted)