The main character in the new movie "Like Mike" wants to emulate Michael Jordan, but Utah Power doesn't want youngsters to be like that character.
The utility is perturbed that a key element of the movie shows the character, played by rapper Bow Wow, scaling a tree to retrieve shoes tossed on a power line by a bully. A bolt of lightning shoots electricity along the line to the shoes and the character, and the energized shoes give him the "super powers" needed to become a star in the NBA.
Fetching anything from a power line is flat-out dangerous, the company says.
"It's unfortunate that this is a movie that plays directly to children," said Margaret Kesler, a Utah Power spokeswoman. "There are many unsafe examples of electrical use in the movies, but not the focus point of the movie — not producing what would be seen as a desirable effect, like this one does. It's teaching something totally contrary to what we've been teaching."
The company is afraid that its repeated safety messages to children, through school and Scout presentations, will be lost in an instant.
"We're very concerned about the message this film could send to children," said Gary LeMoine, Utah Power's corporate safety director. "Contact with power lines is extremely dangerous. We work very hard throughout the year to teach children to stay away from power lines, and to be aware of the potential for danger.
"All this work can be undermined in an instant if children think they'll get 'super strengths' from contacting power lines. We encourage parents to be aware of what their children are watching and to take the opportunity to reinforce safe habits through family discussions."
LeMoine said an employee's child saw a promotion for the movie and indicated he wanted to retrieve shoes off a power line in order to be a child NBA star.
Utah Power isn't alone in its criticism. PG&E Corp.'s Pacific Gas & Electric, Progress Energy Inc.'s Carolina Power & Light, Edison International's Southern California Edison and WPS Resources Corp.'s Wisconsin Public Service Corp. are among the organizations issuing warnings against the film.
"There is little doubt that the filmmakers of 'Like Mike' would not have put a scene in this children's movie showing a youngster gaining super-human basketball skills by doing illegal drugs," Pacific Gas & Electric said in a statement last week. "However, 'Like Mike' portrays an equally deadly scenario."
The Edison Electric Institute, an industry association, sent letters to two executives at Fox last week expressing their concern with the "Like Mike" power-line theme and urging the company to include a warning in the film.
A spokeswoman for Fox, majority-owned by News Corp. Ltd. , declined to comment on the issue beyond reading a prepared statement: " 'Like Mike' is a fantasy about magic shoes. The scene is clearly not meant to be real or present behavior to be emulated by youngsters. The film in no way advocates taking dangerous risks of any kind, including touching power lines."
Kesler said a shoes-draped-on-a-power-line prank can be handled safely by calling Utah Power, which will dispatch professionals with properly insulated equipment to handle the task.
"Those power lines carry an extremely large amount of energy, and there's no good reason for anything to be hanging on a power line — no reason at all," she said. "It's not good for the power line, and it's a safety hazard for anybody who does that or thinks they could retrieve them. It only takes a moment for an accident to happen."
The concern that children could try to emulate Bow Wow isn't misplaced, said Froma Walsh, a developmental psychologist and professor at the University of Chicago. "There is considerable evidence that children are very susceptible to what they see and hear in movies," Walsh said.
The power-line scene isn't that hard for kids to imitate, Walsh said. And the desire to emulate is much stronger when the focus is someone kids idolize.
"If this is a child rap star that is transformed, it brings it closer to the children," Walsh said. "It's not like Superman, who is an adult."
Eric Thornton, manager of Chicago Comics, said many comic-book super-heroes gained powers in ways that seemed to keep most kids from running out in a thunderstorm with a seven iron in a quest for speed. But Bow Wow's powers may seem to some to be within reach, he said.
"It's not like an alien bequeathed him power," Thornton said. "The kid climbed up a utility pole. Most kids aren't stupid enough to think they're Aquaman."
Information to help parents educate children about power safety is available online at www.utahpower.net. Groups can call 1-800-375-7085 to book safety presentations, and people can call 1-888-221-7070 anytime to report questionable or dangerous activities at power lines and facilities.
Contributing: Dow Jones Newswires
E-MAIL: bwallace@desnews.com