Growing up with animated cartoons to recall and look back on fondly is an experience practically all of today’s kids have. I’m in my sixth decade and remember well those innocent days of Jungle Book or Winnie the Pooh.

Back then, kids’ movies, especially the animated ones, did not have overt political agendas. Sure, there were misanthropic bankers in Mary Poppins and cruel dog catchers in Lady and the Tramp, but these were little more than nasty characters balanced by more virtuous figures such as the cheery Cockney chimney sweep or the romantically soft Italian restaurateur.

That was before culture warriors thought nothing of turning anything and everything into a political message until inevitably the day came when we would receive lectures and political demands from a fifteen-year-old Greta Thunberg.

Now, curricula and teaching aids are used to indoctrinate our children from an ever earlier age. It reminds me of the alphabet sheets introduced into schools by Nicaragua’s Sandinistas under the guise of Spanish literacy programmes. Every letter had its own symbol eulogising the revolution — from Marx (M) to Ortega (O) to an AK-47 (F for Fusil).

After the Cold War ended, forlorn Marxists abandoned glorifying revolutions that punished the poor and turned instead to environmental issues, despite their appalling record of laying waste to ecologies wherever they reigned. Under the cover of “sustainability” they would happily subvert the freedoms of poor farmers struggling to feed their families and communities. Through such a route, capitalist freedoms remained the target.

It should come as no surprise then that there’s a new animation released during the summer holidays to indoctrinate our children if we adults allow it. Titled Ozi: Voice of the Forest, it sets out to tell the story of an orphan orangutan who uses her social media influencer skills to save her forest and home from deforestation due to cultivation of oil palm. The movie has had significant financial support from private jet-setting Leonardo DiCaprio which in itself should set off hypocrisy warning sirens. 

How are kids, and the parents and relatives taking them, to know “Ozi” paints a false picture of an industry that it claims doesn’t care about sustainability, the rainforests, or the animals living in them? The central plotline is very far from the truth. 

The political activism of Mikros Animation, supported by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions, is no slip of the cursor. The PR puff for the feature states it “aims to raise awareness around the issues our planet’s rainforests face due to growing levels of deforestation, and how this affects the ecosystems within.” 

Yet deforestation from oil palm cultivation is trending down. There is a lot of work being done to ensure this economically vital crop can continue being produced without damage to the environment, giving hope for real orangutans.

In short, Ozi … is out of sync with reality, relying on tired old stereotypes at the expense of verifiable facts about certified sustainable palm oil programmes leading to some 83 per cent of palm oil refining capacity now operating under a commitment to “No Deforestation, Peat and Exploitation (NDPE)”.

The fundamental point is if we did not cultivate oil palm but used other vegetable oil sources, their far lower yields would require substantially more land, resulting in greater levels of deforestation. 

To give some sense of scale, consider that globally we currently use 322 million hectares — an area the size of India — to grow oil crops. If we had sourced it all from the much-demonised oil palm we would have needed just 77 million hectares — four times less — resulting in far less deforestation. But had we got it all from fashionable olive oil then we’d need 660 million hectares, the equivalent of two Indias by landmass.

So you see, young Ozi, it’s complicated, not a simple question of stopping oil palm farming

Maybe Ozi should use her tablet to “visit” London’s Natural History Museum blog, where she will learn the palm oil industry isn’t the villain she’s making it out to be? Finding out instead how Malaysian farmers are diversifying their monocultures, providing wildlife travel corridors, reducing soil erosion and protecting carbon storage.

So you see, young Ozi, it’s complicated, not a simple question of stopping oil palm farming or boycotting all palm oil products.

Not that complex issues are ever treated as such by celebrities wishing to wear their virtues on their sleeves.  Maybe some well-meaning actor-come-philanthropist could fund a kids’ animation about why the wealthiest and most privileged swanning around in their private jets and mega-yachts have no moral authority to advocate how the poorest and most disadvantaged should scrape a living. Well, animations are the stuff of fantasy are they not?

Fortunately, after a poor review even in The Guardian (only 2 out of 5 stars) Ozi is, by most accounts, a dud.  Winnie the Pooh and the blustery day it ain’t. Our kids need entertainment — not ecological sermons. Kool-Aid drinking mums and dads can force feed them Greta on YouTube if they really need their fix of self-righteousness.