Hoot Movie Study
By Steven Case Posted on May 15 2006
A teenager moves from Montana to Coconut Grove, Florida, where he makes friends with a young environmentalist. Together they set out to rescue the habitat of some endangered owls from an evil corporation.
Read 1 Timothy 4:12
This might seem a little obvious, but why not serve pancakes? You can have a pancake-eating contest or let the kids create their own pancakes.
Using a spoon, drizzle batter on the griddle in the shape of a cross or the student’s initial. Allow it to cook for 1-2 minutes, then pour more batter over the top in a regular pancake shape. When you flip the pancake, you’ll have an individualized treat.
Have your group sit in a circle with one chair in the middle. Select a volunteer to sit in the center chair and blindfold them. Quietly point to someone else in the group to carefully stand behind the person and whisper “HOOT! HOOT!” If the blindfolded person guesses the identity of the mystery “owl,” they switch places.
Have a race to see who can lace a shoe using only their bare feet.
Find a picture of an owl online, or use this one:
Make about 50 copies of the image, and write one number on the back of each piece of paper (1-50). Hide the owls throughout your church. Break your group into teams and attempt to find the owls. The higher the point value, the harder each owl should be to find.
- Have you ever had to be the new kid in school? Talk about it.
- If you could pick just one place, and had to live there the rest of your life, where would it be?
- How realistic is this film? Do you think you could live “off the radar” if you had to?
- In the book Hoot by Carl Hiaasen, Beatrice is described as a “bruiser” who probably could do serious damage to someone if she wanted to. Why do you think the filmmakers chose to cast a petite blonde and simply put glasses on her?
- Talk about a time when you’ve been seriously bullied.
- If they were going to build a “Jay’s Jumpin Taco Shack” in your neighborhood and someone tried to get you to sign a petition to stop construction because it would interfere with a gopher turtle nest, would you sign it? What if instead of a Taco Shack it was a much needed trauma center? What if it was the site of your new church?
- According to the book of Genesis, man was created to care for God’s earth. How good of a job do you think we are doing overall? Explain.
- If there are currently no dinosaurs roaming the earth and it would seem that there are thousands of species that are no longer around, can we say that “extinction” is part of the plan?
- What is an “Environmental Extremist”? Is there such a thing? What is a “Christian Extremist”?
- If you feel strongly about something, how difficult is it for you to change your mind?
- How do we go about bringing change to our communities? (Laws and regulations) How do we go about bringing change to our country? (Policies)
- How do you find a compromise between city expansion (jobs, living, city income), and the space it takes up (environmental protection, pollution, places to live)?
- Why do you suppose the filmmakers chose to portray the adults in the film as pretty much clueless?
- Read the Scripture from Leviticus. The scripture speaks to people who grow wheat or olives and are told not to take all of the crops but to leave some for whom?
- Read the Scripture from Deuteronomy. Much of Deuteronomy was written as sort of a clarifier of the laws. What is being clarified here?
- Read Isaiah 1:10-17. This verse talks about people who are behaving so badly that God actually tells them to STOP praying to him, and to STOP singing. Their very worship services make him want to throw up. What does God tell them to do to make him happy again?
- Over and over we see this trio: The foreigner, the fatherless, the widow. What would you add to that list today?
- Read the verses from Acts 2 (Acts 2 is the story of the birth of the church). What do we see from these verses that is essential to the very core of who we are as a church?
- Read the passages from Acts 4, 1 Corinthians, and James. Do you sense a theme here?
- If the very core of who we are as followers of Christ is to take care of those who can’t take care of themselves, how are we doing that in the world today? How is your church part of that? How are you as an individual part of that belief?
- Let’s say this movie is a parable.
- Who do you think Roy represents in our world?
- Who do you think Beatrice represents?
- Who do you think “Mullet Fingers” represents?
- Who do you think Chuck Muckle represents?
- Who do you think Officer Delinko represents?
- What do the owls represent?
22. In this environmental analogy, who is most like you?
23. What does Roy’s last name (Eberhardt) sound like? (Ever Heart) How does that apply to his character?
24. Beatrice’s last name is Leep. How does this apply to her character?
25. How about Officer Delinko, and Corporate Giant Chuck Muckle?
26. It seemed like the adults in the movie spent a lot of time dismissing the teenagers. Do you think the “voice of America’s youth” is heard today? Is it heard in your school? Your church? Why or why not?
27. What kind of impact can the average American teenager have on the world?
28. Read 1 Timothy 4:12
Creator God, you have given us this planet and everything on it. Help us to be good stewards of your creation. Help us to respect each other and the world around us. Help us make an impact. Amen.