The Deer Hunter

We've gotten in the habit of watching movies with Henry before bed.  Because he is still WAY into robots, MIchael got "The Iron Giant" on Netflix and they've been watching that the last few nights.  Tonight I watched part of it with him, and at one moment the little boy and the giant robot are in the woods and they spot a deer quietly grazing.  They commune with the deer and it's a sweet little moment.  Henry said, "I think the deer's gonna be dead, Mama."  Taken aback, I reassured him and stressed how happy they all were (not having seen the movie before, unlike him!).  Sure enough, in the next moment, two hunters appear and shoot the deer dead.  "Why did they do that, Mama; the deer was so happy!?"  The point seemed to be to show the human-like empathy of the giant as he mourns the deer, but I was horrified that my little child had been watching this cartoon about shooting and killing.    But, the horse being out of the barn, when he asked me why those guys shot the deer, I explained that they were hunters and that they sometimes kill animals to eat them (we aren't vegetarians, after all, so this is a fact we must confront). He thought about that a minute.  Then he said, "I want to shoot and eat an aminal some time!" I explained that the meat we eat is animals, thinking this would give him some pause, but he just said, "I want to shoot a deer and eat it!  I want to crack it open with a stick!"