Unmerry mix of attention-calling moves on ‘Mini-Me’ TV tilts

As we feared, the “Mini-Me” kiddie tilt on “It’s Showtime” sometimes turns out to be less than spot-on because the child talents don’t really look and act significantly “like” the celebrities they say they’re patterning themselves after.

It’s OK for a plain-looking but sassy girl to pass herself off as the Mini-Me of Kiray, but last April 8’s contestant who tried to act and dance “like Gerald Anderson” ended up as neither here nor there.

Yes, he was tisoy, but so are millions of other boys out there, so the “similarity” was merely genetic, or even specious at best.

Amazingly, the studio audience thought mini-Gerald was “very good”—which just goes to show how easily pleased some people are in these parts. More worrisome was the fact that the tilt’s so-called jurors appeared to agree with them. Ho and hum!

As for the many “mini Anne Curtises” who join the competition, it’s weird to note that quite a number of them make a big, intentional deal out of singing off-key—as their private joke now made public “tribute” to their ditzy fave. Now, fun’s fun, but this is what some professional singers feared would happen when Ms Curtis mined her lack of real singing ability for “humor”: Singing off-key has become “fun” and “trendy,” thus lowering musical standards—a worrisome development in this case, because little and highly imitative and impressionable children are involved.

Less than enchanting

Incidentally, the April 8 telecast of “Showtime” was made more interesting than usual because cohost Karylle returned to the show after her honeymoon. Just in time to step into the breach, with Anne now focused on recovering from her “extreme” encounter with her dastardly and literally spineless attacker—

that decidedly unjolly jellyfish!

Over at the other “Mini-Me” competition on “Eat Bulaga’s” “Little Miss Philippines” tilt, the most noticeable issue seems to be the less-than-enchanting participation of the little girls’ mothers. Some of them call too much attention to themselves, forgetting that the focus should be mainly on their daughters.

It’s also distracting to see them “coaching” their kids—and the little performers merely aping their gestures and adding little of their own ideas and feelings.

This gaya-gaya attitude is one reason our child talents are so limited and lacking in originality and creativity—and should definitely not be encouraged.

The best thing about this season’s edition of “Little Miss Philippines” is the way it teaches young viewers how to behave well and do the right thing, by way of the “situational” questions it makes it a point to ask its pint-sized contestants.

These practical teaching points are very helpful and persuasive because the “teachers” are as young as the children watching them. More of these “situational” tips, please!

On the other hand, can we, on bended knee, plead with the people handling the show not to make the kids act like tiny adults—and to henceforth ban the performance of the song, “Let It Go,” which has been sung so often of late that it’s driven us up the wall!