DOLE'S BOMB SQUAD

By KIM MASTERS

Bob Dole returned to Hollywood last week to praise films that "raise our vision of life instead of dragging us down." But within a day it became clear that Citizen Dole wasn't quite sure which movies he was talking about. Having singled out Independence Day as a positive example, he decided the movie might not be appropriate for kids after all.

Dole stumbled into a confounding question: What is a family movie? It's hard even for the industry to say. Certainly a lot of children have seen violent summer blockbusters like Independence Day, Twister and Mission: Impossible--movies that, while not gorefests, are hardly what Walt Disney would have envisioned as wholesome entertainment.

Still, no one can fault Hollywood for lack of effort on the family-movie front: in the past few years, studios have been straining to make child-friendly films without wholesale slaughter. The problem is that in most cases audiences have stayed away.

Responding more to the call of the cash register than to a call of conscience, studios have shoveled a lot of children's films into production over the past few years. The objective was to target aging baby boomers, who presumably need entertainment that could include their kids. But as quantity increased, quality declined, and now Hollywood has a glut of wholesome movies that aren't performing well. This summer saw Kazaam, Pinocchio, Harriet the Spy and even Flipper drown at the box office. "Hollywood happens to work in cycles," says Chris Meledandri, who runs Fox's family film division. "You watched that young-skewing movie cycle burn out before your very eyes." And the problem isn't just quality: last year, despite critics' raves, A Little Princess didn't draw crowds, even with two releases.

One thing the studios have learned is that not even kids want to see kids' movies. "They want what's slightly illicit," says David Vogel, president of Disney's family-fare division. Rather than being an enticement, the family-film label is now used sparingly. Even though Meledandri's division is called Fox Family Films, the studio won't release pictures under that banner for fear of driving audiences away.

"Hollywood's own definition of 'family' needs to change," says Meledandri. "Family films need to be thought of in the tradition of Star Wars or Indiana Jones--movies that are not geared to kids." Disney's Vogel points out that some of the most successful pictures of all time are now perceived as family films even if they didn't start out that way. Millions of kids eventually saw Jurassic Park, for example, but Universal, which released it, initially warned that young children might find it too scary. "If it had been marketed under a family label, would it have been criticized?" Vogel asks. "More than likely."

But Hollywood will keep trying to lure families with kid-oriented films. When pictures like Babe and Home Alone work, they can be wildly profitable. Fox executive Tom Sherak points out that only two of the 20 top-grossing movies of all time were R-rated. Often children's pictures are cheaper than other films, and they have the potential to generate huge sales in home video and merchandise. "You keep mining that category of films," Sherak says. "When you hit, you're going to hit really big." And it gives politicians a chance to go to the movies.

--By Kim Masters