Kids movies and quality

[Rydia]

Does a movie aimed at kids have the right to be awful? You know you say movie x was terrible and you get the response, "it's for kids though!"

When I was younger, my favorite movies were Land Before Time, American Tail, Secret of Nimh, Never Ending Story, and Little Mermaid. Those movie had real conflict other than someone simply being mean, were a little dark, and had real characters. They also didn't treat kids like they were stupid. I can still watch these movies today and enjoy them, whereas other movies I liked as a kid I just find stupid. And I think those movies can be enjoyed by anyone.

There are kids movies today I can enjoy, Tangled, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Princess and the Frog, that I can enjoy, but others that require very few brain cells to follow.

How do you feel about this? Should there be some effort put into kids movies? Should kids be protected from serious issues like violence, losing parents, being abandoned, death?

 

[Squid]

It depends on what kind of movie it is... for instance if its by disney or pixar, they have a reputation at being aimed at kids but having some hidden adult humour, they're not overly childish and they're fun to watch... you'd go in to a movie like that expecting it to be good and generally getting it.

but a lot of the new kids movies are just overly childish, aimed at kids only almost like the kids are overly stupid and need help understanding everything. I find those are bad. They have no creativity, are not fun or funny even for kids and just could have been done better.

i think you can call a kids movie bad depending on how its made, who its made by and what you usually expect from a film like that.

 

[Soltharn]

I always found most of my childhood movies to have a deeper message, one that appealed to both children and adults alike. The Lion King is one such film that springs to mind. It touched on some rather dark themes like betrayal and death.

Yet nowadays, I look at some of the stuff my sister watched as she grew up and cringe at how shallow the shows and movies tend to be. There's far too much focus on popularity and portraying stereotypes.

 

[Sultan]

Well, I think I can categorize "kid's" movies into two separate categories. Family entertainment and just kid's movies. You mentioned the Secret of Nimh and Disney, well they actually try to make films that are accessible, interesting and entertaining to both kids and adults. If you take The Hunchback of Notredame for example, there are still these themes on religion, discrimination, sexual desire and so on. Contrast it with the original story, and you have something completely different. First of all you have the reinvention of the characters, they are ones that you are able to like and accept, they show that people can be as good and kind hearted as they are. The captain isn't married and is not having an affair in this movie, Quasimodo is not deaf and alone, he has imaginary friends (I'll get back to that), Isabella ends up with the captain and the one character that didn't die in the original (I think) is the one character that died in this movie, when it should have been the opposite.

So in family films there always- has to be a happy ending. That's what sells it, and that's what gets these kids back for more. You could kind of argue that it might harm a story to force an ending like that when it wasn't planned at the first place, but family films have earned their form in cinema. I've mentioned how the various themes in Notredame might prove interesting to adults, and maybe to some kids but what about the kids that don't necessarily understand these things? or aren't even interested in what they could learn from it? what sort of entertainment value do they get from a movie like Notredame? Comic relief. That's where the gargoyles come in. You can look back on all Disney movies and probably every one of them across the 90s have comic relief characters. But you might wonder, does having these characters harm the story's integrity? Isn't it cheap to just throw them in there so kids wouldn't get bored? Well there's a more favorable way of having these kinds of characters, and then there's the stupid one.

The Genie in Alladin was funny, but he was a genuine character that mattered to the story and plot. The Gargoyles on the other hand, were just there. Now you might think that because the movie never introduced any elements of the supernatural that these statues came to life inside of Quasimodo's head. That would actually be more interesting and creates depth in this character that you didn't necessarily notice before. But how did they screw it up? They had one of the gargoyles throw a brick at a soldier in the climax. That proved that these gargoyles are real and that in this story where there was absolutely no mention or hint of magical things, there were actual gargoyles. That's an inconsistency with the movie's logic. There are also preposterous things that happen in all Disney movies, like Quasimodo's super strength, Tarzan's baby face, the journey of Belle's father's travel from the castle to the city in a matter of hours the first time, then a matter of seasons the second. But kids don't have the intellectual maturity to question -HOW- it happened, they do however ask -WHY- they happen...sometimes. So really family films need substance, but not necessarily plausible logic, as their cognitive abilities are still in the process of maturing.

I mentioned that there are movies that are targeted to kid's exclusively, those would be movies about 1 dimensional characters and fart jokes. I'm sure you saw the Nostalgia Critic's review of Neverending Story 3. That's a perfect example of a useless story that doesn't stimulate the child intellectually nor emotionally. Disney movies are perfect for kids to develop their imagination, creativity and artistic mentality because they are simple, but not flat out insulting. They create and emotional connection to kids and they would want to come back to it as they grow older to revisit and rediscover some of the mature themes that they didn't understand in their earlier years.

With dark or controversial themes, you can implement them into your story, but you have to be delicate, subtle and even secretive at times. Allegory and symbolism is excellent for that. The discrimination against mutants in X Men is good for kids who are having early trouble with their racial, gender or in some cases sexual identity. Death and violence can be shown, but you can't show the characters actually dying (Mufasa, Frollo) and you have to show that the poor guy got a scratch and that bandages can fix everything. You are introducing these elements to kids in their simplest forms.

So do kids movies have the right to be awful? absolutely not. The last thing we need is to let them grow up with the notion that movies are useless fireworks that distract their minds from the real world and would pay their hard earned money for bullshit like Transformers. Kids movies need to be -Simple-, but nothing less.

 

[Valvalis]

I think for me personally, a lot of the deep issues I learned about life came from old-school "good" kids' movies, like a lot of the ones Rydia mentioned. They weren't afraid to handle complex dramatic issues like many of them are now.

One good example is something like The Little Mermaid, where Ariel has to choose between living with her family or the man she loves. Neither side does anything cruel to finalize her decision and make it easier; they both end up being kind to her, so she has to make a tough decision based solely on what she wants. Whereas nowadays, if they made a new version, her father would almost certainly have died, and she wouldn't have had any other family or close friends in the ocean to worry about leaving. Or if she did, they would've made up some ridiculous way for them to easily see each other all the time. I don't honestly know how something like this can teach kids anything, because when you decide to leave home for college or to pursue your dream, your family is (hopefully) not going to just keel over and die to make it easier for you to leave I really wish they would just go back to the old school methods of storytelling, it's more realistic and would help kids learn about hard decision making so that maybe they'd be a little more prepared for it.

I mean, this isn't to say there aren't more recent kids' stories out there that don't have good morals in them, but a lot of them are clouded over by humor and "Ooh shiny!" moments, and I doubt kids would really pick up on the morals in the face of all that. There's another good example that comes to mind--The Lion King--I don't remember there being tons of humor every five minutes in the movie, but it was still a gripping story that sticks with you, and has a recurring theme throughout of the main character trying to learn how to have courage.

 

[Rydia]

One good example is something like The Little Mermaid, where Ariel has to choose between living with her family or the man she loves. Neither side does anything cruel to finalize her decision and make it easier; they both end up being kind to her, so she has to make a tough decision based solely on what she wants. Whereas nowadays, if they made a new version, her father would almost certainly have died, and she wouldn't have had any other family or close friends in the ocean to worry about leaving. Or if she did, they would've made up some ridiculous way for them to easily see each other all the time. I don't honestly know how something like this can teach kids anything, because when you decide to leave home for college or to pursue your dream, your family is (hopefully) not going to just keel over and die to make it easier for you to leave I really wish they would just go back to the old school methods of storytelling, it's more realistic and would help kids learn about hard decision making so that maybe they'd be a little more prepared for it.

Ooh don't watch the sequel. That is exactly what happends. Basically, Ariel's daughter Melody finds Ariel's family and all the mermaids move into a place by Ariel and Eric's castle <.< And at the end they are like "Now we can all live together!" D: And like all Disney sequels it's a cheap cash in on the original and pretty much sucks.

 

[Mr. Gorilla]

Does a movie aimed at kids have the right to be awful? You know you say movie x was terrible and you get the response, "it's for kids though!"

Goodness no. There is absolutely no excuse for a children's movie being shit because quality is completely separate from consumer appeal (Pretty much all of Pixar's stuff and alot of Dreamworks' more recent stuff, as well as other amazing stuff like Despicable Me, are proof of this).

Should kids be protected from serious issues like violence, losing parents, being abandoned, death?

The earlier they learn about it, the easier it is for them to accept it.

 

[DL Clyde]

The Land Before Time and Milo & Otis (controversial) were some of my favourites as a kid and I could still watch them today.

Milo & Otis is quite hard to watch because of its controversial nature (Google) but it tells a good story about a dog and cat that become best friends and they get lost along the way. They both take a journey to find one another while over coming any obstacles that get in their way. Last year I had watched this for the first time in about 17 years since it was my favourite movie and I was shocked at some of the scenes. I like it because it was a childhood favourite of mine but I did question my mum why she would buy me this movie to watch. Saying that, the movie was a lot better than kids movies today. It's just about what actually went on. The movie was on YouTube the last time I checked if anyone wants to see but there are some disturbing scenes.

All this talk about kids movies makes me want to watch An American Tale at the age of 22. I think I will give YouTube a quick check...

 

[Tom Badguy]

Nowadays children movies seem to be more like Family Comedies. They need to be appealing to children, duh, and to the parents that take the kids to see them. So Comedy is an easy mesh for anyone to enjoy.

Recently, it has been kind of dull though. None of them seem as classic as one's from my past, like Alice in Wonderland, my personal favorite Disney movie. It's just all about big laughs and visual effects. Nothing too memorable though.

But to answer the original question of "can a kid's movie be considered, bad?" I would say that you can critique any movie to be good or bad. It is a form of cinema therefore gives its right to be judged. The idea that it is "just a kid's movie" is just a deflection. Take the first Mighty Morphing Power Rangers movie. Even when I saw it as a kid I thought it was totally lame.

 

[Starships]

Milo & Otis is quite hard to watch because of its controversial nature (Google) but it tells a good story about a dog and cat that become best friends and they get lost along the way. They both take a journey to find one another while over coming any obstacles that get in their way.

Hmm. Doesn't the dog get stuck in a ditch or something by a rail way track or something, and he can't manage to get out of the hole, and you watch him try and struggle ? Or was that a different movie ?? The most disturbing kids movie that I know of, is The Brave Little Toaster. Things commit suicide, human like cars sing a song about dieing as they are about to die, a human boy almost gets crushed by a car compacter, it's... wow.

Compared to the 80's and 90's kids movies these days seem a little soft, and gentle. I remember watching Horton Hears a Who a few years ago, and the good elephant and the baddie just forgave each other and started to become friends, compared to the 90's were the bad guys got burned, eaten alive or pushed off a cliff. Horton's forgiving is really kind.

I guess kids movies these days seem to be more about having a laugh, rather than the hero facing troubles and saving the damsel like it used to be. But back in the day, they treated kids like young adults, and weren't afraid to show them death and violence, these days, kids are being treated like babies I reckon, just being silly and having fart jokes. Sure stuff like the Brave Little Toaster and American Tail had it's disturbing parts, but you learnt so much from it, and reality wasn't hidden from you. How are you going to cope later in life, if your hidden from the reality of death for so long ?

 

[Terra Branford]

I wish kids movies today were more like The Land Before Time or even The Little Mermaid, but they aren't. I don't think its right that the kids movies aren't good quality movies anymore, it seems wrong.

With the exception of Tangled, How to train your Dragon, Kung-Fu Panda (which really surprised me) and the newest Toy Story movie, the rest seem really bad (quality wise). Movies for kids needs to go back and focus on what Lion King (etc etc), did for kids.

If the kids movies are still bad in the future and if I have kids at that time, I will have to give them the ones I watched to watch. xD

Should kids be protected from serious issues like violence, losing parents, being abandoned, death?

The Land Before Time handled family death very well and I was just a little kid when I saw it. I think it should, as long as its handled well so it doesn't scar the children or anything.

 

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

the target audience of a film by no means should allow for a poorer quality. and you'll be hard-pressed to find any film maker who would tell you they don't want their film to be the best it can be.