I don’t know if it’s just me, but I am getting sick and tired of reviewers and audiences going all
“Man isnt it wild that X children’s show covered THIS topic, it’s so crazy that a KIDS cartoon covered such a darrkkk/mature themes? (Cut to an episode of Bluey or ATLA or whatever)”
1. What do you mean “children’s show” “child” is a category that ranges from toddler to tween to teenager.
2. CHILDRENS MEDIA HAS ALLWAYS EXPLORED DARK/MATURE THEMES. Because children LOVE that shit.
Middle schoolers LOVE DEATH, children love burning ants, warrior cats, goosebumps, FNAF, and cartoons where Tom and Jerry are sent to hell.
Children love stories about abuse, a good 40% of superhero’s atp are characters whom were created to be soldiers/weapons at some point of another. Are we arguing Robin (Damian Wayne) from the DCAMU is not meaningfully for children? What about from the “boy wonder” comic? Is Amimorphs not a childrens franchise?
Children love SEX, middle schoolers and teenagers are actively horny. No group of people makes more jokes about sex than 12-16 year olds do.
Like I’ve seen people calling children shows “deep” “for a kids shows” for, like having evil corporate super villains?? Like my man “Evil rich guy” has been a childrens show archetype since, like, rich people have existed.
Children love that shit for the same reasons adults love that shit, because children experience grief, poverty, abuse etc just like adults do, and enjoy media that reflects that back at them. Children arent stupid, they’re aware the world is filled with darkness and complexity. Children aren’t innocent beings living in a tower where the rest of the world doesn’t exist, they LIVE IN THE REAL WORLD FULL OF DARKNESS AND COMPLEXITY AND “MATURITY” just as much as adults do. They just don’t have the life experience to fully articulate and understand what their experiencing sometimes, and (if their really young) may have gaps in knowledge due to having lived a full decade + less. Which is often where media often comes in to show kids that hey what you saw/experienced is extremely normal, here’s that embodied in a fictional character. Or in the case of shows for a REALLY young audience, introduce complex concepts in a digestible manor.
Like, the idea that topics like death or miscarriages “super mature for a childrens media” kinda implies that the majority of childrens media just has characters sing and dance and blow bubbles all day. That their exists a version of “childrens media” mostly divorced from these concepts that this show/movie/what have you is breaking the mold by deviating from and I just don’t think that’s real! What makes the bluey mischarge “more mature” then Bambies mother being shot?