Kiddy stories
I think it's a pretty well established fact by now that sometimes I have a hard time letting things go. So remember that YouTube review of the Miraculous movie I mentioned the other day? One of the comments that was made is that it came out, what, eight years? after the series started, so it would have been nice if they made the story more mature because the original audience is now more mature. First of all, does anybody ever really get more mature these days? And second of all, what would that even mean for a story?
I've actually been thinking about kids' stories versus "grownup" stories for a while now, because we've been watching Lupin (just finished season three again; time to wait for season four!), and there's one part where a teenager's mom's boyfriend finds out the kid is reading the original Arsene Lupin series, and he asks something like, "Aren't you a little old for that?" Meanwhile, the teenager's dad has basically been using the Lupin series as a bible to pull off some of the most brilliant heists you've ever seen.
So what is it that makes a story for kids or adults? Really, all I can think of is whether or not it has content you wouldn't want to show to kids...which these days, in the US, apparently means how much they talk about/portray sex. I mean, I was wearing my Attack on Titan Survey Corps shirt at Disneyland once, and I had a kid who couldn't have been older than twelve tell me he liked it, and I was like, "Why are your parents letting you watch this show?" I didn't say that to the kid, though. Hopefully he's mature enough (whatever that means) to not be too affected by the intense violence.
...That was a bit of a tangent. I'm really not sure what my point is. We just always had this theory that one of the reasons so many people seemed to look forward to the Disney live action remakes is that now they can watch this movie that brought them so much joy as a kid, but now it's made for grownups. And a lot of those grownups seem to think they're shot-for-shot remakes (they're not), which means the story itself wasn't the issue. I guess just the fact that it was animated means it's too childish somehow? Because someone had to work harder to create a moving picture? Our society has trained people with the weirdest ideas.
I suppose we can thank anime for training our culture not to assume that something animated is automatically for kids. But who cares if it is? There are so many stories that were written for children that are clever and well-constructed. And legend has it (at least according to so many things that have popped up on our Facebook feed) that it was Tolkien's kid who made sure The Lord of the Rings was consistent. Plus, in Who Wants to Be a Superhero? (a reality show where people became superheroes of their own invention and competed to have Stan Lee write a comic book about their character), Stan Lee always had the superhero hopefuls visit a class of fourth-graders (or about that age), pointing out that kids were the toughest audience.
Anyway. I feel very strongly about this, but it's difficult to articulate, because I'm really not sure what the reasoning is behind the "I want to read/watch mature stories" thing, so I can't really debate it. And that kind of irks me, too. Maybe I need to interview some people... But it seems like it would be hard to get any straight answers.
Today I'm thankful for kids' stories, finishing our work quota, getting to play some Princess Peach Showtime, getting to watch Lupin, and standing a very good chance of getting the necessary amount of work done before our trip (which we'll hopefully get to go on).
I've actually been thinking about kids' stories versus "grownup" stories for a while now, because we've been watching Lupin (just finished season three again; time to wait for season four!), and there's one part where a teenager's mom's boyfriend finds out the kid is reading the original Arsene Lupin series, and he asks something like, "Aren't you a little old for that?" Meanwhile, the teenager's dad has basically been using the Lupin series as a bible to pull off some of the most brilliant heists you've ever seen.
So what is it that makes a story for kids or adults? Really, all I can think of is whether or not it has content you wouldn't want to show to kids...which these days, in the US, apparently means how much they talk about/portray sex. I mean, I was wearing my Attack on Titan Survey Corps shirt at Disneyland once, and I had a kid who couldn't have been older than twelve tell me he liked it, and I was like, "Why are your parents letting you watch this show?" I didn't say that to the kid, though. Hopefully he's mature enough (whatever that means) to not be too affected by the intense violence.
...That was a bit of a tangent. I'm really not sure what my point is. We just always had this theory that one of the reasons so many people seemed to look forward to the Disney live action remakes is that now they can watch this movie that brought them so much joy as a kid, but now it's made for grownups. And a lot of those grownups seem to think they're shot-for-shot remakes (they're not), which means the story itself wasn't the issue. I guess just the fact that it was animated means it's too childish somehow? Because someone had to work harder to create a moving picture? Our society has trained people with the weirdest ideas.
I suppose we can thank anime for training our culture not to assume that something animated is automatically for kids. But who cares if it is? There are so many stories that were written for children that are clever and well-constructed. And legend has it (at least according to so many things that have popped up on our Facebook feed) that it was Tolkien's kid who made sure The Lord of the Rings was consistent. Plus, in Who Wants to Be a Superhero? (a reality show where people became superheroes of their own invention and competed to have Stan Lee write a comic book about their character), Stan Lee always had the superhero hopefuls visit a class of fourth-graders (or about that age), pointing out that kids were the toughest audience.
Anyway. I feel very strongly about this, but it's difficult to articulate, because I'm really not sure what the reasoning is behind the "I want to read/watch mature stories" thing, so I can't really debate it. And that kind of irks me, too. Maybe I need to interview some people... But it seems like it would be hard to get any straight answers.
Today I'm thankful for kids' stories, finishing our work quota, getting to play some Princess Peach Showtime, getting to watch Lupin, and standing a very good chance of getting the necessary amount of work done before our trip (which we'll hopefully get to go on).