Max Franklin | Staff writer
Have you ever walked into a movie, expecting it to be decent, and come out of it having experienced one of the worst movies you have ever seen? You’d be outraged, wouldn’t you? You’d warn your friends to not see that movie. You’d rant high and low to anyone who’d listen about why that movie stinks. You absolutely hate that movie.
And then you hear the magic words:
“It’s just a kids’ movie.”
Fewer phrases send me into such an unbridled rage faster than that one. To say that just because a movie’s intended audiences are those of tender years allows moviemakers to cut corners in quality in any way makes no sense to me. Just because you can skimp on the story/animation/dialogue/anything in storytelling, doesn’t mean you should – and if you do cut any of that out, it should only be because it is redundant to the story and is unnecessary.
Now, that isn’t to say that all kid’s movies are bad. There are many that are actually really good in all aspects – they have a good story, good animation, a good moral for kids to embrace; essentially, they are a good movie.
This also isn’t to say that movies geared towards toddlers are bad either (examples include movie versions of kids’ shows like Dora the Explorer and the like). Movies in this category, for the most part, are designed to educate kids and improve their understanding of the world around them in a way that they would understand. They don’t have plot or fantastic animation because that isn’t what their audience wants or needs at that age, and that is perfectly fine.
Kids are smarter than you think. They might not understand algebra or quantum physics (of which few adults actually do) but they understand emotion and morals. To dumb down a plot – which is the mortal sin of Hollywood these days – because they are kids is utterly ridiculous.
That doesn’t mean that we should make a movie where the main character is trying to decide what type of people are okay to kill and who aren’t; kids should be told that killing is wrong, and it would be irresponsible to tell them anything else. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t shy away from darker areas just because they’re kids.
Let’s take the dark theme of death for example. That is a perfectly fine topic to make a kids movie for. Say the main character (an easily identifiable kid) is very happy, playing with his friends. You know, an ideal childhood image. Then, next thing we know, his parent dies and the kid becomes depressed. He then spends the rest of the movie trying to, with the help of the adults and kids around him, cope with the loss and move forward.
What I just described, while extremely basic, is a fairly decent plot that would be very hard to mess up. More directors and producers need to make movies like this for kids. The argument that they wouldn’t understand things like that is bull plop because kids unfortunately do lose their parents, and are left hurt and in need of something that will let them know that what they are feeling is normal in that circumstance is normal – and that it will get better for them.
Kids movies need to improve, and any reason to think otherwise is just nonsensical at best and idiotic at worst.