Media Essays: The Lack Of Maturity In Kid's Media

Written by The Wandering Fox

Hello everybody, the Wandering Fox is back. Having spent these last few weeks criticising Doctor Who, I have since been waiting for the arrival of The Dragon Prince, which the quality of has gone downhill since the franchise made Through the Moon. I was browsing the community of TDP and there was a topic of why the fandom hasn’t gotten bigger and a point was made of not only waiting three years for season 4 but it itself was a letdown for a lot of people. There was somebody who tried to excuse the bad writing being “For kids”. Then it got me thinking.

For kids has been a constant excuse for bad writing. I saw it with Miraculous Ladybug, Doctor Who, lots of others in shows designated for kids, they’ve tried covering up their bad writing of “Well kids like dumbness, we’re making it dumb cos kids are dumb”. This has led me to go on a quest to go back through other kid’s media to see how this excuse does not hold up.

I will say this covers both cartoons and live action.

What Exactly Are The Problems?

I think the problem at heart is the adults in charge of these shows and thinking they know what a kid likes on a basic level of sorts. They think kids like farts, internet memes, adults being silly, and over emphasising cartoons. For example, in Season 5 of The Dragon Prince we had the seventh episode cover a couple of stories, the main characters on a ship trying to find Aaravos’s prison, and the other is about Kimdael the Bloodmoon Elf coming to kidnap Janai the Sunfire elf Queen.

What we get are incredibly terrible mood clashes. On the ship we have Ezran and Soren naming the Baitlings they saved, the naming ends up becoming a cartoony kiddie visual of naming them and we get some sparkle effect of them showcasing their powers.

Then we come to Kim’dael the Bloodmoon Elf slaughtering her way through Sunfire Elves and humans, blood flying through the air, dark set pieces with a bad guy happily killing these lot. You have to see it to believe it. This isn’t even getting in on the fart joke in season 4 which ruined a intense scene.

From this:

To this:

The other example is Doctor Who, specifically the latest season. We had the first episode of the season featuring talking babies and a Bogeyman literally made out of bogies. This is your first episode of a new season of Doctor Who, which has had it hard these last few years, you are the guy who brought Doctor Who back with Rose, then you gives us this? A episode which only a baby with a little attention span could find amusing, or the twist of the Bogeyman being made out of baby snot fluids which is gonna make an older Doctor Who fan feel sick.

Not helping is the sudden care the Doctor develops for the Bogeyman in seeing it as the last of its kind like him without any proper buildup to it or a resolution of what is to happen with the Bogeyman.

Or an entire episode based around RTD’s idea of what the “Super Rich White Kids” are like, with it being a big bag of mess with how the tone just horribly gets mixed up in what its trying to tell. RTD doesn’t just think this is what “Super Rich White Kids” act like, he thinks this is what the current generation is like, all live-streaming, talking with the most cringe you can ever hear, moaning about work, dancing? Look, that's the internet culture, there’s others out there who aren’t in on this and feel embarrassed this is what an adult thinks of them.

It's not only that, but it's the over reliance on humour which I feel has damaged a lot of kid’s media these days. The TDP fart joke I mentioned is just an example, but there’s other cases in which humour just wrecks a scene of drama. I can list a few.

Callum is deeply shocked and scared of what Aaravos did to him. He’s so scared he asks Rayla to kill him if he were to be possessed again, he’s frightened he’ll end up killing his friends. How is the scene resolved? Rayla saying “Oh Aaravos can’t make you do anything!” Then yanks his nose and tells him to make his own destiny in such a humorous portrayal it wrecks the entire scene and the impact of Callum being scared of what he could do.

The Chaos Council from Sonic Prime are a joke. Each of them are just stereotypes of what the writer’s perceive as the stages humans go through in Eggman. You have a baby Eggman who just makes the most cringe of sounds, the grumpy teenage Eggman who wants to play on his game, the young adult Eggman who loves to be cool, hip and does yoga, or the old man Eggman who constantly moans about his age. This all comes in jokes during some intense fight scenes while damaging an interesting concept of different Eggmen working together, forgetting there was much maturity in older Sonic games like the Sonic Adventure games or Unleashed or others.

Do I have to even bring up the MCU?

Then there’s those who try to tell a mature story but it turns into a joke and makes you wonder what exactly is it the writers are doing?

We have the Doctor trying to stop the Chulder after he thinks they’ve killed Ruby. He then learns Ruby is alive but she’s on the trap he laid which will trap her in another dimension and likely die. How does he spend what could be Ruby’s last moments after realising he is killing her? He snogs Rogue. Yeah, your friend is about to die and you kiss a guy you just met? Then its even more daft as then Rogue easily grabs Ruby out of the trap and takes her place. So, why didn’t Rogue just grab Ruby in the first place and get her off? Why did he even take her place?

These are meant to appeal to everybody of all ages, kids as well, but kids need maturity in their stories to learn from, its why I am now going to the old shows which had a well balance of maturity and comedy.

Films and Shows of the Past

It has to be known there was some media which only recently ended but told stories maturely and had a steady buildup of going darker while keeping hold of its lighter moments with comedy and character. The Owl House is the example I can use since it only recently ended. Ever since I watched the first episode, I was stunned by not only how funny it was, but how it also managed to balance it out with deep character moments and interesting world building as well as significant messaging.

The series does begin to mature from The Intruder onwards as we learn more about Eda’s past and how this propels the characters to come face to face with certain figures in the series like Lilith or Emperor Belos. The series also does a great job of making you watch the earlier episodes again with a different mindset with how we know of Luz’s inner turmoil in later seasons, the death of her dad gutted her but he gifted her with his own geeky passion, you understand why she loves the Boiling Isles, it's her chance to escape but to also learn. The whole series is Luz living not only her dream, but she learns from it, like how we learn from our favourite shows we watch. Her growth and maturity is also reflected through her different clothes and appearances throughout the show:

The Owl House does make references to other medias without being so in your face about it, whether its characters in the background named after characters from other franchises to little Easter eggs which don’t stop the plot.

The Dragon Prince’s first three seasons had a stronger sense of maturity in storytelling and while its humour was questionable, it didn’t detract from the quality or character of those in it. Callum coming to terms with Harrow’s death as well as his suicidal desire of gaining power again just to help others is incredibly touching and you see how much this young boy is so crushed by everything yet he still keeps going, him getting closure with Harrow in his letter was something he so needed, it taught him how much Harrow loved him and how much faith he had in him, trusting him with the Key of Aaravos. Soren as well had begun a great character arc here in which he finally breaks down over whether Viren truly loves him, or how he’s so relieved to be paralysed, finding courage in walking away from his father to do the right thing.

Lets go back further. Doctor Who. Even under RTD’s original run while it had its cringe moments, there was some gripping episodes which delved in the characters of the Doctor, Rose, Martha, Donna. You had episodes like Dalek, Father’s Day, Daleks in Manhattan, Silence in the Library which greatly tested the Doctor’s character and his companions, Father’s Day being the episode which really delved in Rose’s past and why meddling with history can lead to disastrous consequences and how we have to let go of those who have long gone with the humour not damaging the stories.

Though if I must try and further emphasise how old media didn’t rely on toilet humour or incredibly cringe storytelling then I will look to these animated films which told a basic story with incredible thought thrown in with them.

The Fox and the Hound and The Secret of NIMH

These movies were made and released during a fascinating era in animation, with both geared towards younger audiences with darker themes. The Fox and the Hound tells the story of friendship between an unlikely duo, a fox and a dog, how eventually they will grow apart and have their fallings out but there’s a chance to repair a bridge before its gone. It's a story which resonates so much with us, it's like a story of life itself, we grow up, have a friend, then we go our own way, we find somebody to settle down with, there’s fun, there’s drama, there’s fights, there’s tears, and there’s love. This movie does have its comedic moments, yet it doesn’t clash with the overall drama of the movie, which makes it the delightful movie it is. There’s no farts or dumb internet meme humour, it's just a simple story that has what we tend to have in life.

The Secret of NIMH was something I watched when I was a lot younger and I still recall what I remembered then before rewatching it. It's a dark film, but isn’t depressing, it tells a simple story of love, love itself can make you do and change many things, the lightest of moments being Mrs Brisby’s kindness towards others, including her love for her kids. The most comedic the film gets is with Jeremy and there’s moments in the film in which the kind and sweet Brisby gets really annoyed with him. The film placed its story and characters first over any humour which was there, it teaches how the littlest of us can be the strongest you can ever be. The film didn’t need Jeremy farting to make his scenes funny, it was his clumsiness which did it and even then, he was helpful.

Here’s an example of how well they slide out the humour to dark and serious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqYo8130hhA

If I was these creatives, I would sit back and watch these movies and shows, they could learn a thing from them.

If any of you have a cartoon or film you think strongly captured the balance of comedy and drama then do comment below, I would be grateful. Hope you enjoyed the read and until then, later.