It's just for kids!

Continuing my rant on people's views on children products (Don't worry this won't become a thing), I am now going to talk about the argument "it's just for kids!". This of course normally refers to things like kids' TV shows, kids' movies, etc. And whenever someone would have the balls to critisize them and people just say "it's meant for kids!". Now look, I am a 19 year old man who I'm not going to lie, I enjoy watched these type of things, I watch Gravity Falls and Adventure Time because I remember watching the shows I grew up with and I still love them to this day, hell I still think some of them are fantastic shows, so I know it's entirely possible that there could be a hidden gem amongst shows of today. I also enjoy watching kids movies, like this year alone The LEGO Movie, How to Train Your Dragon 2 are some of my favourite films of the year. And yes I will critisize shows and movies meant for kids if I think they are bad products or if they have glaring issues, and the worst argument you can hear in retort is "it's meant for kids!" which roughly translates to "it's allowed to be bad!". No. No it is not. If kids' entertainment can provide us with great films like Toy Story and Beauty & The Beast then we can also critisize the bad ones like The Smurfs of Quest for Camelot. Now being a kids film does allow for some room to allow problems go through, they are often quite short so if a film has rushed exposition then I can let that go, or even if there are things in the film that aren't explained but don't instantly contradict the film or leave a giant gap in the plot then that's fine too. I don't need an explanation on how Elsa got her powers or why she can make dresses and bring snow to life with it, I can leave that simply at "it's magic, bitch!".

And also people seem to forget that these products are made by adults, with brains, so if they make an obviously stupid mistake then I'm going to call them out on it (Despicable Me is cliched & predictable!), and when they do something smart and take their audience seriously then I will applaud them for it (Hotel Transylvania took a tired cliche and did something smart with it!). The master of this was obviously Don Bluth, who always said you can make your film as dark and serious as you want and kids will be fine as long as there's a happy ending. And that is true, but more so than that, it' the films that take us seriously as kids are the ones that we come back to in the end. Toy Story has stuck around for two decades because it's a damn good story with well written characters, Shrek keeps us engaged for it's unique take on a tired old moral and has a lot of hidden adult jokes in it. The Lion King still has fans because as we get older we have a new found respect for the beautiful animation and its timeless message and characters. It's the films and shows that took us seriously that we remember and hold closest to our hearts, and these type of products do still exist these days so if me or thousands of other adults want to enjoy them then we shall, enjoy living in your outdated views.

-Danny