Why is Children’s Media Not as Dark Anymore?
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on July 6, 2022, 6:57 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
I have already lamented about the lack of "traditional" (i.e., pure evil) villains in recent Disney movies, but I also have noticed that children’s media overall is not as dark as it once was; far too many stories intended for children are filled with bright and garish colors, plots that move at a rapid pace with no room to focus on anything, and humor that is far too often immature and not actually funny. Yes, such media certainly still does have some depressing or sorrowful moments, but it does not contain anything like what I saw when I was younger; in my childhood, I watched movies such as The Brave Little Toaster, The Never-Ending Story, All Dogs Go to Heaven, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, and Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, all of which were very dark and soul-crushing; yes, all of those movies do have happy endings, but the journeys to those happy endings are filled with brutal psychological trauma, and I cannot understand why children’s media no longer contains such darkness.
What does everyone else here say about this? Why is children’s media not as dark, anymore? Or is it simply that I am now an adult, and I am not as easily frightened and traumatized as I once was?
Last_Laugh says... #3
Even cartoons in the 90's that pushed the boundaries too much were forced to change.
Case and point, Thanatos in Gargoyles:
The first 2 seasons had lots of violence including guns in an urban environment and it had one of the greatest villains ever in any form of media imo. The last season Disney got involved and made them tone things down with some weird disjointed fantasy/time travel story lines, completely abandoned existing story arcs, and barely used the main protagonist. The last season is hot garbage...
July 6, 2022 11:09 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #4
Last_Laugh, that is a very good example, as Gargoyles is one of my favorite television series, ever, but the third season was nowhere near as good as the first two, to the point that Greg Weisman, the creator of the series, does not consider it to be canon. I have the first two series on DVD, but I am not anticipating the release of the third season at any time, in the near future.
July 7, 2022 8:14 p.m.
There are still plenty of dark shows out there - they just tend to wrap the darker elements in a cutesy veneer. There’s plenty of super disturbing moments in shows like The Owl House or Star vs The Forces of Evil (both Disney shows) where casual and cavalier use of magic do some pretty messed up things if you stop to think about it… but which are presented in such an adorable way that it is hardly emotionally scaring. Additionally, there has been a massive rise in anime’s popularity, much of which is pretty darn dark (which makes sense - it tends to be designed for an older audience, but lots of kids still see “hey, cartoon!” and will watch it. That’s not to say cartoons as a whole are as dark as the Wild West days of “what can I get away with animators” that many of us grew up with, but there are still dark elements to be found.
Though, to be frank, being a child in this past decade is pretty darn awful. Countless studies have shown how damaging social media is to children’s mental health. In the States, there’s the every present dread that one’s school will have the next school shooting. There is the constant barrage of horrific things that are posted on YouTube and other video sites. There’s the general malaise that comes from being a generation that very well might have it worse off than the generation prior by a number of different metrics.
There’s plenty of real things emotionally scaring children that those of us in prior generations did not really have to deal with. Maybe it is a good thing their television provides greater escapism than ours did.
shadow63 says... #2
People are much more sensitive thrn in previous generations. Like how in looney tunes they can make jackass jokes and show guns. Also in the past kids cartoons had to compete with luther kids cartoons now they're competing against you tude
July 6, 2022 7:55 p.m.