I have always hated the facile and ridiculous argument that I should not enjoy certain entertainments because they’re “for kids.” As someone who didn’t discover comics and cartoons until after the general public thought I was too old for such pursuits, I find the argument to be not only insulting to me, but insulting to the actual target demographic. Worse still are those who use “It’s for kids!” as an excuse for substandard work or hackneyed storytelling, an excuse that I can’t understand, given the likes of ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ and ‘Up!’ They are works explicitly for children, but still appeal to an adult audience, which in turn begs today’s not-so-juvenile query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) really needs to address the inverse of this syndrome, where adult fans completely co-opt a property aimed at children, asking: What’s your favorite movie, book or series that you love, even though you’re outside it’s target demographic?
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The last thing that had me go “Why didn’t they have THIS when I was a kid???” was Odd Squad. Kids in a Men In Black style organization confronting odd occurrences and learning fundamental math skills? Yes, please!
First that come to mind are Ultraman TV show and Transformers cartoons. I think those are still primarily made for “kids”. Well, they are still just as good as in 1985 to me.
The bulk of the Japanese superhero series I love. There are a few aimed at adults like Akibaranger or Garo, but the bulk of it is primarily aimed at kids or at families with an emphasis on keeping the kids interested. But I’ll take Super Sentai, Ultraman and Kamen Rider over some of the terrible mindless drivel aimed at people in my age range any day.
I’m also surprised I found myself enjoying Rick Riordan’s young adult novels, such as the Percy Jackson series. Shame that the movies were so terrible and didn’t do a very good job adapting the source material aside from a few basic concepts and names
For me, it’s the books. When I roam the bookstore, the young adult section seems to have some of the most interesting titles. Having a teen son, we often share books and it does give us some common ground and something to talk about, so that’s a plus too!
I used to come home from work and watch “Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego” for the puns, skits and songs.
+1 Vixyn I head over to the young adult section to see if there are any new non-dystopian series out here.
As a side note, its amazing how the first Harry Potter book did given that it was targeted for children.
I have fond memories of watching the cartoon show Exo Squad when I was in my late teens back in the 90’s. It was ostensibly a kid’s show but with some surprisingly deep and resonant recurring themes about the ethics of genetic engineering and costs of war.