This summer I had a lot of free time on my hands when I wasn’t studying for my applied calculus course. I spent a lot of my time on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video. You name it, I’d probably been on it at some point during the summer. I watched a lot of my favorite childhood shows/movies and discovered that a lot of them seem more catered towards adults than children. Here’s a list and review on five children shows and movies I think adults understand more.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender”
I re-watched this series over the summer as I’m sure a lot of my peers did, and I was surprised by the deeper meanings behind a lot of it. It included themes of colonialism, deeper meanings to life and choosing between right and wrong. The Fire Nation pretty much colonized and terrorized everyone, something we’ve all seen in history. Aang had to really dig deep and discover a way to save the day that he found he could live with at the end of the day. Katara, Sokka, and Toph had to find themselves along the way and learn to live through adversity and pain. Zuko had to choose which side of history he wanted to be on and felt sick because the two sides inside of him were warring. There’s a lot I could get into; I could write an entire paper on this show.
Overall, I feel like it’s a kid’s cartoon, yes, but some of the themes couldn’t be fully comprehended until you’re older and you learn about history and go through trying to find your purpose in life.
“Spongebob Squarepants”
I loved this show when I was a child. Not going to lie, I still love it as an adult. I’ve noticed a lot of adult innuendos in the show. Of course, my comprehension has increased as I‘ve gotten older because I didn’t notice a lot of these things when I was a child. Some people say they won’t let their child watch it because the show is dumb. I’d have to argue that Cartoon Network has many more dumb shows than just this one. I feel that Spongebob taught me to have a good work ethic and a positive outlook on my life, to be honest. He went through a lot…
“Teen Titans”
There was so much that went on during “Teen Titans” that I felt I didn’t necessarily understand at my young age. But it was cool and I loved superheroes. I’ve only re-watched a couple of episodes and it’s definitely for teens and young adults. There are love interests, betrayal, death, etc. The only betrayal I went through in elementary school was people stealing my food. As the seasons for “Teen Titans” went on, it got deeper. I feel that shows the growth they were all going through as individuals within a team.
“Coraline”
I’m not even going to touch the plot of this movie. No one can convince me this wasn’t made for adults. I found it scary when I was a child and I found it deeply disturbing when I re-watched it. It makes me think about multiple theories; Charles Cooley’s looking-glass self-theory in which the way we perceive ourselves is based on how others view us and the theory that there are multiple universes. In these universes lives a copy of yourself that has just made different choices than you have, hence the demonic parents she had in the movie.
But it could be just because Coraline felt neglected by her parents. I don’t know.
“Twitches”
This movie, also, scared the bejesus out of me. I could not sleep with the lights off (I never could beforehand but this just made it worse). They rated the movie PG which it was…but I wish there was another rating for slightly scary when it comes to children. I find this movie to be a bit more catered towards adults because the twins were 21 when they were reunited but I haven’t actually re-watched it since I was a child. So, I’m just going based on old feelings, ha!
Happy watching, collegiettes! Stay tuned for another article on children shows and movies I think are catered more for adult comprehension than children!