Of simple past and complex present

An interesting trend is happening in front of our eyes and wonder how long it will take before it morphs into a being that is resisted and fought against. I am talking about how adulthood had eaten into cartoon space and how the stories that were once meant to entertain children has grown way beyond into the domain of adults. When I first came across the concept of “comic-con” on Big bang theory drama series, it never struck me at that time. Even though those gatherings involved adults who were dressed up like their favorite superhero or comic character, it took me long to realize that more than being man child, in the name of reliving their childhood fetishes and likes, they are competing with kids for whom these creations were meant for. I am going with the premise that comics and superheroes are meant for kids to be inspired and if any adult feels the same way it’s a bonus for the creator. If that underlying premise itself is at fault, then do not read any further : )

I recently saw the second part of the spider-verse series – Across the multiverse. The first part itself was mind boggling and there was an Youtuber who had reviewed every single trivia hidden on the scenes and that video made watching the movie more appealing. Junior was the one who was initially watching the movie and soon he went away. Halfway into the movie I realized that he is not watching and considering that Spiderman is his favorite superhero was surprised that he went away. The movie was fascinating to say the least and the way they had shaped the storyline leading into the next part, setting the audience up for an edge of the seat thriller coming up whenever it is getting released was great example of awesome movie making. I loved the scene where Miles Morales, the black spiderman, witnesses the “small group” called spider society. It was truly a mindboggling sense of imagination by the creators where you’ve spiderman across every era and epoch and one of every kind imaginable. There was a spidey dino, spidey horse, spidey piggy, hobo spiderman, regular one, mutants, funny ones, deadly serious ones and every other kind from multitude of dimensions and they had truly created a spiderverse. There is a scene in which Miles morales is chased by every spiderman and form on spiderverse, to stop him from changing the “fate” or “canon event” in their terminology. To see so many spidermen chasing one of their own ilk, that would’ve been a mass scene on theaters. The subject being dealt with was also very complex even for a regular movie, involving rebellious teens and confused adolescent kids who have spider ability in their respective worlds. To bring such varied and complex emotions and subjects on screen that are so wildly melodramatic even for a regular movie, leave alone an animation one. But the thing is, will the kids who go these movies to enjoy their superhero even understand the content and storyline? Are they even the target audience? Looking at the box office collections of these movies and the continuing theme of making them more relatable to mature audiences who can understand the events happening on screen, it makes one wonder, have we stolen those simple good things that were available to us as children. 

Take any recent animated movie released in the past decade or two. Invariably there will be an underlying theme associated with it, that would be way too complex for even mature audience. Some deal with climate change, racism, body shaming, acceptance for who they are, tolerance and so many other complex yet basic emotions that form the underlying structure of humanity. On one hand, some may argue that by capturing the attention of children with such themes we are educating/exposing them to such complexities of life at a very early age. But where are those comics that belong to their genre and their liking? There are hardly a movie or two that comes dedicated to children. In the pretext of teaching them or setting the bar high, if we are going to mix such complex themes, that appeal to adults but may not make much sense to kids, aren’t we robbing them those simply joys that we enjoyed as kids. Mickey mouse, Donald duck, Tom and Jerry, Laurel and Hardy, spiderman/superheroes of my times, were all simple and easy to follow. There was a thrill element in following them and even thought we all knew that the hero would defeat the villain, the distinguishing factor between hero and villain were quite simple. I feel we are complicating the life and times of our kids by filling it up with stuff that are way beyond their age for their age. If a regular comic must be rated “under parental guidance” imagine the perversion we’ve introduced into such a fun medium. Makes me really scared to imagine the kind of things superheroes of the next decade will undergo and quite possibly there could soon be movies glorifying Lex Luthors and Norman Osbornes of the world, showing them in a different light and deifying their reason to become villains. Paavam superheroes.