Do kids really prefer cartoons about kids?

K

kilokilo

New member
I ask such a question because there's so damn many just now.
Cartoon networks only shows not about kids were Johnny Bravo, Courage The Cowardly Dog, and a most action shows like Samurai Jack which were all quite popular, while Sheep in The Big City, I Am Weasel and Time Squad were all kind of swept away for cartoons like Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10, Ed, Edd, n Eddy and recently Ben 10 and Fosters.
Also Ren and Stimpy never was as popular as Rugrats or Doug, which both showed together and premeired the same year and was far better than both.
 
Well, most 6-11 years old usually like cartoon featuring kids their own age, looking for someone that they could possibly relate to. :shrug:
 
I don't know about cartons, but cartoons...:sweat: sorry, I couldn't help it.

I don't know...most cartoons nowadays that aren't for adults have kids as the focus and it does get repetitive. I miss the days of Johnny Bravo, Ren and Stimpy, where we had adults who basically did bizare things.
 
Ren and Stimpy was Nickelodeon's first real merchandising and ratings bonanza (Rugrats wouldn't reach its eventual success until after R+S was cancelled, and Doug really wasn't a huge success until Disney bought it). The tons of toys, books, games and such don't suggest it not being as popular as the others.
 
We can't have old people in our shows! Kids might hate it, kill him off and put in more monsters and action!

PS: I'm sorry for my spelling error, my keyboard is small and annoying.
 
I'm sure that they do appreciate having some shows that center around someone their age, but I seriously doubt that the target demographs first thoughts concerning a show is "If the main character is an adult, then I'm going to boycott Nickelodeon".

Besides, I say that the hesitancy to center a kid show around an adult character is more of a paranoia than pure fact. Here's some tidbits which support my belief.

1. Spongebob Squarepant: Yes, I'm fully aware that Spongebob has a childlike persona, but he is an adult nonetheless. The majority of episodes focus more on the Krusty Crab than Boating School. And while the Boating School setting has an elementary school feel to it, the show has seen little to none of these cliches:

A. The unobtainable crush that the main character will never have.
B. Obsession with popularity.
C. Aside from the one episode featuring Flats, the show lacks a musclebound bully.

And yet the show remains to be the top Nicktoon, and the first to get a full DVD Season Set and Theatrical Movie.

2. Many of the WB reruns on Jetix (Batman, Superman, Iron Man and & Pinky & The Brain) seem to do well even without the insecure tween and his/her troubles in school.

3. While having no new episodes, Tom & Jerry and Courage The Cowardly Dog do well enough to merit airings on Cartoon Network.

4. The Batman outlasted many shows on KidsWB by 13 episodes (As many KWB shows didn't go further than 52 episodes), despite the Adult Batman being a main character. and while Robin and Batgirl are part of the later season, they don't take over the show from Bats. Superman The Animated Series lasted for 54 episode, still 2 episodes more than the tween centered KWB shows.

Again, I'm sure the younger viewers do like having characters that are their age, but I don't really seeing them cry bloody murder should Nick, CN of Disney Channel produce and air a new cartoon featuring an adult.
 
I think everything is gearing younger. X-Men, Spiderman and Batman keep bringing in younger heroes with each relaunch. Anime's probably helped bring in its share of younger heroes as well, because it is an increasing influence on US toons. So you get Kim and Ron, the Teen Titans, an all-teen Legion of Superheroes, a clearly teen Prince Adam in the He-Man '02 relaunch, and the firm side character presence of adult heroes and villains on Avatar...
 
And I still say the decision stems from the executives paranoia, because they equate different with failure. Besides, it simply strikes me as abrupt. I mean, previous generations could enjoy a cartoon despite the age of the character, so why is this generation getting nothing but tween toons?
 
A lot of my favorite characters are little kids.

Although, not that young "I'm 15 tween" stuff, more like, around 8 years old age.

Like the South Park kids, or Mac or something. I sometimes find plots more interesting and a bit fun in a way if you have a kid like that as your main character.

Although, I'm not saying all shows should have little kids. I like a lot of shows that feature adult/inhuman characters. Johnny Bravo, Spongebob, Drawn Together, Futurama, etc.

Actually, I think South Park captured the little kid persona in a comedy cartoon perfectly. Like, using their kid-like traits (Playing pretend, ditching school, not wanting to get busted or in trouble) and then throwing them into adult plots while still trying to keep the kid in them (Lil' Crime Stoppers, Wing, Marjorine, The Losing Edge, Good Times With Weapons, etc).
 
As a kid I preferred cartoons about children or animals (which I don't really think constitute adult characters). I thought that a lot of the adult protagonists - He-Man, Batman and whatnot - were massive squares. Comedies with adult characters (Homer Simpson, Fred Flintstone, Wallace) I was fine with, but I think they've always been a minority on TV, haven't they?



To be honest I think that's just a natural development of the genre. I mean, superheroes have their roots in childhood fantasy, so in a way a teenage superhero is more believable than an adult one. Well, okay, the idea of a "teenage superhero" can sound pretty corny on paper, but the Spider-Man movies have demonstrated how the concept can be pulled off successfully.
 
Hate to nitpick, but Grandpa Max wasn't killed off, he was just written out of the show as missing.

Back on topic:

The common belief among TV executives is that kids want to see themselves on TV. They apparently think that kids aren't interested in seeing adult characters who aren't superheroes or goofballs. These execs also don't think that adult woman characters can be interesting or funny to watch unless they have some trait that can easily be exploited (e.g., being really fat or being really old), which is why mothers are rarely given decent roles on kids' shows. However, to quote a one-time member at Toon Zone: "There are no uninteresting characters, only characters who writers can't or choose not to make interesting."
 
The general consensus by suits is that kids mainly want to see shows about kids, animals or fantasy beings like superheroes, witches and wizards, space aliens, etc. Generally speaking, the only non-super or magically powered adults that corporate execs think kids want to see in cartoons are parents and occasionally teachers, and even then only in minor supporting roles. The common ideology nowadays is that adult characters are boring, hence why even ageless characters like the Care Bears, who were already overly cute to begin with, have been remade into children, on the reasoning that 'adults suck'.

In truth, however, it's not what you have, but what you do with it that counts. There's no such thing as a boring character; characters are only as interesting as their writers and creators make them.
 
I don't really think it's fair to blame this on TV executives or to suggest that there's something wrong with the situation. I mean, I'm a massive children's book enthusiast, and they obviously don't have any interference from TV execs (publishing companies maybe, but that's a different animal and on the whole it's a far freer medium), and they have the same set-up. Main characters tend to be children, ageless abstractions (such as talking animals or fantasy figures comparable to Superman for example) or occasionally childlike adults like Bilbo Baggins.

Children's writers across the board prefer working with childlike characters, and I don't really see what's wrong with that. If you want adult characters, then you can watch adult TV...
 
There's nothing wrong with the main characters being children. There's nothing wrong with them being adults. There's nothing wrong with comedy programs. There's no problem with action programs.

The only thing wrong is depending on one thing all the time (as in lack of variety). I mean, do you know anyone who consciously said, "I do not like diversity in my programming."?

Believe it or not, but some people are openminded and wouldn't mind other types of settings and stories for cartoons. My comments on post 7 prove that adult centric toons aren't complete failures.




Adult cartoons are just as redundant to a degree. It's either a sitcom with high content or uncensored anime.



He-Man I understand, but considering that Batman can be aggressive and go outside the law to achieve his goals hardly makes him a square.
 
I was replying to these posts:







I'm just pointing out that since children's writers generally like writing about children, this isn't necessarily the fault of executive narrow-mindedness. I mean, you can't blame the preponderance of "kids, animals or fantasy beings" on TV execs when they've always been part and parcel of children's storytelling



I mean he wasn't funny. As a kid I preferred cartoons like Ninja Turtles because they were funnier.
 
If the story demands it, then sure, I don't mind the teen cast, but to a degree it is an executive mandate. For instance, Greg Weisman tried to pitch his Gargoyles spin off Bad Guy to Jetix, but part of the reason for rejection is due to the team having an adult cast. I mean, I'd think that the fact that the team has a gargoyle, mutate and a nanotech would attract the interests of the kids.



I always thought that the sterotypical meaning of a square is someone who plays by the rules and never says no to his/her authority.
 
While they have yet to have season sets, Rugrats, The Wild Thornberries, Jimmy Neutron, Doug, and Hey Arnold all had threatrical movies.
 
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