Kid's Shows

Yes, I occasionally do watch shows meant for little kids. The fact that I babysit has something to do with it, but I'll admit that even before taking on the responsibility of watching a 7 year old girl I occasionally watched shows like Dora the Explorer or Handy Manny.

Because I am a dork.

I find it hard to watch the shows on Disney Channel though, because I grew up with classics such as The Lion King and Aladdin and the shows those movies spawned. I watched shows like Mickey Mouse Club and Chip N' Dale Rescue Rangers. I watched movies like The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast, and I enjoyed them.

Kid's shows didn't seem to insult the intelligence of the kids watching them. They treated kids like smart individuals who could understand more than people gave them credit for. Some people might say I'm remembering the shows this way because I was a kid myself when I watched them. But I recently found myself looking up some of the old shows I used to watch on the internet (lovely place, isn't it?), and watching a few of them. And while some of the dumber jokes came across as cheesey to me now, the shows themselves were good. I could enjoy them just as much as an adult as I did as a child. Maybe it's nostalgia talking; but maybe, just maybe, shows were smarter back then.

Take Peter Pan for instance. Looking back on that movie now, there were actually quite a few adult themes hidden within it (not the least of which is the blatant racism against Native Americans). As a child, I enjoyed the movie, but as an adult, I find I can appreciate it just a bit more, and formulate my own opinion about what's going on rather than rely on my parents to explain some of it to me. The same goes for many of the movies I watched as a little kid.

And I'm all for making a television show based on a movie. I used to watch Timon and Pumbaa all the time when I was little. And hell, I LOVE Penguins of Madagascar. As long as the television show keeps true to the original characters from the movie, it's not a big deal.

Which leads me to the point of this post.

Remember when I mentioned Peter Pan earlier? Captain Hook was right up there in the list of Disney Villians that scared the living shit out of me as a kid. The fact that he was willing to kill a little girl (Wendy) by making her walk off the edge of a plank and drown in the water terrified me to no end, especially considering that I was a little girl myself when I first watched the movie. And I knew perfectly well that, if Wendy died, Hook would have killed the rest of those kids as well. It was terrifying to me. Sure Hook was a little whiny and annoying, but when it came right down to it, he was scary as hell.

Well, the other night I fell asleep with my tv on. I had been watching a movie on Disney Channel, so that's what was on when I woke up. Now, Disney Channel, like many other television networks for kids, has a broadcast time in the morning reserved specifically for preschoolers. These are the types of shows adults watch that make us literally feel like our brains are melting. They call it Disney Junior. And most of the shows are like any other kid's tv show, and they like to teach children lessons about life and how to act around other people.

Well, Disney Junior recently became host to a show called Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I guess it's primary purpose is to teach children how to share, or something. I don't know, I've never actually watched a full episode. The premise is that Jake, his two friends, and their obnoxious talking parrot somehow managed to get into Neverland and become child pirates. They search for treasure and stuff. *shrug*

Okay, remember what I said about Captain Hook? How he used to terrify me as a child and all that jazz?

Well, if you ever watch Jake and the Neverland Pirates, you will be throwing everything I said about the pirate out the window.

Hook, as I said before, was always kind of whiny and ridiculous, but he always managed to get the job done. If it hadn't been for Peter Pan, he would have probably killed off most of the people in Neverland by now. And true, it's a little silly that one boy with the power to fly could take down an entire crew of pirates just with wit and a little bit of gumption, but that was part of what made the story charming.

In Jake and the Neverland Pirates, they've completely taken out any competency Hook may have possessed, and turned him into a whiny, completely useless man-child. He LITERALLY throws temper tantrums when things don't go his way, and instead of trying to steal back the treasure the kids stole from him (way to teach kids a lesson, Disney! Let's teach them to steal!), he just sits on his boat and sulks like a little boy.

Now, as I've said before, I don't mind when people make a television show off of a movie, so long as the characters match the personalities of the originals. With this particular show, they've made Captain Hook a laughing stock within the Disney universe. It's absolutely ridiculous, to be completely honest.

I'd hate to see what the writers of this show would do to other Disney Villians.

I guess my main problem with this is that kids now will never be able to truly appreciate the "classic" days of Disney. The little girl I babysit has never seen Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Beauty and the Beast (though she does know all of the princesses by name). I had to force her to sit down and watch Aladdin, which she wound up truly enjoying anyway.

I know that I'm a little biased toward the way I first saw things. I hate remixes of songs simply for the fact that it's a change from the original song, and I hate change. I don't like it when Glee performs songs like Defying Gravity, because it takes away from the original, and those who have seen Glee's version first like that version better and say that Idina Menzel "sings it wrong." Maybe this whole rant is simply because, yes I do hate change, and I hate the way they've changed one of my favorite Disney Villians.

I don't know, maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic? Either way, it annoys me.