I’ve been listening to YouTube videos, in the background, as I work recently and I noted in one of the videos that a YouTuber brought up “The Land Before Time” after they saw a dinosaur in the game they were playing. The other YouTuber responded by saying “That depressing children’s movie?”. Hearing this reminded me of how surprisingly dark some of the themes are in children’s media but also how I believe that it is vitally important that children’s media tackle these subjects.
Having brought up The Land Before Time, I think it might be worth discussing Don Bluth’s philosophy when it came to directing animated films. His policy was “that kids can handle dark stuff as long as it has a happy ending” with many of his films not afraid to tackle the topics of death, trauma, abandonment etc. While some may criticise this philosophy, I believe that it makes sense that children’s media should teach kids some of the darker points of life as a way for children to understand and interpret the world.
This outlook is not a recent development. Children’s media have always incorporated these dark themes with a particularly noteworthy example being the works of the Brothers Grimm. The Brothers Grimm collected a variety of oral folklore and older literature and eventually released “Children’s and Household Tales”, later known as “Grimms’ Fairy Tales” which popularised many stories such as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”, “Rapunzel”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Sleeping Beauty” and many others. What people might not be aware of was that these stories originally portrayed a surprising level of violence and abuse which was eventually purged in modern versions.
I recently wrote about a book that has proven to be surprisingly popular in Asia, “A Dog of Flanders“. This book was originally written by Marie Louise de la Ramée who wrote under the pseudonym Ouida and has since become one of the most popular pieces of children’s literature in the East. However, those unfamiliar with the book might be shocked at the level of suffering portrayed in the book and how the novel ends tragically.
I’d be remiss if I did not mention some of the earlier Disney films. As a child, I would frequently watch Disney’s Pinocchio as it was one of my favourite movies but I can vividly recall the unease I felt with regards to when Pinocchio and the boys travel to Pleasure Island and their subsequent transformation into donkeys. I have heard of many other children who were frightened by scenes from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Dumbo, Bambi and many other classic Disney movies as well.
Having discussed how surprisingly dark the themes of some children’s media can be, I think it’s important that we discuss why this can be a good thing. It has been noted that exploring these themes can act as a way for children to “understand their own fears“, to deal with negative emotions and help understand the complexities of the world. Whether films or books, these media can act as a safe, entertaining way to allow children to see and process these darker aspects of life.
In conclusion, I think that it’s vitally important that children learn about some of the challenges in life through storytelling, such as films and books, as they can process this information in a more digestible format. Let me know your thoughts on dark themes in children’s media, films and books you can remember experiencing as a child that may have made you uneasy, what lessons you learned from these stories and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!