"It's made for kids"

"You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway."

- Walt Disney "It's made for kids" is an excuse often used to dismiss criticism towards entertainment made for younger audiences.

This article will focus on the matter regarding movies, but there are also articles on this topic on the Crappy Games, Dreadful Literature, and Terrible Shows & Episodes wikis.

Background
It is well known that kids are easier to entertain by simpler things that grownups may find stupid or boring at first. Likewise, kids are unlikely to understand and/or appreciate more highly complicated and mature films (like mh:greatestmovies:Superbad). Because of that, films targeted at younger audiences tend to be simpler than shows targeted at an older audience, but that doesn't mean that shows aimed at kids should be too simplistic, realistic, and basic.

Often when people criticize kids movies for either poor quality, cheap comedy, lacking any real substance and/or intelligence, or anything else they don't like, some people might say "It's made for kids" as an excuse for doing so. Sure, it may be made for kids, but that shouldn't be a good enough excuse for making poor-quality, effortless, and excessively kid-friendly movies that teens and grownups will find stupid or poorly-executed. This excuse also makes kids look like idiots with no real taste who will like anything aimed at them, which isn't actually true in general. Kids are actually smarter than they're given credit for.

On the other hand, some adolescents and grownups dismiss shows targeted at young audiences as "kiddie movies." Just because it's made for kids doesn't mean teenagers and grownups aren't allowed to watch them or won't find challenge and substance in them. If the movie is made well enough, anyone of any age can enjoy it.

Even if a movie is aimed at kids, teenagers and grownups may also be interested in it too (the movie would be rated either G-rated or PG-rated - not just for kids, but adults too). There are many movies aimed at younger audiences that can also be enjoyed by grownups, such as mh:greatestmovies:The Incredibles, mh:greatestmovies:Shrek, mh:greatestmovies:The Lego Movie, Turning Red, Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse, etc; the aforementioned movies are made for kids, but have enough substance and real effort put in to be entertaining for teenagers and grownups and don't pander towards kids (either younger or in their pre-teen years).

There is no excuse for making a poorly made kids movie.

Why This Excuse Sucks

 * 1) It’s just a way for people to dismiss criticism towards bad kids' movies. By dismissing criticism, the quality of the movies may never improve.
 * 2) By pointing out the flaws in children’s movies, that can leave improvement and ensure that more kids movies can be made to be enjoyed by more older people (teens or adults) as well.
 * 3) This whole excuse makes kids look more dumbfounded with no real taste who will like anything aimed at them, which isn't actually true. To quote Germán Acuña during the Q&A interview at the NYICFF "Kids are more strong and are more intelligent than we, adults, think we are."
 * 4) * It should be noted that contrary to popular belief, actually even kids would very likely not enjoy these poorly-made children’s movies that are shown to them, hence highlighting this fact further.
 * 5) The only thing this excuse encourages kids to do is to stoop to any low level like ignoring their parents, not listening to them, or simply not caring one little bit about them.
 * 6) The over-usage of this excuse is what makes kids movies (especially animated ones) in general tend to receive a lot of negative reputation from older audiences nowadays even though some of these movies don't even deserve all the hate and backlash they receive or if the film in question is well received.
 * 7) This excuse is the main reason why the American film industry treats animation like something for kids most of the time instead of an art form that can be used for older audiences.

How to Make a Good Kids Movie

 * 1) Just use a pleasing colorful art style and character design that is easy on the eye. There shouldn’t be anything too "cartoonish," "basic," "realistic," or "simplistic".
 * 2) * Humanoid/anthropomorphic animals, talking vehicles/trains and fantasy creatures are usually a good pick for this. Examples of this would be stuff like Zootopia, Cars, Kung Fu Panda, Happy Feet, Sing, Turning Red, Luca and Madagascar.
 * 3) Use a premise or plot that isn't too complicated but not too simplistic either.
 * 4) * The writing should also be either sharp, well-timed, or just paced decently for all viewers to follow and see how competent the story and everything around it is and not have everything dumbed down.
 * 5) * Children and/or viewers should be able to watch the film and enjoy their time observing what's on-screen or just catch the viewers' interest with what's going on in the film without having anything essentially annoying, tedious or boring.
 * 6) Little to no profanity, sexual imagery and/or minimal blood. Mild cartoon violence is fine, especially if the characters in the show are non-human or the violence is used as "slapstick". Good examples of slapstick/cartoony violence would be stuff you see in movies like The Mitchells vs. The Machines, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, or Despicable Me.
 * 7) * However, this can be somewhat averted if the film is aimed at both children and adults. However, in order for that to happen, make sure you don't let your target audience to be uncertain as if your movie in question can't tell if it's made for either younger or older audiences. A good example of films that do avert it a little include Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
 * 8) Use educational value, especially in films rated G.
 * 9) Put in immersive characters that serve as good role models as protagonists or real challenges as antagonists.
 * 10) Include as little modern-day references as possible to make the movie feel more timeless for every generation to enjoy. On one condition, if you want to add modern-day references, don't try to overuse or try hard to be appealing to youths. Sometimes modern references would not work due to the time period the film is set on as well as the theme of the film (unless if it was something like Shrek having a few modern-day refs despite taking place in the medieval era).
 * 11) Include morals that are good for children to learn and easy for them to understand. These morals should not be harmful towards them and they should not be bogged down by hypocrisy within the films. The moral should be shown through the film itself and not shoved in the faces of viewers. Do not let the moral make the film come across as preachy either or else the preachiness will make the film lose its entertainment value.

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