Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles

[seriousfic]

Okay, yes, this is stupid. Very stupid. It's totally in keeping with pop culture's current obsession with being an idiot's version of smart. "Turtles get in goo and make ninja? DAT STOPID! Turtles r alien! O is smart!" But the larger issue to me is... why is there a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie being made?

It's aimed at kids, right? I mean, I find something unfathomably sad in the notion of a TMNT movie aimed at adults. Yeah, I liked it as a kid, but I've moved on. I remember when I was a kid, the kids' movies were based on stuff that was popular with kids. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was big, so they made a live-action movie. Mario was big, they made a Super Mario Brothers movie. Power Rangers, Pokemon, Digimon, etc. Is that happening anymore?

I don't know what's big with kids these days, pretty much by definition. There was an Avatar movie and a Spongebob movie... but everything else seems like it's based on something kids used to like. There's a new Muppets movie, new Transformers movies, Winnie the Pooh... where's the Generator Rex movie? Ben 10? Fairly Oddparents? Adventure Time? Hell, kids can't even get a Teen Titans movie, they had Green Lantern shoved down their throats.

I know it's great to pass on the things you like to your kids, but kids also need something they can call their own, something the previous generation doesn't get. Right now, the only thing our kids can legitimately call their own is Madagascar and Ice Age. We are raising a generation to think Ray Romano is funny.

Comments

[left-of-weir.livejournal.com]

They have Hunger Games, that's what they have. *weg*

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

I've raised this point myself. Generation X is basically ruining the concept of early childhood for future generations the same way that the Baby Boomers ruined the concept of adolescence for Generation X. Because Baby Boomer parents refused to stop listening to Elvis and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, all of those acts that survived (and even those that didn't) never really went away, which means that Generation X teenagers weren't even allowed their own form of adolescent rebellion (except for rap, which even self-described liberal Baby Boomers sought to exterminate at every turn), so instead, Generation X retreated into its own early childhood years, which is why Star Wars and Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are now the equivalents of Jagger and McCartney and Presley.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Even worse, when something like Harry Potter or Twilight or the Hunger Games comes along, the adults ruin it by co-opting it. As much as I despise the Twilight series, I still feel bad for its teenage fangirls who will never fully feel like it's their own thing, for their generation alone, because their mothers all decided that they couldn't stand the idea of their kids having something fun of their own, so they hijacked the Team Edward versus Team Jacob debates away from the teenage girls for whom such pursuits would actually be defensible, and instead made them the primary province of middle-aged women wanting a socially acceptable outlet to schlick over young men who could be their sons.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

And in turn, the children went in search of acts so stupid that no rational adult could fan them, like Justin Bieber or Fred.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

They literally had to go PRE-infantile in order to have their own thing. WE made them do this.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

When that life turned against us, we comforted ourselves in the knowledge that it really wasn't our fault, not really. You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things that you've created. Sooner or later, the day comes when you can't hide from the things that you've done anymore.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

By gum, I think we've cracked it. Good job, men.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

Actually, DC's been doing these direct to DVD animated shorts. They know their cartoons are cheaper and often better than their feature films, and most are actually fairly good. Same with Marvel, to an extent.

And, of course, every Generation since the early 90s gets their own Batman animated series. Heck, if you include Beyond as a separate series, I got two.

Oh, and there was a Ben 10 live-action movie. It was terrible. We don't like to talk about it.