Something interested I learned once that facinated me. Since I was a kid I have been a fan of movies I have fallen in love in my childhood. I have noticed when I got older that some movies are a bit out of line between two formulas. The kids point of view and the adults view as well. If you look at family films for example they appeal to kids as well as adults. I personally love how pixar does that. Like the incredibles and toy story. Both have adult jokes as well as family friendly themes characters. But I have noticed that some movies might go a little to far. Like the hunchback of notre dame. Very inappropriate and dark themes put into the film yet they pushed its bounderies to put child friendly gargoyles in the film. Its like someone trying to watch two movies at once. Having him watch half of the movie and pausing it and then watching another movie. Doesn't mix. What are your thoughts. Do one has to argee with me.
I agree with you to a point about the whole watching two movies thing, but here's where I think our opinions differ: I think that movies like The Hunchback of Notre Dame are good because when you watch it as a kid, it's one movie, and then when you watch it as an adult, you get a whole different experience out of it. Maybe I was just a dumb kid, but rewatching movies that I loved as a kid, I catch on to things that never used to notice. And I like that.
Yeah, I know I watched a lot of stuff that now I re-watch and think, "Woah! They made THAT joke? Or had THAT theme!?" and at the time it went right over my head. I don't feel warped or anything because it's handled in a way where kids just don't get it. If you actually showed any of the things they hint at, it'd ruin it - that's the line. And also if the comments can't be read in a totally innocent way - if there are lines that only make sense if you know the darker/sexier side. But a lot of great movies enjoyed by young people have a hefty whack of adult themes, and people wouldn't love them as much if they didn't. They probably have a very similar approach to the fun kids' stuff as any number of films that are written off as mere silly frivolities because they don't have the older stuff. I personally deliberately throw in sex or swearing just to get the age cap raised in my stories because I don't think I could trust myself to write for kids and not go over the line and have a story which jumps waaaay over the line somewhere. So I just write young adult stuff and be done with it.
Come to think of it. Yes two movies at once can show different direction in the hunchback but the problem is that the theme is so dark that now I am older the mix is kinda strange to me now.
I grew up with pantomime and carry on films - so used to it, as an adult I watch and find a spot of tiffin in the afternoon funny as a child the slapstick comedy was brilliant. If anything as an adult it is enriched because I can laugh at it all.
I agree with hiddennovelist and Melzaar: the perspective of a child and that of an adult are really different. A child (generally, exceptions are always there) finds it way harder to see the hidden themes in movies like the Hunchback of the Notre Dame and focusses more on, for example, is it right or wrong how Quasimodo is treated? Adults, on the other hand, will see the very subtle adult themes that are also there. An example from Tarzan are the 'joke' touches Tarzan makes upon first meeting Jane. Pretty innocent through the eyes of a kid but for an adult those touches imply something completely different (in this case, the fact Tarzan is becoming more physically and mentally mature). I find it really hard to write for both audience, kudo's for those authors who are able to do it!
I believe this balance is rarely in any literature I have read from the early days. Its really hard to imagine the evolution of story telling in a hole day. I mean look at snow white and the seven dwarfs. Its pretty scary. Yes it does have he dwarfs but I never really saw a balance. Good writers need this if they are going to make a family film. Not that I hate walt disney or anything.
The balance is there especially in English literature - Shakespeare is the prime example. For example in Macbeth you have beautiful speeches and then you have a man peeing in the corner. Water Babies is another. Christmas Carol etc
Well the reason why i thought the hunchback was a mixture of two movies was because i thought the gargoyles had no reason to be in the story. But I thought about and and I kinda think it does but the whole adult theme about lust kinda shuns them away for a while which kinda gets annoying at times. Yet if they weren't there they would have made a pretty depressing movie.
