The way Children are treated in animation

Over the years, i've seen many tv shows that have portrayed children being treated much the same way: they are regarded as helpless and fragile and are often kept away from anything dangerous, no matter how much they want to help in the matter. And that's just how the good guys treat them, the bad guys (or at the very least, complete jerks) frequently see children as helpless pests that they can just push aside and/or force to do whatever they want without any sort of consequence.

I'm certain that you all could come up with reasons why all of this would be reasonable treatment, but the more i think about it, the more i seen less of the POV for this treatment and more of the POV against it, particularly when it's from the child's POV.

Examples:

D.W. Read from "Arthur" - I can sympathize with how D.W. feels when she is treated like a child. It can't be easy for anyone to hear people tell them that they're too small or too young to do something. It's easy for a child to take that as a sign that people see them as weak and inferior to them.

Gosalyn Mallard from "Darkwing Duck" - Gosalyn wasn't the perfect child, i agree, but it felt like whenever she was trying to do something new, people were trying to get her to do something that went against her basic personality (be the host for a formal gala) and expected her to do so without question or compromise. I think it's safe to say that no one likes being told what to do, especially when they're not allowed to even talk things out.

Jade Chan from "Jackie Chan Adventures" - Again, not the best model of child behavior, i agree, but even still, the way Jade acts is not entirely unreasonable. She knows about the Mobsters, Dragons, Wizards and Shadow creatures that threaten the world around her and yet she's expected to go through life acting like none of it exists. Seriously, how is Jade supposed to go through school life when she knows that beings like Shendu, Daolon Wong and Tarakudo are running amok? Also, the villains basically just treat her like she was nothing, you'd think after what she did to him with the Dragon Talisman, Shendu would want to destroy her too.

Eliza Thornberry from "The Wild Thornberrys" - Eliza's rarely, if ever, allowed to go near any type of animals (even the ones that are known for being docile) and is expected to always be somewhere where her parents can keep an eye on her. This is a problem for two reasons: one; because her parents frequently go out to get near animals of all kinds, so expecting her to not go out and do the same is kind of silly when you think about it. And two; because no child likes to always be in their parents' sight, that might be misconstrued as them being held prisoner.

Zak Saturday from "The Secret Saturdays" - First off, like Eliza, Zak is always kept under constant surveillance and is rarely, if ever, allowed to go anywhere unless someone is watching over him. Again, that must feel like he's in prison. And like Jade, Zak is basically treated like he was nothing by the bad guys, they always go for his parents and treat him as if he wasn't there. Even the other Secret Scientists treat him as if he was no threat. When they came after him, they expected no issues from him alone. None of this can be good for Zak's self-esteem, and the worst part of it is, as soon as Zak's an adult at the most or in his late teens at the very least, he'll be expected to do all sorts of things and then people will start to see him as a threat.

Meg, Chris, and Stewie from FG- They live in a f**ked up family with a dumbass father and a bitch of a mom. Nuff' said.

They're all either brats, sociopaths, butt monkeys or psychological wrecks.

The children of Rugrats, anyone? I mean they are naive, but were put in situations where they could have gotten killed (Rugrats movie).

Basically they were the embodiment of what we wanted to do as 3 year olds, if we were ever adventerous like that.

LOL I guess...I always daydreamed about those crazy adventures tho.

Children are not miniature adults; they are children. There is a reason we do not accept children into government, hospitals, army, etc.

I thought they were usually the only competent people in the world, often being neglected/misunderstood by their dumb parents.

That is what cartoons will make you believe.

I was dumb as a rock when younger, and so was everyone else.

edited 1st Jul '13 11:01:58 AM by KlarkKentThe3rd

That would be Truth in Television, no?

edited 1st Jul '13 11:36:38 AM by redhed311

For the most part yes.

There are children who can hold their own pretty well, but most of the time these children have been hardened by some sort of tragedy or burdens in life—they're not exactly the norm.

That's basically because of their profession and because the family NEEDS to tag along that the parents don't mind the kids having independence. Adults on Rugrats don't have adventurous careers and the kids are still kids. They are treated that way because of their age and the family's career.

x4 Hey, that's the cartoon saying that, not me.

Some cartoons, particularly fantasy ones with a Kid Hero as the main protagonist, tend to be rather fickle about this, since for the large part, the plot must enable them to be the stars of the show. After all an underestimated cute kid is defining underdog material.

The Dreamstone wavers uneasily as to whether Rufus and Amberley are severely warned against getting into the action or even taking part in dangerous past times, or outright being trusted to save the day single handedly (it doesn't really help that whether they are genuinely badass or just normal kids out of their league comes and goes Depending on the Writer, and even at their very best, their peers usually prove capable of doing the job much more handily if they could be bothered).

Interestingly Sonic taking Tails on a mission was about the one time in the whole of Sonic Satam fate didn't punish the team for taking a risk. This being the one interpretation that puts very clear emphasis on the fact heroes die (or worse) on a frequent basis fighting Robotnik (arguably handled better than how the Sonic X example did it though).

edited 1st Jul '13 8:22:31 PM by Psi001

I liked the approach in the incredibles...the children were pretty normal, had normal problems and I really liked that Violet wasn't able to produce a protective shield at first try. Even better was the speech Elastigirl gave them about this being really bad people who would not hesitate to hurt them. And honestly: Most adults are not equipped for the situations in which many protagonists end up, so why should children be?

The Incredibles in general was really good on making some realistic family dynamics.

I was hoping someone would bring that up. An example many people use is Timmy Turner's parents. However, I think Timmy's just as bad as they are.

Also thirding the incredibles for realistic family dynamics.

edited 5th Jul '13 8:41:30 AM by Explosivo25

An adult should have much higher standards of competence and morals to meet than a child with barely any actual experience with the ways of the world.

Unless, of course, they're Dexter's parents, who I guess lost all their IQ genes in the creation of Dexter.

Dexter is a genius, true, but he's quite short on common sense himself.

I think Anais could be a better example of that (since even Nicole has her moments when she's less mature than her).

Poor comparison; everyone except Anais is either stupid or insane. The Amazing World of Gumball is a world gone truly mad.

And Dexter's isn't?

Edit: Okay, except for Monkey and Agent Honeydew.

edited 5th Jul '13 9:42:03 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

True. Another example could be Stewie Griffin, who would probably make Tommy and Angelica look like minions. Stewie has talked and verbaly threatend Lois since episode 1, yet they're still so oblivious to the fact that he has more wisdom and intelegence than any adult in their douchbag college student of a world. But then again, that's what makes it funny. They could at least pay attention to his growing briliance!

RANT OVER!

Monkey lovemaking. I don't even want to picture it.

Well, I said they weren't insane or idiotic. I never said they weren't perverted!