Internet Spotlight: HISHE Kids

I’m doing two Internet Spotlight features this week. Tomorrow it’s a webcomic, today, it’s something for the kiddies.

How It Should Have Ended is a webseries I’ve used as a Filler Video source in the past. It’s a low-budget animated production showing how action and sci-fi movies should have ended were the characters smart enough not to make the obvious mistakes. Now they’ve added a new project to their ranks, HISHE Kids. Yep, they’ve branched out to the younglings.

HISHE Kids is not one but (as of this posting) three shows, and each of them takes the HISHE style in a kid-friendly package that’s still fun for us older folks. For example, letting a four-year-old decide how Iron Man 2 should have ended.

Actually, I wouldn’t mind any Iron Man movie ending that way. They’re also taking a cue from the Rocky & Bullwinkle short Fractured Fairy Tales, as they fix stories like Humpty-Dumpty.

Finally, there’s a how-to-draw for younger fans. This is probably my favorite addition because I haven’t seen an online animation group try to teach others how to do their craft, even if it’s kid-friendly. I also like how the host talks about how everybody’s drawing style is different, not necessarily better or worse. (Bad art is still bad art, but good art doesn’t all look the same.) At the end she encourages kids to send in their work to be on the next show, always a good thing to see.

These are up on their YouTube page, which has links to other kid-friendly productions and their main show (which is at least family-friendly most of the time), and there’s sure to be more to come. I love seeing proof that kids shows don’t have to be dumbed down or pander to adults to be enjoyed by anyone. Unless you don’t have the guts to watch something with “kids” in the name.”