BW Vs Film Theory> Just Choose Your Heroes Better

I kind of feel like a chump for this one.

Here we are, MatPat’s final episode of Film Theory and I’m doing a VS article on it. It doesn’t feel right, but it is necessary.

MatPat is a dad, and I’m not. However, in his final episode, entitled “Don’t Trust Your Heroes”, he tries to make a point that there are an increasingly low level of male role models for kids in kids entertainment. I was ready to at least mostly agree with him…and then he explained it. He sounded more and more like one of those parent groups that would convince the networks that any kids show was designed for a five year old and should be treated as such. I think his son, Ollie, is around five at the most and that’s the assumption I’ll be going with in my comments. This is where the problem is, as the examples he goes into for “violent kids TV” (hopefully that’s not exaggerating) aren’t really kids stuff, or at least not five year old boy stuff.

So what do I think is his big misstep? First I want us all to watch the video so we’re on the same footing, go over where I agree and disagree with him (and being a VS article it’s going to mostly be disagree), and then explain what I think he got the most wrong.

I was surprised when he said that Film Theory was not as accepted as his other channels. The Film Theorists and Game Theorists channels are actually my two favorite of the group (five including GT Live, which I don’t watch at all because I don’t have time), and I’m not sure I’ll stick with Food Theory or Style Theory because these aren’t topics I’ve been really jazzed for. They’re probably the ones I’ve skipped episodes for the most (especially that whole eating your Christmas tree thing) because I wasn’t that interested, even if they have covered topics that made me curious. I mostly watched those shows for MatPat, while Game Theory and Film Theory I expect to be into for the long haul unless it loses me in the same ways Extra Credits did, and not because of the whole “you’re a Nazi” controversy. They just took a direction with the shows (including ones on history and sci-fi) that wasn’t for me. Then I heard about how they screwed over certain creators, which I hope the Theorist Network’s new owners won’t do, and that’s when I was ready to part ways. I will doing a review of the new hosts’ first videos once they all come out.

MatPat is for LGBT+ representation, which may bother a few people, or not. That’s on you and where you stand in the culture war. No surprise there that he’s more liberal minded, but he’s never come off as a far left extremist, so we’re still cool, and it’s up to the parents to decide if they’re happy with that or not. I believe he only brought it up as an example of positive representation versus the male heroes and characters. As far as race and gender representation I’ve written time and again that this wasn’t an issue for me growing up. I have too many of those to link to but they’re easy to find. I grew up with shows with the girl being in the lead or right up there with the guys and cheered them on, even a few “girly” shows on occasion. The same goes for heroes of color, be they the big hero or part of the support team, which I consider just as important because somebody has to keep the hero’s gear working or be their friend.

Five good father figures. Okay, I can do this. I kind of want to use Bandit myself but if that’s off the table:

1. Sparkplug Witwicky
2. Jonathan “Pa” Kent when not in a Zack Snyder film
3. Shaman (Bravestarr’s grandfather)
4. King Randor (as much as he was embarrassed by his son’s actions at times, not knowing it was an act to protect the He-Man identity, he did care for Prince Adam…I could have used Teela’s father, Man-At-Arms, who was also a mentor for Adam)
5. Hailey’s dad Kai Banks

I could list a few more, and I did struggle a bit, but he said five. He also said childhood and Hailey’s On It is a new show, but so is Bluey. There have also been plenty of mentors and guest appearing dads throughout the years. There have been quite a few good fathers if you know where to look. There aren’t as many recently and I’ll get back to that, but let’s talk about some of the examples he uses as “kids shows”.

Again, we’re going on a theory…a child’s age theory…that Ollie, Matt’s son, is five years old. You know what animated movie you shouldn’t be showing a five year old? Batman: Assault On Arkham Asylum. It’s not a kids movie just because it’s cartoon Batman. It’s like saying the movie The Batman is as much for kids as the cartoon series The Batman or even the little kids show Batwheels, which would probably be better suited for someone Ollie’s assumed age. Elena Of Avalor is also pointed to that group, but Elena does have her share of sword fencing…including in the intro to the show, so it shows up every week.

There are girls who enjoy this kind of action, but typically not. Elena and her friends do their share of fighting. In fact her debut was in a Sophia The First movie where she was trapped in the magic necklace Sophia uses to call on various Disney princesses, including Mulan even though she technically isn’t a princess, by an evil sorceress who took over Avalor. They collect a group of young people to fight the sorceress, who then become the rest of Elena’s own show’s cast. As I said, typically this isn’t the type of show girls are drawn to, but there are exceptions and Elena Of Avalor filled that need, and yet was the exception. Many episodes didn’t have villains and were instead about Elena trying and learning to be a good and compassionate ruler while also being a big sister and making friends with other nations. It didn’t shy away from Elena making mistakes because she missed the whole picture. It’s a show that I also enjoyed, and longtime BW readers know I’d be watching Paw Patrol with Ollie and being just as entertained. It’s got a dog in a wheelchair who rescue dinosaurs. How cool is that? Also, Marshall. He is my favorite.

Let’s see some of his other examples. Johnny Bravo. Even the show doesn’t treat him as a role model, but nobody on that show is, and they get their comeuppance. Johnny isn’t a bad guy, just one who himself didn’t have a positive male role model but did have a mom who was also a bad role model. He used Dexter from Dexter’s Laboratory at one point, but the scene he used was him being mad that Deedee wrecked his lab again because she has no concern for his stuff…which is why the episode where Dexter’s dad making them switch rooms comes off as ridiculous. Deedee would totally go into the lab and goof around, believing she has to “save” her brother from a “boring” life of science. Yes, he could try to get along with her, but it’s not like she’s doing anything to make it easy.

I don’t watch the show very often but are Phineas And Ferb actually breaking rules? Were they told not to design a space station and a ship to get there? I think one of the movies or final episode mentioned that the reason Candice wants to “bust” her brothers is that she’s worried they’re going to get hurt, not because she wants to see them punished for being bad. Then again, I haven’t seen enough to know for sure. I do know that superhero stories being violent according to MatPat is where we get into the “parent group” situation, and where we really start disagreeing. The heroes in an actual kids show (again, NOT Batman: Assault On Arkham) are not as violent as the villain. If anything they’d rather not be violent and are as unviolent as possible. Luke is in a war, but even with the laser fire in Star Wars Droids or in any of the animated shows outside of The Clone Wars and Rebels the only violence is against robots…which in Optimus Prime’s case is a loophole that came back to bite parents when he died in the movie. Then again, Spike and Ultra Magnus both say a naughty word each in the theatrical version.

Some of that, at least in my childhood, came from network limitations. Parent groups would not let Saturday morning shows be “violent” but boys still prefer action to boredom. Ollie apparently isn’t every boy (not that he likes boring shows…I think…but if he doesn’t like Phineas And Ferb because he doesn’t like characters breaking the rules, he’s not typical of boys I’ve known because most boys either like that part or aren’t thinking about that during the wacky hijinks they get into) and that’s fine. I don’t usually go for the very violent stuff myself. I grew up in the days of Sat AM. The first time I saw a Batman who wasn’t live-action Adam West throw a punch, it was a skull-shaped fear projector device. (Watch “The Fear” from Super Powers Team, people. It also has Adam West.) Superman only punched robots and meteors. He-Man pounded on a few monsters but never people, not even Skeletor. He just fenced with him a bit, deflected some magic bolts, and tossed him into the mud, and the various He-Man cartoons were syndicated and not worried about parent groups. They still knew to limit the violence for kids and went with action instead, even have experts to make sure they didn’t cross the line. Samurai Jack played with huge loopholes with robots and cyborgs and was still more action than violence, unlike Primal, which is also not a show for kids.

The first time I saw Batman punch an actual human being without onomatopoeias blocking the way was Batman: The Animated Series, and that was also not a show for Ollie’s presumed age. On the other hand the Batman of Batwheels has not thrown a single punch because that’s not welcome for the target age group. Unless the real violence is happening off-screen while we focus on the secretly talking cars the show’s actually about it doesn’t work for that version of Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, Green Arrow, or the villains. Even the Joker lacks a body count.

I do reject that idea that “Wendy” is supposed to be a prize in the world of Peter Pan. Admittedly I’m more familiar with Fox’s Peter Pan And The Pirates than I am other versions of Peter, though the book would make an interesting Chapter By Chapter review in the future. In that show Peter’s actions are not always shown as virtuous. Wendy was brought to be a “mother” for the Lost Boys, something they knew they were missing, but misunderstood what that meant beyond storytime and making meals. Peter even keeps Hook around so he has someone to battle. There’s an episode where he steals from a frost giant or something and he’s not the least bit repentant. While the giant is in the wrong for trying to freeze everyone for Peter’s actions, this isn’t Peter stealing something from a villain, but at least the anger is understood. Peter is not the hero, and really neither is Tinkerbell in earlier versions where she TRIES TO GET WENDY KILLED MORE THAN ONCE! Tricksters who used to be jerks aren’t just for Bugs Bunny, people.

I do agree that it’s nice to see girls who aren’t just there to mature the boys, be the prize, or be rescued, though there is nothing wrong with those stories on their own. It’s not the existence of A but the absence of B, and having stories where the girl gets to be her own hero is great. I grew up with some. When done right like Elena or Hailey, where we get to see them become better people just like we would with a boy character, they can be interesting and kids can learn from overcoming their failures. In the actual Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson the girl has to rescue her boyfriend from the jealous queen. However, taking away stories of the man rescuing the woman or needing his mom or a stand-in to give him something to be responsible about and for, especially if the father figure is lacking or missing, is not a good thing, either. There’s a reason people have enjoyed it, and boys learn from seeing the male heroes become responsible and care for others while still kicking butt. You can have both, you know.

Let’s talk “toyetic” for a moment. Oh, it’s totally something that goes on. Even Paw Patrol is toyetic. Spinmasters, the company that makes the show and bunch of others, is a toy company. I’m not sure why he used Cowboy BeBop however. That’s not really known for toys or other merch. Something like the Gundam franchise would make more sense. While not originally intended to be more than a war story about how bad war is, decisions in later incarnations came from wanting to release new Gundam and Zaku model kits, so new designs were made. However, the toys are to help make the show. He listed ThunderCats and I mentioned Bravestarr earlier. In both cases the show was created first, much like Mobile Suit Gundam, and the toys went to help make the show. That’s why more toyetic shows were produced in syndication than in Saturday morning programming. There were toys based on SatAM shows, and you had shows like Dungeons & Dragons, which was made to push the game. They even tried to make one based on Hot Wheels but that was shut down because FCC rules at the time didn’t allow for “ad” shows. That changed with President Ronald Regan, but whether the shows are made to sell toys or toys being used to help give the show a decent budget, toys based on TV shows wasn’t anything new.

I had toys based on Star Trek, Adam-12, and Emergency, all before the regulation was lifted, and none of those shows were kids shows. Family or family-friendly perhaps, but for older kids. The Six Million Dollar Man had a rather famous action figure line, short as it was, while The Man From UNCLE had a role-play kit. Toys based on shows and movies were nothing new even before Star Wars or the rise of adult collectors. To be able to sell those toys, the show had to be good, or kids wouldn’t be interested in playing as Steve Austin or an anti-spy agent. The reason we remember Transformers or Masters Of The Universe and not many people remember Lady Lovelylocks or Sky Commanders is that the show needed a wide enough audience that also bought the toys. Some shows will get a niche nostalgia audience like Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors while shows like Robotman And Friends get mostly shrugs or “wasn’t that a newspaper strip?” from people. There was some dude who had his name legally changed to Optimus Prime because the show’s version was a better father figure than his actual father. By the way, the human Optimus is a former firefighter who served in Iraq. As far as I’m concerned he can call himself “Pretty Mary Sunlight” and still be more of a badass than most people you know.

That’s why it bugs me if a show is written off as “being meant to sell toys” or whatever because that doesn’t stop the story from being good. It actually helps, since a syndicated show doesn’t have the financial backing of a network show, so that extra merchandise money goes to keeping the show on the air. If Adventures Of The Galaxy Rangers or The Centurions had more toys that sold well they would have gotten at least another season. “Ad” shows have to follow the same rules as any other show. It’s just the toy company will ask for their toy to be pushed in the promotional show or ask the show the toy is based on to create more possible toys. ThunderCats made that work because Panthro and Jackalman were builders and when they introduced three new ThunderCats they actually made them work alongside the originals. It can be done, and needs to be to push the toys, which in turn pays for the show, and thus the cycle goes on unless the show gets bad and kids don’t want the toys, or the toys are either outgrown or bad and nobody’s buying them. Transformers continued on long past the show in part because of the comics, but also because the toys were really good for the time.

MatPat accidentally stumbled upon a huge problem in media right now in that women, in the name of diversity, have taken over properties that target the male audience and, in trying to get more women into a property–let’s just use Marvel as an example, turned it into a girl brand. This not only lost the women who already enjoyed Marvel for what it was, but has been killing the male audience without replacing them with women who have no interest in superheroes or action stories, as well as the third person/first person perspective MatPat mentions in the video. Look at Twilight‘s audience and you’ll see what I mean. There’s a gag among critics of current Marvel offerings that the characters spend more time eating in diners and being quirky than heroically fighting crime. Girls typically aren’t interested in that kind of good versus evil battle…again, typically. There are exceptions, like Elena Of Avalor or the few good Star Wars shows that attract girls, but they are not the rule. This is one of the reasons Marvel has been suffering in movies, streaming, and comics. Boys are into the more action-oriented stories regardless of the alleged violence levels while girls aren’t. The Marvels bombed hard and more men went to see it than women.

There’s a Disney Junior Star Wars series and Marvel series, and both cater to boys even though girl heroes and Jedi are standing alongside them. Anybody can watch them but they focus on who would actually enjoy those stories because that’s how you do it. You don’t make a romantic piece for boys or a war picture for girls. Meanwhile, LEGO Friends, one of the toylines he mentions, also has a rather good show on Disney Channel, but because it’s about a diverse group of friends who are featured more for their interests and hobbies than races, genders, or disabilities (one girl is missing an arm but doesn’t let that stop her or make her a “victim” from the few episodes I saw and she’s very likable). The show is primarily female led, though the boys there might be the type of role models MatPat wants for Ollie.

This finally leads to what I think MatPat is most missing in his video and the problem with most parent groups: he’s lacking proper context. He lists Marinette from Miraculous Ladybug, but that show’s only good when she and Cat Noir are battling villains. This season has been a bit better, but that’s only because Marinette finally explored why she was practically stalking Adrien the previous seasons due to a trauma from her first attempt to date a boy she liked. The more interesting personal drama came from Adrien’s issues with his father (secretly the supervillain he’s fighting) and the season ender…I have questions. HUGE ones. I watch it for the action, which MatPat saw as violence in boy shows. He listed Elena Of Avalor, which also has action. He sees Batman, Superman, and He-Man as bad role models, but ignores that they try to limit their violence, search for other solutions, and are happier when not fighting and reforming villains instead. DCAU Batman gives jobs to reformed henchmen and stayed with a girl who was dying because keeping her calm was a better way to keep her psychic powers from destroying the city than killing her, among other examples. They fought when they had to. “Sometimes you have to fight when you’re a man”, as a Kenny Rogers song once put it. It is not their default setting, and if they’re shown going to “punch it” mode first it turns out to be a bad idea. These shows teach boys to avoid fighting if you can and to only fight when you have to in order to protect others, or there are very bad consequences.

Meanwhile sitcoms for kids continue to make dads dumb, moms bitchy, and the kids the really smart ones. Again, what makes Hailey’s On It so interesting to me is that the dad is the relaxed one and mom the stressed one, but while both have their comedic issues (it’s a comedy) they’re also shown to be smart and care for their daughter. Hailey herself struggles with insecurities and misunderstandings, and has to find alternate ways of completing her bucket list, which leads her to be confident enough to end global warming and save the world in the future, without hurting the people she cares about. It’s a really good show, and while her best friend Scott is kind of an idiot he has his moments of clarity and pushes Hailey on not just for the sake of the future but because he wants his friend to be great.

Looking at shows for kids way older than Ollie is not a good answer. Again, not Assault On Arkham, but maybe let him watch Batwheels or Hero Elementary (for the love of God avoid Superhero Kindergarten because it’s garbage) until he’s old enough for Superfriends or later on Batman: The Animated Series. He asked for expert help on Style Theory; maybe he should call me as a kids TV expert. I can recommend a bunch of shows but the question is whether or not Ollie would like them, especially the older stuff. We all have our own tastes, but we already both enjoy Paw Patrol. 😀 The point is, when you’re saying Superman is not a good role model, which will get me disappointed and comparing you to Fredric Wertham, maybe don’t watch the DCAU series yet but expose him to Krypto The Superdog or the Ruby-Spears version or something. Not every cartoon is for kids and not all kids shows are made for younger kids. The DCAU is for teens, Superfriends for maybe 10 year olds, and Spidey & His Amazing Friends (yes, I know that’s Marvel but all DC has is Batwheels and the could-be-better DC Super Friends while DC Super Hero Girls isn’t designed with boys in mind) or PJ Masks right now.

This has been a long one, but I am responding to a video. As I said before, there are good shows for kids out there. Choose the right ones that are age appropriate and don’t go against your world view. We are running out of male role models as modern writers want to downplay men and fathers for sociopolitical reasons, with a warped idea of what “toxic masculinity” actually is (I’ve seen the real thing–I know the difference), and we do need more positive role models for boys as much as we do for girls. I can find them rather easily. Call me, MatPat. I can help you find something good for Ollie that you’ll approve of even through our disagreements. But that’s just a theory…a KIDS SHOW THEORY. Thanks for reading. Gonna miss you, MatPat.