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Before we start, let me make one thing clear. I’m not condemning…most of what I’m about to discuss here. I’m not against horror simply because I don’t enjoy being scared. I prefer evil to lose with as few victims as possible while maintaining the drama of a serious threat. With the exceptions I will specifically point out, these things are doing their own thing. I’m still noticing a trend and I’m going to discuss it because it’s relevant to discussing storytelling.
Horror stories for kids are nothing new. From Goosebumps to Are You Afraid Of The Dark? to special Halloween episodes or just general stories of people fighting ghosts, some kids do enjoy being scared for fun. Even the Tales From The Crypt had a Saturday morning counterpart, Tales From The Cryptkeeper. I watched a few of these myself, but again, I wanted to see the villain lose and that’s was less Goosebumps territory and more Real Ghostbusters.
This is not what we’re discussing. It’s the reverse.
Between video games, movies, and YouTube series, there isn’t so much horror for kids as much as horror with kids, or with things kids love. If you’ve heard of Five Nights And Freddy’s and the various sequels, spinoffs, and knockoffs you know what I’m talking about. Film Theory and Game Theory often discuss other productions where a child’s TV show or online game is secretly a doorway to Hell or some other evil supernatural presence, at least within the world they take place in. The actual product isn’t for kids. Game Theory recently discussed a sequel to a “kids” game called Amanda The Adventurer 2 that I’ll that I’ll link to here (will auto play because it’s YouTube but now the Theorist shows are on Tubi) , a game where the player goes through tapes of an old kids show to find it’s been stealing kids’ souls. A lot of kids soul stealing in these Freddy inspirations even when they aren’t knockoffs.
I can take or leave it but it is worth discussing. No, when I get to the “why God why” part of this discussion it’s a different and more direct attack on childhood innocence. We will be looking at the recent trend of taking a preexisting kids show and turning it into a horror story because public domain happened and someone’s first thought was “slasher film”…which oddly started with something NOT in public domain and that’s going to get the hammer, too. This I’m going to be less kind about but let’s start with where this all began.
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I hope that’s a window behind them and not, you know, the ocean!
The Searchers #1
Caliber Comics (1996, digital release)
WRITERS: Colin Clayton & Chris Dows
ARTIST: Art Wetherell
LETTERER: Ken DeLane
EDITOR: Chet Jacques
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Well, it looks like this one may take multiple parts, a subseries in our series on the sales pitch and writer’s guide for the original Star Trek. Last time we looked at the sets. This time it’s the stuff on those sets.
Knowing your terminology is important in making a believable world. Whether it’s medical terms in a hospital drama or police terms on a detective show, the words already exist, and you only make them up if they’re not normally things they deal with, like a new disease or testing a new way to stop speeding cars. Otherwise, you don’t have to waste time making them up. Meanwhile in science-fiction, some words exist and some you have to make up for your advanced futuristic alien technology or things you found in space.
Terms can also evolve as a show goes on, never mind multiple continuities like Star Trek has, with three timelines taking place over different centuries. For example, in the original The Transformers Energon was simply the same of the storage cube Soundwave generated to hold and convert Earth’s energy resources. Before season one was out and well into the next two seasons, Energon became the actual energy source of Cybertronians, and later series and continuities have made it everything from crystals to ore to a liquid, while the original series couldn’t decide if Transformers ate the Energon Cubes or drank from them. Setting this stuff up beforehand in your story bible helps keeps things straight between episodes.
So you may think you already know these terms, but how well do you really know them? Let’s take the first batch of terms and see if there have been many changes over the years.
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Saying I’m cross about this crossover is too much like the humor in this comic.
Sonic Super Special #10
Archie Comic Publications (1999)
COLORING/SEPARATIONS: Joshua D. & Aimee R. Ray
LETTERER: Vickie Williams
EDITOR: J.F. Gabrie
“Some Enchantra Evening” chapter 2
WRITER: Michael Gallagher
ARTISTS: Dave Manak & Dan DeCarlo with inks by Jim Amash
Zone Wars: “A Tale Of Two Hedgehogs”
WRITER: Karl Bollers
ARTISTS: Jim Valentino & Harvey Mercadoocasio
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Admittedly this is their side of the story. Thuy Trang and Jason David Frank are no longer with us, and I haven’t heard Amy Jo Johnson, David Yost, or anyone at Saban Entertainment tell their side of the story. If I come across it I’ll post it. The surviving actors have appeared in later projects as cameos or in Frank’s case a returning Ranger in Dino Thunder. I’m not sure if that means something changed with Disney, Saban 2.0, or Hasbro. I haven’t heard from Audri Dubois via a video or anything else (I’ve not even seen an interview with her) but she supposedly was let go for demanding more money after the first pilot.
BW Media Spotlight 
BW’s Daily Video> Unoriginal Originality
NOTE: A swear or two in this one
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on December 5, 2024 in Uncategorized and tagged commentary, Mr. Enter, writing tips.
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