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Cleanup, "It's made for kids", Bad media
All of this just works.
― Todd Howard 		This article needs cleanup to meet our rules and guidelines. You can help by editing it.
The following reason has been specified: Include other media besides shows that use this excuse (games, movies and books). Also add Redeeming Qualities.

"It's made for kids" is an excuse used to dismiss criticism of entertainment made for younger audiences.

Background

It is well known that kids are easier to entertain by simpler things that older viewers may find stupid or boring at first. Likewise, kids are unlikely to understand and/or appreciate more highly complicated and mature shows (like The Simpsons). Because of that, media targeted at younger audiences tend to be simpler than shows targeted at older audiences, but that doesn't mean that shows aimed at kids should be too simplistic, realistic, and basic.

Often when people criticize kids' media for either poor quality, cheap comedy, lacking any real substance, logic, and/or intelligence, or anything else they don't like, some people might use the fact that "It's made for kids" as an excuse for doing so. Sure, it may be made for kids, but that is not a reasonable excuse for making poor-quality, effortless, and excessively kid-friendly shows that older viewers will find stupid and/or poorly executed. This excuse also makes kids look like idiots with no real taste or standards who will like anything aimed at them, which isn't true. According to Raven's quote above, "Kids are a lot smarter than they're given credit for." (This is hypocritical because Teen Titans Go! often uses this excuse.)

On the other hand, some older people dismiss shows targeted at young audiences as "kiddie media." Just because it's made for kids doesn't mean older viewers can't watch them or won't find the challenge and substance in them. If the show is made well enough, anyone of any age can enjoy it.

Even if a media is aimed at kids, older viewers may also be interested in it (the show would be rated either TV-G-rated, TV-PG or E for Everyone and the TV guidelines rating "TV-G" means "General Audiences," not just kids, but adults too). There are many media aimed at younger audiences that can also be enjoyed by older viewers, such as Phineas and Ferb, The Amazing World of Gumball, Ren and Stimpy, Gravity Falls, etc; The aforementioned media are made for kids but have enough substance and real effort put in to be entertaining for grownups and don't pander towards kids (either younger or in their pre-teen years).

There is no excuse for making poorly-made media for everyone.

Why This Excuse Sucks

  1. It’s just a way for people to dismiss criticism towards bad kids' media. By rejecting criticism, the quality of the media may never improve.
  2. Pointing out the flaws in kids' media can leave improvement and ensure that more kids' media can be made to be enjoyed by grownups as well.
  3. This whole excuse treats kids like idiots with no discernible taste or standards, who will like anything given to them, which isn't true. Kids may be easy to entertain, but they're not as dumb as you might think.
  4. It should be noted that contrary to popular belief, actually even kids would very likely not enjoy these poorly-made kids' shows that are shown to them, hence highlighting this fact further.
  5. In fact, most niche audience shows that are considered bad enforcement with this excuse once cluttered the wiki in the past, before they were temporarily removed here and once attempted to move to the planned Terrible Niche Audience Shows Wiki, but that wiki closed due to inactivity. As of recent, the niche audience shows have since come back to the wiki.
  6. The only thing this excuse encourages kids to do is to stoop to any low level like ignoring their parents, not listening to them, or simply not caring one little bit about them.
  7. The overuse of this excuse is what tends to make cartoons and kids' media in general, receive a negative reputation from older audiences, even though some shows don't even deserve all the hate and backlash they receive or if the show is in question is well received or not.
  8. This excuse is the main reason why the American television industry treats animation like something for kids most of the time instead of an art form that can be used for older audiences.

How to Make a Good Children's Media

  1. At least when coming up with an art style (especially character designs) don’t make it way too cartoonish, photorealistic, or simplistic, and come up with something pleasing to the eye, instead, make it much detailed, unique, or complicated.
    • Humanoid/anthropomorphic animals, toys, talking vehicles/trains, and fantasy creatures are usually a good pick for this. Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, and PAW Patrol are among three of the best examples of this.
    • Even if the art style is pretty ugly (albeit intentional), the show can still be fun to watch due to the charm. Many of the Klasky-Csupo shows are a good example of this (like Rugrats, Rocket Power, The Wild Thornberrys etc.)
  2. With the premise or plot, try to make it understandable, detailed, unique, and not too complicated instead of making it cliched, generic, overused or simplistic.
    • The writing should also be either sharp, well-timed, consistent, or just paced decently for all viewers to follow and see how competent the story and everything around it is. Don’t have everything dumbed down just because the show is for children. While you’re at it too, don't write stories that make the writing so shallow or poor enough to where the episode you're writing looks as if you're playing down the audience by thinking children are mindless enough to find poorly written substance funny either.
    • Children and other viewers should be able to watch the show and enjoy their time observing what's on-screen or just catch the viewers' interest with what's going on in an episode without having anything essentially annoying, tedious, grating, or boring.
  3. For any content outside of children’s media like profanity, sexual content, or blood, have very little to no amount of that. Mild cartoon violence is fine especially if the characters in the show are non-humans or the violence is used as "slapstick". Tom and Jerry is an example of this and so is Looney Tunes. The only times that slapstick-induced content with a human character was done right were in cartoons such as Steven Universe, and The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy.
    • Nevertheless, this can be somewhat averted if the show appeals to both children and older audiences. Examples of this are The Amazing World of Gumball, Gravity Falls, The Owl House, Rocko's Modern Life, Teen Titans, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Bluey, and so on. For that to happen, make sure you don't let your target audience be uncertain as to if your show in question can't tell if it's made for either younger or older audiences.
  4. If you want your show to discuss any mature topics make sure the themes are not too over the top, the topics also need to be taken seriously and addressed in a manner that kids can understand (it can also be played for laughs and understandable black comedy).
    • Examples of shows that have done this to include Serious Topics: Rugrats (family loss), As Told By Ginger (breakups, appendix surgery, death, implied depression, and caffeine addictions) Mister Roger's Neighborhood (the Vietnam war), Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (autism and death), Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (Stockholm syndrome, suicide, death, fame, mortality), Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (racism), Hey Arnold! (parents putting one child over the other), Arthur (autism, cancer, and the Vietnam War), The Proud Family (sexism and racism), Steven Universe (Authoritarianism and rebellion), Gravity Falls (Sibling and family relationships), etc.
  5. If you want to make an educational type of show then use some entertainment value to keep kids interested, especially for shows that are rated TV-Y, G and E and sometimes TV-G, TV-Y7, PG and E10+.
  6. Make some of your most immersive characters that serve as good role models and protagonists or real challenges as antagonists.
    • Some children's shows even lack antagonists to retain a pleasing mood such as Bluey.
  7. When coming to the animated TV Show adaptations of the original source material (e.g. Comic Books and Graphic Novels, Novels, Toys, Books, Video Games, Japanese media (like Anime, Manga, OVA, Light Novels, Doujinshis, etc), or even other things like food mascots, and more), you must be faithful to the original source material, or even better, have a great charm and heart to the OG piece of source material.
    • To make it even more faithful, hire a crew that are fans or they fully understand of the original source material, and crew that they worked in an original source material
    • Or if you want to be better with it, try making the ideas of an original concept of the source material, and mix it with original ideas
    • For further information, read the page of it (in development)
    • TBA
  8. DONT TALK DOWN TO YOUR AUDIENCE, ESPECIALLY ON A EDUCATIONAL SHOW!

Examples of Good Kids Media

NOTE: Keep in mind that some good kids shows could also use the excuse, and some kids' shows can also be good for kids despite their flaws. This is not an exhaustive list.

Shows

Examples of Bad/Average Kids Media with this Excuse

This is not an exhaustive list.

Shows

Video Games

Movies

Comments

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