Some forms of children's media stay ridiculously saccharine, others like to flirt with that line of adult themes (the Harry Potter Series did it best) and still others bulldoze past the line without any regard, as they charge full steam ahead into the adult world while still staying geared towards kids. This list salutes some of the latter.
Animorphs
The Animorphs, by K.A. Applegate, was about a group of kids who are given special powers to turn into any animal for two hours. They must return to their regular form before the 2 hours are up unless they will be stuck in that form forever. They are given this power to stop the an antagonistic group of aliens, the "Yeerks", who can take control of any humans body, from invading Earth. Pretty basic stuff. Aliens bad and they must be stopped. And for the 1st half of the 50+ book series that is pretty much how it played out. Nobody died, the Yeerks were cartoonishly evil but the children always managed to do just enough to survive.Then Applegate decided that she would rather things got real.
This started with the introduction of a new Animorph, David, who subsequently betrays the team and has the readers thinking he may have killed the team. Their solution to this problem, they force him to live his life trapped in the form of a mouse on an abandoned island. But he deserved it right? He was evil for no reason? Actually, the Yeerks had taken control of both of his parents and he was essentially "drafted" into a war against his choice. He was betraying the Animorphs in a chance to save his parents. Not exactly Lex Luthor over here.
Eventually the writers start to question the morality of the war. Is it okay to attack Yeerks who are defenseless? (They have to leave their host every three days to feed in a nutrition pool. Their natural forms are essentially blind slugs). Is it okay to sacrifice team members for the good of the cause? How should they manage their need to win the war with their need to keep their humanity. Can they employ an "any means necessary" strategy just because the Yeerks attacked first? What made it worse was the team was split on these moral issues which really drove the point home. *Spoiler Alert* The series ended with the Animorphs recruiting more members from a disabled home (because they figured the Yeerks wouldn't be targeting disabled hosts). They were all slaughtered by the end of the series. Also Jake, the de facto but reluctant leader, sends his cousin Rachel on a suicide mission to kill his brother (who was controlled by a Yeerk), and makes the decision to kill thousands of defenseless Yeerks by flushing them into space while they were feeding. Parallels could easily be drawn to the wars in Iraq and Afganistan and the series really stopped being about aliens and more of an analogy for the morality of human war. Oh and for fun, they also essentially created God and Devil analogies that were omniscient aliens playing "a game" with the universe of which the Yeerk invasion was just a small piece of. Kinda deep for a 5th grade reading level.
This started with the introduction of a new Animorph, David, who subsequently betrays the team and has the readers thinking he may have killed the team. Their solution to this problem, they force him to live his life trapped in the form of a mouse on an abandoned island. But he deserved it right? He was evil for no reason? Actually, the Yeerks had taken control of both of his parents and he was essentially "drafted" into a war against his choice. He was betraying the Animorphs in a chance to save his parents. Not exactly Lex Luthor over here.
Eventually the writers start to question the morality of the war. Is it okay to attack Yeerks who are defenseless? (They have to leave their host every three days to feed in a nutrition pool. Their natural forms are essentially blind slugs). Is it okay to sacrifice team members for the good of the cause? How should they manage their need to win the war with their need to keep their humanity. Can they employ an "any means necessary" strategy just because the Yeerks attacked first? What made it worse was the team was split on these moral issues which really drove the point home. *Spoiler Alert* The series ended with the Animorphs recruiting more members from a disabled home (because they figured the Yeerks wouldn't be targeting disabled hosts). They were all slaughtered by the end of the series. Also Jake, the de facto but reluctant leader, sends his cousin Rachel on a suicide mission to kill his brother (who was controlled by a Yeerk), and makes the decision to kill thousands of defenseless Yeerks by flushing them into space while they were feeding. Parallels could easily be drawn to the wars in Iraq and Afganistan and the series really stopped being about aliens and more of an analogy for the morality of human war. Oh and for fun, they also essentially created God and Devil analogies that were omniscient aliens playing "a game" with the universe of which the Yeerk invasion was just a small piece of. Kinda deep for a 5th grade reading level.
Casper
Here, I'm specifically talking about the movie starring Christina Ricci. We all know the story. Ghost boy falls for this girl who moved into his house. He has three uncles who treat him like crap. The movie is already kind of sad because Casper states that he died when he got sick from being out in the cold too long. We also find out that Ricci's mother also died and that her father has been researching ghosts to find a way to contact his deceased wife. Somehow, things get more depressing from here.
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| Yes, I just blew your mind. |
Later in the movie, in a drunken binge, Ricci's father kills himself. By falling in a ditch. You read that right, he dies. Since he comes back as a ghost and parties with Casper's uncles it doesn't seem that traumatizing. But make no mistake, he is dead. Ricci becomes very emotional. Because of this Casper decides to use his one chance to become a living person again and find true love to instead bring her father back to life. Let's recap, he died at a very young age, is forced to wait hand and foot on his uncles who pretty openly despise and mock him, he finally falls in love and has a chance to live again, but he has to give it up for the woman he loves. He is given the gift to be able to be alive for a night and has the most fun he's ever had, only to turn back into a ghost when he's about to get his first kiss. Yep, Capser has no choice but to assume that life hates him. To top it all off, the movie clearly states that ghosts are spirits with no unfinished business. Since Casper stays a ghost, he must have unfinished business and therefore will never be able to advance to the afterlife. What a picker upper movie.
His Dark Materials
Many might expect the Harry Potter series to be on here because that series got very serious in tone after the first book. Rowling started killing off characters left and right. Many Christian churches decreed the use of wizardry and witchcraft as being demonic and anti-Christian. While the HP series has gotten more negative publicitity, the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman goes way farther than Rowling ever did. Simply put, Pullman actively portrays religion and the church as evil. Straight evil. Deadly experimenting on children evil. Kill those who disagree evil. Sure, he's not the first to do that. What really makes his series controversial is that you learn the real goal of the protagonists father is to "kill The Authority", with the Authority being an Analogy for God. Not only does he do that, he also changes the story of what/who God is. Instead of being The Creator, he says that he was just the first angel to come into existence, and then lied to all the other angels who came after him by saying he created them. The authority seems to age since when he is finally found he is old and weak and quickly passes away when taken off him "life support". When they made the Golden Compass movie I was sure that the backlash would be monumental. Nope. There was some grumbling but nothing compared to what Harry Potter has gotten. Go figure.
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