| Javier_89 wrote: | ||
Avatar is undoubtably for kids, and the reason why I like it as a 17-year-old is because I am essentially a kid inside. I am able to get immersed in the show's world, which is greater and more fantastic that my own, and enjoy the experience of going on Ang's adventures. Avatar is unlike many of the shows shown and previously shown on Nick, in the sense that the eyes of many adults immeadiately gloss over when they see it. When my parents saw me watching rugrats as a kid, they didn't hesitate to sit down with me and watch it (This is good old rugrats, pre-dill, before they were dumbed down). Today, when my parents see my little brother watching Avatar, there reaction is the same to that of a video game, they literally cannot comprehend it. It is unlike anything they have ever seen, and they want nothing to do with it. They could bear traditional sit-com-like format of rugrats, but they just lack the ability to get into Avatar the way a child can. Evidence that the writers of Avatar do not try to accomidate the parent/adult as described above is the lack of mature refereces. Rugrats is the perfect example of a show intended for kids, with hidden goodies for adults. Example 1: Stu is showing home movies, and the grandpa won't stop complaining about how boring they are. Midway through the first movie, he picks up a phone and says "Yes, Dr. Kevorkian." I doubt that very many viewers in the target audience are familiar with Dr. Kevorkian, who allegedly assisted many to commit suicide. Example 2: Stu is talking about how he'll never finish his latest and greatest invention, and Dee Dee asserts, "Did Motzart ever finish his requiem?" Same story as above, only one in a million eight-year-olds would have any idea what she was talking about. These just go to shows that the writers of Rugrats were aware of a small minority of mature viewers(namely parents). There is no special effort made to accomedate the "mature" viewers of avatar. Everyone who likes avatar likes it for the same reasons (forget about the really little kids who can't even follow the plot and just like the fights and colors). Another way in which avatar fails to appeal to adults is with it's lack of overarching themes and human truths (I haven't been watching for very long, so I may be wrong. Please tell me if you have found deeper meaning in the show). Examples of such "kids" pieces with such real messages include "The Lion King," a personal favorite which stresses the importance of family, duty and responsibility insisting that life comes down to finding and fufilling your role in the world, or "in the circle of life" if you must. Another such work is "Star Wars," which confirms the things that every living person wants to believe in the deepest part of their heart, good will ultimatly prevail over evil despite how dire things may seem, and that despite living a normal and seemingly purposless existance, they have something so uniquely special about them that will help them save the world, and off this rock that they call Tatooine. I know that I can't expect a TV series to compare with some of the greatest movies of all time, I'm just saying that Avatar lacks a feature that made the greatest pieces of Kid's entertainment also pieces of adult entertainment. In short, Avatar appeals to some adults, but it lacks the specifically adult jokes of Rugrats, and the deep food for thought of "the Lion King" and "Star Wars." It offers nothing to the majority of the adult population. Avatar is for kids, and adults who have retained the ability to get lost in a magical world far removed from there own, an ability I hope to never lose. Also, I couldn't find a good place to mention this, but as far as mature nick shows go, I found the episode of "As Told by Ginger," where she is suspected of being suicidal to be incredibly emotionaly mature, and got the feeling that I wouldn't be able to understand it (the emotion, not the plot) is I were just a few years younger. This is hard proof that nick does take action to specifically accomedatee the teen demographic. Final thought: pure speculation: most of the "adults" here are teens like myself, right? Though I can appreciate Avatar as a full-grown-person, I have trouble seeing any real adult (even parents or a 25 year old version of myself) watching Avatar. Oh yea, please email me at javierl89@yahoo.com. To talk about Avatar if nothing else. For fear of ostricism, I don't talk about Avatar with any of my friends, and would really like to have someone to talk about it (among other things) with. |
I'm not really sure what your trying to say in the 7th paragraph, but from what I understand, you are saying avatar doesn't have a theme. If thats what you're saying, then you're wrong. The overall theme of avatar is hope, something they talk about constantly throughout the show. Also, different episodes have different themes. Like the theme of the Storm, I believe, is that everything happens for a reason, and Zuko Alone, would probably be to never give up without a fight, and/or to never forget who you are.
