Kayona Lewis
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

I recently walked into my local HMV and while browsing through the many surprising and not-so surprising film titles, I stumbled upon a copy of Heavy Weights. I’m not sure how many people will remember this film, but it was one of my all time favourites when I was an impressionable pre-teen.

The film revolves around a kid who is sent to a high-class fat camp by his parents and as harsh as it may sound, hilarity ensued. This film got me thinking of many other underrated, classic kid films that you just do not see the likes of any more.

Films like the Mighty Ducks, Camp Nowhere, Carpool and House Arrest, just to name a few, were all made with the participation of Walt Disney Productions; they began with kids getting into mischief and ended with a moralistic lesson.

As I watched Heavy Weights, it made me think, when did it all go wrong? When did children’s films turn into films that were also supposed to please adults?

When did kids films stop being about the kids and start being more about the crudely inappropriate jokes that only the parents would get, and kids have to ask clarification for? I tracked it to 1999, when the films that were geared towards pre-teens and teenagers started becoming all about the cats fights and sexuality.

They were no longer fun films that revolved around kids who got themselves into some kind of mischief and had to figure their way out of it, with a little help along the way from child-like adults.

More and more jokes were being made that involved cutting off a character before they divulged a swear word like in Finding Nemo:

Gurgle: “Don’t you people realize that we are swimming around in our own…..”
Peaches: “Shhhh here he comes.”

Or simulating drunk cartoon characters with or without acknowledging that they are drunk. For example, Toy Story, when Woody suggests that Buzz Lightyear be named Buzz Light-beer.

Live action films such as It Runs in the Family, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, The Lizzie McGuire Movie and Sleepover all portray pre-teen kids doing unrealistic adult things.

This includes kids driving cars and purchasing alcohol, without any questioning from the authority figure that is selling it to them. While there usually ends up being a moral at the end of the story, it sometimes is clouded by the status of the celebrity in the film, or the glamour of how easy it was for that kid in the movie to do what they did, and so the moral goes unnoticed.

Will we ever get back to films that were funny just because they were light-hearted and semi-realistic? Films like The Sandlot, which focused on a bunch of friends spending their summer playing baseball and hiding from the creepy next-door neighbour.

Can we make another movie like Rookie of the Year, about on a kid who gets a chance at playing on a Major League Baseball team? (Granted that was unrealistic, but the concept was classic.)

With re-releases of landmark children’s films like The Lion King, special edition box sets of films like The Goonies or The Wizard, at least there is still a chance for a younger generation to see a time when films didn’t mainly revolve around pre-teens acting like short adults with no responsibilities.

There’s still a chance for a younger generation to see films that are as fun and innocent as they are enjoyable.
If only Hollywood was giving them that chance more often.