The Children's Film

Genre, Nation, and Narrative

Noel Brown

• Publisher: WallFlower Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780231851114
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film History & Criticism

Films for children and young people are a constant in the history of cinema, from its beginnings to the present day. This book serves as a comprehensive introduction to the children's film, examining its recurrent themes and ideologies, and common narrative and stylistic principles. Opening with a thorough consideration of how the genre may be defined, this volume goes on to explore how children's cinema has developed across its broad historical and geographic span, with particular reference to films from the United States, Britain, France, Denmark, Russia, India, and China. Analyzing changes and continuities in how children's film has been conceived, it argues for a fundamental distinction between commercial productions intended primarily to entertain, and non-commercial films made under pedagogical principles, and produced for purposes of moral and behavioral instruction. In elaborating these different forms, this book outlines a history of children's cinema from the early days of commercial cinema to the present, explores key critical issues, and provides case studies of major children's films from around the world.

1 THE CHILDREN’S FILM

This book is concerned with the diverse body of fictional texts produced and received as ‘children’s films’. It will examine their recurrent themes and ideologies, and common narrative and stylistic principles. It will explore how children’s cinema has developed across its broad historical and geographic span, analysing changes and continuities in how it has been conceived. And it will discuss key critical issues, while providing case studies of major children’s films from around the world. In short, it aims to introduce readers to a large, but vastly under-addressed, subject of enquiry. There have been substantial case studies of children’s cinema in various countries, including the United States (Brown 2012), Britain (Staples 1997; Brown 2016), Germany (Schäfer 2009) and Italy (Boero 2013), as well as many shorter pieces addressing specific movements and cycles. There have also been major works on individual studios, such as Disney, and studies of genres and media closely associated with children’s cinema, such as fantasy, fairy tale and animation. What has been lacking is a single volume that presents an overview of films for children in their historical and cultural diversity.

Children’s films are objects of pleasure, fascination and nostalgia for audiences of all ages, and their appeal cuts across boundaries of class, race, sex, language, culture and nation. The form encompasses feature films and short films, silent films and sound films, live-action and animated films, and various combinations of the above. Few forms of cinema polarise opinion in quite the same way, or mean so many different things to different people at different stages in life. However, relatively few critics have addressed children’s films as serious texts. Even fewer have attempted to define what they are, and what they are not. This opening chapter, which is divided into three sections, brings this question into sharper focus. First, it offers a detailed response to the deceptively simple proposition: What is a ‘children’s film’? Second, it draws lines of distinction between commercial and non-commercial films. And third, it outlines the historical conditions of production in countries where children’s cinema is particularly well-established.

1.1 What is a ‘Children’s Film’?

One likely reason for the critical neglect of children’s film is the purported difficulty of defining it. Ian Wojcik-Andrews believes that defining children’s film is akin to untying a Gordian knot, deeming it ‘something of an impossibility’ (2000: 7). Another critic, M. Keith Booker, does not even think that definition is important, admitting that he is ‘relatively little troubled’ by the matter (2010: xv-xvi). My approach in this book is very different: I believe that it is possible to define children’s film, and that such a definition is vital to understanding the form. This task first requires narrowing the terms of reference and sifting through different approaches to the topic. A children’s film, I would suggest, is one produced and widely received as such. I will elaborate on this basic definition over the course of this chapter, but before proceeding further, it is necessary to make a distinction between films made for children, and films about children. Wojcik-Andrews, in his book Children’s Films: History, Ideology, Pedagogy, Theory, conflates these two forms: He regards any film in which a child appears as a children’s film, including explicitly adult-oriented films such as The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973), Pixote (Héctor Babenco, 1981) and Kids (Larry Clark, 1995). But although he applies the term ‘children’s film’ to such releases, Wojcik-Andrews’s monograph actually belongs to a parallel body of scholarship that explores the representation of childhood in popular cinema, but which is not chiefly concerned with films that are produced specifically for the consumption of children (cf. Goldstein and Zornow 1980; Merlock Jackson 1986; Sinyard 1992; Lury 2010). The more adult-oriented films he considers might more properly be called ‘childhood films’, a term used by scholars such as Stephanie Hemelryk Donald (2000: 48) to differentiate them from those that mostly address child audiences.

Wojcik-Andrews also suggests that films watched by children axiomatically are children’s films. But this cannot hold water: Children consume entertainment media of all different kinds. If we take Wojcik-Andrews’s principle to its fullest logical extension, any film ever made has the potential to be a children’s film; as Ewan Kirkland observes, ‘surely sometime, somewhere, all films have been seen by one child or another’ (2004: 11). In 1993, it was reported that over 100,000 British children under the age of 15 had watched the late-night UK television premiere of the ‘18’-rated horror film, Child’s Play 3 (Jack Bender, 1991), a production that was not manufactured for children, not marketed towards children, not rated as suitable for children’s consumption, and presumably watched only by a small minority of children (Culf 1993). In no sense is it useful to categorise it as a ‘children’s film’, not least because its illicit attraction to these British children no doubt derived, in large part, from the perception that it is the very opposite of a children’s film.

The impossibility of categorising films based purely on who actually watches them is further underlined by the fact that many films marketed towards children are viewed widely by adults. Indeed, most commercial films are consciously constructed to appeal equally to parents and guardians, who are usually needed to accompany younger children to the cinema. For this reason, a large percentage of ‘children’s films’ are more properly termed ‘family films’; as we shall see, these two categories overlap considerably (Brown 2012; Brown and Babington 2015). Notable producers of child-oriented films in Hollywood, including Walt Disney, Robert Radnitz and Brian Henson, have explicitly stated that they made films for audiences of all ages, not just children (Merlock Jackson 2006: 13–14; Scheur 1963; Weinraub 1997). This is borne out by statistics released by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). In 2012, children aged 2-11 made up 12 per cent of ‘frequent movie-goers’ in North America; this figure fell to 7 per cent in 2013 (MPAA 2014: 12). However, 41 of the 50 highest-grossing films at the North American box office in 2012 and 2013 were deemed suitable for children (this includes films in the ‘G’, ‘PG’, and ‘PG-13’ categories), with only nine films rated ‘R’ (adult-only) (MPAA 2014: 22-23). This is a major disparity when one considers that almost 60 per cent of all theatrical releases in the United States are classified as ‘R’ (‘Entertainment Industry’: 13).

The majority of live-action Hollywood blockbusters are rated ‘PG-13’. This allows children to view them with parental supervision, but it also extends appeal to the vital adolescent and teenage markets. Many ‘PG-13’ films, such as The Simpsons Movie (David Silverman, 2007) and the last five instalments in the Harry Potter series (2001-11), are marketed towards children under the age of 12. As Peter Krämer observes, ‘most of Hollywood’s superhits since 1977 are basically, like Star Wars, children’s films; more precisely, they are children’s films for the whole family and for teenagers, too’ (2004: 366-67). As of late 2016, a list of the top 30 highest-grossing films ever includes such putatively child-oriented releases as Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow, 2015) with $1.6 billion; Frozen (Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, 2013) with $1.2 billion; Minions (Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, 2015) with $1.1 billion; Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010), Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993), Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton, 2009), Zootopia (Byron Howard and Rich Moore, 2016), and Finding Dory (Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane, 2016) with approximately $1 billion each; and Despicable Me 2 (Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, 2013) and The Lion King (Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, 1994) with just under $1 billion. Given the relatively lowly proportion of children under the age of 12 in the US theatrical audience, non-child audiences clearly play a major role in sustaining Hollywood’s industry of ‘children’s films’.

For these reasons, the category of ‘children’s film’ cannot be conceptualised purely in terms of what children (or adults) actually consume. In pursuing an alternative definition, as Wojcik-Andrews cautions against, we find ourselves entering murky waters; but a more precise formulation is necessary if we hope to understand the form. Otherwise – if we accept his claim to the ‘impossibility’ of definition – all we are left with is the dogmatically uncritical view that while something called a ‘children’s film’ clearly exists, it is fundamentally unknowable. At this juncture, it is useful to turn to children’s literary studies. Scholars such as Matthew Grenby argue that children’s literature is ‘defined by its intended audience’ (2009: xiii). This idea has found sympathy in some accounts of children’s cinema. Michael Newton ventures that a children’s film ‘is a film defined by its imagined audience’ (2006: 17). Stephanie Hemelryk Donald and Kirsten Seale argue that ‘a children’s film is a film produced for a primary audience of children’ (2013: 98). And Krämer suggests that ‘children’s films are films made specifically for children’, particularly those ‘aged twelve or younger’ (2002: 186).

This view of children’s film as defined by target audience is a useful and pragmatic starting point. However, it does require some elaboration. Basing a definition solely on ‘imagined audience’ invests too much authority in producers and marketers, and too little in the movie-going public, which ultimately decides for itself whether a film falls into a particular category or not. But although most people seem to recognise a film ‘for children’ when they see one, it is not immediately obvious how this happens. In response to this, I would argue in favour of a negotiated identity. Genre, to repurpose Rick Altman’s memorable phrase, does not ‘spring full-blown from the head of Zeus’ (2003: 29). Rather, it is constructed through a complex interaction of textual and contextual mechanisms. While genres are usually conceived of in terms of shared formal characteristics between groups of films, generic identity is also shaped by external factors. As Steve Neale observes, these include the ‘discourses of publicity, promotion and reception that surround mainstream films and shape popular responses, including industry categories as well as trade and press reviews’ (2000: 2-3). In a series of recent publications, scholars such as myself and Peter Krämer have applied Neale’s principle to the study of children’s films and family films (Brown 2012: 6-9; Brown 2013a; Krämer 2015). There are at least five contextual processes through which their generic identity is established:

1) Marketing and distribution strategies

Most films for children are actively marketed as such, both explicitly and implicitly, through promotional materials such as trailers, movie posters, print advertisements and press books. Unsurprisingly, marketing strategies for commercial films tend to position them to as wide an audience as possible. The press book for The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), which was distributed to theatre managers throughout the United States, claimed that it ‘Successfully combin[ed] for the first time adult and juvenile appeal in a motion picture’, adding that ‘Producer Mervyn LeRoy increased this all-family popularity by making the picture one hundred percent musical, with catchy tunes and clever lyrics. He next added Technicolor and amazing “magic” which will intrigue audiences of all ages’. The voiceover on the theatrical trailer for Home Alone, a film in which a young boy is left behind when his family go on holiday to Paris, wryly announces it as ‘a family comedy without the family’. And The Railway Children (Lionel Jeffries, 1970), perhaps the quintessential British children’s film, was (ungrammatically) promoted with the movie poster tagline: ‘A Film for Adults to Take Their Children, too!’

These promotional strategies are largely confined to commercial cinema, and are less visible in relation to non-commercial traditions such as Britain’s Children’s Film Foundation (CFF), the Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI) or East Germany’s Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA). Nevertheless, even in these cases, materials are sometimes available that communicate a film’s content and intended audience. As is common practice in children’s publishing, child-oriented films are commonly advertised (in posters and flyers distributed at film festivals, and in web pages) using bright, vibrant colours and simple, large fonts. The home page of the Indian Children’s Film Society website deploys a number of colourful, apparently homemade, pictures of children, animals and other familiar childhood iconographies. Together, these work to establish, though associative cues, the organisation’s identity as a producer of children’s fiction.

2) Censorship and suitability ratings

The existence of censorship reflects an enduring perception that children (vulnerable, innocent) require protection from early exposure to disturbing content, such as physical and psychological violence, overt sexuality, frighteningly pessimistic views of life and the world, and otherwise ‘adult’ themes and issues. Censorship in some form – whether imposed by external systems of regulation or voluntarily adopted by producers – has been a constant in the history of film. The British Board of Film Censorship (now ‘Classification’) (BBFC) introduced a rudimentary version of its present-day ratings system in 1913, with films classified simply as ‘U’ (universal; suitable for all) or ‘A’ (adult; not suitable for children). Between 1934 and 1966, the Hollywood film industry was regulated by the Production Code, a self-censorship system geared to preventing ‘adult’ content reaching ‘family’ audiences. Since 1968, Hollywood has operated a more diversified ratings system, which currently comprises ‘G’ (suitable for all ages); ‘PG’ (parental guidance; some material regarded as unsuitable for children); ‘PG-13’ (parents strongly cautioned; some material regarded as inappropriate for children under the age of 13); ‘R’ (restricted; children under the age of 17 require accompanying parent/guardian); and ‘NC-17’ (no children under the age of 17 admitted). The merits of ratings systems have been widely debated. Many films passed for universal exhibition avoid censorious content but still articulate complex issues, focus entirely on adult characters and their preoccupations, or contain sophisticated dialogue. Equally, films deemed unsuitable for children because of ‘mature’ content, such as Universal’s horror films of the 1930s or the James Bond series (1962–), sometimes appeal strongly to them.

Most countries continue to have such mechanisms in place, but their application is contingent on local customs and beliefs. For instance, the Australian family film Babe (Chris Noonan, 1995), which centres on an anthropomorphised pig, was initially banned in Malaysia, a country in which pigs (in keeping with Islamic doctrine) are widely considered unclean. Equally, children’s films uncensored in their home nations have often been censored or banned altogether in other countries, as with Hollywood films in Soviet Russia and pre-i990s PRC China. (This works both ways: North America screens an extremely low percentage of foreign-language films.) Even in the relatively undifferentiated Western world, some systems of censorship are more stringent, and others more liberal. In France, the adult-oriented Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) was first certificated as ‘16’, then ‘12’; Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) was certificated as ‘10’; and Borat (Larry Charles, 2006) as ‘U’. In contrast, Borat was classified as ‘R’ in the USA, thus permitting the admittance of under-17s only when accompanied by an adult. The Scandinavian countries are also more liberal in attitudes to censorship. The Danish animated feature Terkel in Trouble (Terkel i knibe, Stefan Fjeldmark et al., 2004) – which won the Best Children’s/Family award at the 2005 Copenhagen Robert Festival – has a ‘7’ rating in Denmark and an ‘11’ in Sweden and Norway. However, it is more conservatively rated ‘15’ in the UK and Ireland, and ‘R’ in the US. Recent liberalisation reflects a growing belief, particularly in late-industrial society, that attempting to impose such restrictions on children is futile, given their ability to access knowledge, sights and sounds forbidden to previous generations through other means (cf. Simonton et al. 2013). In commercial cinema, it also bespeaks a commercially-motivated desire to appeal to the widest possible audience cross-section.

Most films exhibited at children’s film festivals never receive theatrical release, and therefore do not receive an official suitability rating. Festivals often show films for children and young people up to the age of 16 or 18, and apply their own suitability ratings. The programme for the 2013 Chicago International Children’s Film Festival divided its films into precisely-defined demographics: 2+, 4+, 5+, 8+, 9+, 11+ and 15+. The comparatively hermetic world of the children’s film festival is the only place where film production and exhibition in the children’s film field imitates television in playing to relatively narrow demographics within the overarching ‘child audience’.

3) Critical reception

As well as offering interpretive judgements on a film’s quality, reviews communicate important information such as plot, tone and character. There is historical evidence that children both in the United States and Britain have used printed reviews in determining what films they wanted to see (Miller Mitchell 1929: 58; Kesterton 1948: 54). Publications such as the ‘Family Movie Guide’ section in Parents’ Magazine and the British Monthly Film Bulletin (MFB) targeted adult readers (including theatre managers), and explicitly categorised films by presumed and intended audience. The MFB, for instance, employed four labels: ‘A’ (adults only), ‘B’ (adults and adolescents), ‘C’ (family audiences) and ‘D’ (particularly suitable for children’s performances). Today, sites such as Movieguide, owned by the evangelical Christian Ted Baehr, categorise and adjudge films according to their ‘suitability’ for children and adherence to conservative Christian doctrine. A less polemical role is performed by a global nexus of online discourses, including aggregated review sites like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, blogs and forums, social media such as Twitter and Tumblr, and popular film sites such as IMDb, which categorises all films by genre.

4) Merchandising

In commercial cinema, a film’s generic identity (or identities) can often be gauged by the merchandise associated with it. Merchandising has constituted a useful ancillary revenue stream since the 1930s, when Disney pioneered a hugely profitable licensing deal with Kay Kamen. Today, the majority of Western children’s films above a certain budgetary level are accompanied by extensive merchandising campaigns, encompassing toys, clothes, games, music soundtracks and tie-ins with fast food or drinks manufacturers. Whilst adult films have, until recently, offered comparatively few opportunities for merchandise, children’s films and family films are particularly attractive because of their broad audience base, the particular demand amongst children for toys, games, branded clothing, fast food and so on, and the additional scope for licensable properties accorded by fantastical narratives, of which child-oriented films constitute a large percentage. Commercial licensing deals (and a multimedia presence more broadly) have often been regarded as a barometer of a film’s ability to transcend a narrow ‘child audience’ and instead reach a wider, more lucrative consumer base. Conversely, one of the most profitable ‘ancillary’ revenue streams in post-199os Hollywood family franchises has been the so-called ‘kidvid’: films released solely on home video, often spun off from pr...