Why son you want to travel the world in the company of some similarly aged children and tame wild beasts? ENJOY, here are some cookies!
Or wow son you inherited super powers and are off to fight aliens? Well that space stuff never made much sense to me so have a good time with those murderous alien tyrants!
I mean jeeeeez even if the parent is a “norm” they can still be helpful, didn’t Buffy’s mom come in handy a time or two?
Only if they are lucky. Most of the time, they are dead!
They have to be. Otherwise the kid can’t have agency, and the story becomes boring.
I don’t think so.
Wasn’t Land of the Lost about a family that got lost together? I think the father was still involved in things.
Similarly Lost in Space, I suppose, but I’ve seen less of that.
Hannah Montana’s dad wasn’t really neglectful either.
Have you tried NOT being a Slayer?
Yeah…I don’t see myself letting my daughter do those exciting things. A movie where you watch her play with sticks and rocks wouldn’t be very exciting for you, though.
Adults have this annoying habit of taking over and making sensible decisions and pushing kids into the background, where they’re all, “safe” and " not being eaten by dragons" and stuff. Got to ditch the 'rents before the movie is any fun.
But, I actually did like how Jurassic Park didn’t do this. Not on purpose, anyhow. The kids were separated from the adults - because that’s needed for plot - but they did it in a pretty believable way, and the adults tried like heck to get back to them quickly.
I think MORE drama, not less, could be wrung out of the scenario where the parent is involved.
So it baffles me the parents are usually dispatched without a second thought.(Buffy did not do this BTW)
I thought it was hilarious in Adventure Time when Finn finds his father, possibly not only his single living blood relative and only other living human, and asks him why he abandoned him on a mountain as an infant.
“Hey…you know me, I’m a funny guy lol”
You forgot all the cartoon series where the parents are ridiculous comedy stereotypes.
My guess is that the people who write or produce these shows figure that kids don’t what to see a show with adults in it.
The parents in Brady Bunch and Partridge Family seemed pretty engaged. Numerically overwhelmed, but engaged.
For shows aimed at children, the point is wish-fulfillment - the kids want to be seen/act as if they are adults and having competent parents is a hindrance to this desire, so it’s best to get rid of them (the parents) by any means possible… mostly by having them be non-entities or so absurdly incompetent that they are little more than buffoons.
I mean, what fun could a film like “Spy Kids” be if, upon the kids coming back from their first mission, they find a media frenzy, two extremely worried parents, and a bunch of pissed-off adult volunteers who spent the previous 5 days beating around some forest somewhere because they thought the kids wandered off? Naw, just better to get rid of the parents altogether or make them easy hindrances.
Yeah, I really hate it when cartoons are filled with ridiculous comedy.