What is Kids And Families Genre?
The genre that I selected is "Kids and Families" due to the fact that we are approaching the holiday season. One may ask what Kids and Family specifically covers. The Webster dictionary defines it as: "A children's film, or family film, is a film genre that contains children or relates to them in the context of home and family. Children's films are made specifically for children and not necessarily for the general audience, while family films are made for a wider appeal with a general audience in mind". Movies like these are especially popular during the holiday season of Christmas. This is when families usually come together to celebrate and kids and adults are together making it the perfect time to watch a kids and family movie.
Content
One of the emotions most Kids and Family movies make their audience feel is happiness. The genre appeals to a large audience, but especially children ages 5-15. It includes many films, such as Wreck it Ralph, Shrek, The Incredibles and Cinderella. These movies all have a lead protagonist,who is often considered an outcast by society and by others in the movie. As the plot evolves, they become less of an outcast and more of a hero. The endings are always positive and uplifting; the lead protagonist always prevails and gets what he/she is fighting for. The audience feels proud and rejoiced that the good guy ends as the hero in the story.
Another aspect that is used in Kids and Family movies is music. The musical style in many of these movies is pop. You find pop songs in movies such as
Frozen, Tangled, and
The Beauty and the Beast. They are upbeat and made to convey a sense that there will be a happy ending. The melodies and songs are catchy and help make the tone of the movie joyous. Of course, there may be certain scenes with different music, if the goal were to create suspense or a different type of emotion.
Production
Movie studios are using animated features. However, Disney, for example, has been innovative and produced films for kids and family whose original version was animated but has recently been presented with live actors and actresses. In an animated movie, the production crew is able to draw the characters they want or create them in a computer This may allow the characters and content of the movie to be less scary and not hurt the sensibility of the younger members of the audience. By using animation, they are able to do things that are not possible when filming a movie with actual people.
A powerful production technique that is used in this genre is making characters bright and colorful. Studies have shown that certain colors arouse certain feelings and emotions in people. In movies such as Shrek, The Incredibles and Tangled, the main protagonist has a skin color or outfit that is bright and symbolizes health, vibrancy and harmony. The emotional response associated with green is usually safety. In The Incredibles, the family of superheroes wears bright red suits. This conveys power, dominance and passion. Red tends to make people feel excited, passionate and energized. In Tangled, the princess wears a light purple outfit. This color has been found to symbolize light heartedness and romance. My research shows that it also has an emotional response linked with beauty and inspiration. It has been scientifically proven to be the most widely preferred color in the world.
Marketing
Most kids and family movies are aimed at a specific audience. As mentioned earlier, the target group falls between 5-15 year olds, but production companies have smartly been able to add twists to the plot and dialogue that adults may find amusing even if the younger ones do not capture their double meaning. These productions are advertised on television, billboards, print, radio and social media. An important volume of advertising will be channeled to television stations that children favor: Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
A key aspect of the marketing strategy linked to movies has to do with licensing. This is represented by songs, toys and action figures inspired by what appears in the movie. Songs appeal to children and make them want to watch the movie. They may also ask their parents to buy the music online or purchase action figures or costumes of their favorite characters. I read that one of the first movies to truly exploit the economic benefit of licensing was
Star Wars more
than forty years ago. When children hear the tunes, it makes them want to to to watch the movie because they like the music and songs that are played. They may also want to watch the movie if their toy appears in it.
Samples
Cinderella is a film that came out in 1950, and is about a woman who is considered an outcast by her stepmom and stepsisters. Cinderella's mom died when she was very young. Her father was a caring man and remarried a woman who had two daughters once Cinderella was older. In the plot, he dies shortly after his second marriage leaving his daughter with his second wife and stepsisters. We find out early that they are mean and abuse Cinderella. Cinderella has to do all of her stepsisters' chores and work countless hours everyday. Her new family treats her like a slave. One day, Cinderella gets an invitation for a party at the king's palace and works hard to be able to attend helped by a little bit of magic. Cinderella sings songs to evade her miserable existence and the colors of her clothes in the party bring up her spirit and those of the audience. Many songs and colors are used to portray how she feels. She wears a blue dress to the party. This color is associated with honesty, peace and intellect. When it looks like Cinderella may not escape her unhappiness, the ending finally brings joy to the story.
Monsters Inc. is a film that came out in 2001. The movie is about a fictional world where monsters live. The two main characters work at a factory where monsters are able to enter the human world to scare kids in their sleep. This enables them to capture fright in jars, which for monsters is a precious commodity. Sully and Mike encounter a young girl in one of their visits to her bedroom during her sleep. This begins a journey for the three characters. Sully is blue. This ignites emotions of honesty and calmness. Mike is bright green. This color represents safety and health. The falling action of the movie delivers a degree of sadness because the little girl cannot stay in the monster world with her two new friends. By the end of the movie, however, the audience is uplifted when the monster figures out a way to visit her regularly.
