Or do they? During my five-minute study break tonight, I stumbled across an article on the NYT website. One that enraged me a little bit, pushed a button, if you will. Apparently, Disney has decided it is time to update Mickey. Frankly, I'm not okay with this. They feel the need to make Mickey cater to a generation of tweens who text and are more technologically advanced than even I am. In all honesty, I'm not sure if you can update Mickey enough to make a group who is at an age where they think they're too cool for anything think that Mickey is cool.
This also ties into a shocking discovery I made at Target the other day. Dora the Explorer, the pudgy, backpack-toting heroine of Nick Jr. grew up! I stumbled upon a Dora Explorer Girls doll. It's a "tween" version of Dora, and follows the model of Webkinz, where it's interactive with the web. Yessiree, plug Dora into your computer and you can change her hair, eye color, and jewelry! To some extent, I suppose it makes sense: the little girls that Dora was originally geared toward aren't so little anymore, and their favorite bilingual role model should grow old with them, perhaps. However, I was still a little taken aback at the concept of a growing-up Dora. I must say, once I got over my initial outrage, shock, and disappointment, I began to realize that she's a pretty classy modern doll (especially compared to Bratz.) Take a look at the review here and see what you think.
Beyond that, we have the familiar cases of Barbie and her breakup with Ken, the Bratz dolls who are simply trashy, and the maturation of other classic cartoons (Winnie the Pooh to name one.) So, is this a necessary thing? Do companies really need to change characters to have them evolve with the times? Or is their classic-ness (for lack of a better word), what endears them to us?
Comment and let me know your thoughts. I'm off to finish a paper!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment