Back when I read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books three years ago already, I said in the report on Litle Town on the Prairie:
The book continues to evolve as the character ages. In this book, she pays more attention to clothing and fashion than in other books, and the subtle content changes over the course of the series to reflect the age of the character. I appreciate the effort and effect.
In a long form post today, Yakubian Ape talks about how anime and now Disney updated content to adjust for the age of their audience, which is not so much children but people from whom they can shake money, which is no longer parents of children but adults with no lives and mentions, in passing, Harry Potter:
For one, there is nothing inherently wrong with shifting demographics. Look at the Harry Potter franchise – the books are often praised for gradually growing darker in tone and more mature in their themes as the narrative progresses. It’s often said they matured along with the children who first read The Sorcerer’s Stone when they were still in grade school. That’s not necessarily a problem, and for as critical as I can be of J.K. Rowling, if she did anything right with those books, advancing the maturity of the thematic framework as the timeline of the books progressed and the characters grew older would be it.
Which gives me an idea for a dark and gritty reboot of Little House on the Prairie. I’ll have to watch more Quentin Tarentino first to get myself in the right frame of mind for charactering the new and improved Pa.
