It’s easy to overthink the toy commercials of your childhood

While nostalgia is generally not a good or advisable force to have influencing your opinion of the actual past, its relationship with creative works is more complicated.

The other day, I re-watched the pilot episode of ThunderCats with someone who had never seen it before. Being with an adult watching the show for the first time, the flaws in it were more obvious than I’d anticipated and much of the re-watch involved incredulous exclamations at each new plot progression.

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The world is filled with things that make you feel good

The other day the TV series “The Legend of Korra” ended its first season in a climactic two-part finale.

It’s a show about a girl who can move rocks and water with her mind and shoot fire out of her hands but is trying to learn how to do the same with wind, and struggling. On top of that, she has to struggle against a group that wants to take away her and others’ abilities to do what essentially is magic because many with those abilities have abused the power over those who don’t have it.

“Korra” is unsurprisingly aimed at children or young teenagers, but includes smart humor, plotting and generally witty writing so that adults don’t feel like wanting to inflict terminal harm upon themselves (see: “Pokemon: The Movie”). The Wall Street Journal runs a recap and analysis after each Saturday’s airing, the same as with more traditional adult programs like AMC’s “Mad Men.”

Continue reading “The world is filled with things that make you feel good”