Ruining Your Childhood

Mia Brito

Published on 11/15/18 - OpEd

Many of the movies, TV shows, and books we grew up reading have unexpectedly dark origins. In the moment, most don’t realize the grim or adult like themes within our favorite childhood classics. Sometimes these origins can be used as a base for a more light-hearted reworkings of the stories. Disney and several others have done this to great effect. Let's look at two prime examples.

Mulan

Disney vs. authentic depiction.

The Ballad of Mulan, while an amazing story, is nowhere near as heartwarming as the Disney version. In the real version, there are no funny sidekicks and no love story. And ends with a horrible demise of the character we’ve all grown to love. With Disney making a live action remake set to premiere in 2020, we'll see how faithful they remain to the source material.

First, her name is Hua Mulan. She was a quiet individual and never verbalized her feelings on her father serving in the army again. She lived in a time when a woman did not take part in many things outside of the home, and so she never became the outspoken woman she was in the movie.

Her father, however, taught her how to fight at an early age, so when she snuck off into the army she was more than ready and did not stick out. Mulan, like in the movie, had strong family values and would protect them at any costs. In the real version she not only was protecting her father but also her younger brother. Disney alludes to this in the film as the family’s dog is named Little Brother.

Most of the Disney version revolves around the romance between Mulan and Shang, her captain, but in the real version there is no love story. The story is grim and Mulan never finds love, in fact it’s more of a tragedy than a love story. The character portrayed by Shang is in the ballad, but he is a supporting character and acts like a normal captain towards her.

“Mulan” starring Liu Yifei.

In both versions she is successful in her military conquest, but the total outcome of the stories differ. In Disney’s version, she ends up being praised by the emperor and sent home with honorable gifts for her father. Mulan even embraced him with a warm hug. The ballad, however, goes in the opposite direction. At the end of this story Mulan is celebrated by the emperor, but then becomes his escort before returning home. This was not fitting for a Disney movie, so it was understandable that they took that out.

In both versions she returns home soon after meeting the emperor, but the ballad has a more grim ending than you might think. The movie ends with Mulan reuniting with her father in an emotional scene that can’t help but tug on your heartstrings, Shang even shows up and it is implied that they have started a romantic relationship. The ballad is completely different in that Mulan returns home only to find out that her father had passed away. This loss and the mental instability caused by the war she had fought in caused her to end her own life.

The overall story of both versions are likable and in some cases, inspirational. Disney did well in keeping the movie historically accurate to the Hua Mulan ballad without overstepping a boundary that would not be suitable for children, or enjoyable. Both versions were successful and give contrasting versions of a story for different generations.

Caillou

Caillou is a lovable show that most kids watched when we were kids. The show ran from 1997 to 2010 and and is based around a famously bald toddler named Caillou and his daily adventures. The series sparks your imagination as we follow this curious young boy as he explores the world around him. However, there have been some dark theories on Caillou’s background that might surprise you.

The first is that Caillou has cancer. This theory has been all over the internet for years. It is hard to miss it when looking up the popular children’s show. This theory, while grim, is actually a bittersweet point of view that tugs on your heartstrings no matter how old you are because of how it relates to the real world children who struggle with illness.

There’s a lot of evidence that proves Caillou’s alleged illness, the biggest being the grandmother’s narration. The entire series is narrated by Caillou’s grandmother and takes place entirely in her thought bubble. The grandmother’s sweet voice is narrating Caillou’s life as if it were a memory, in past tense. Many people speculate that Caillou has died and that his grandma is telling the audience the stories of his life. When you watch the show from that point of view, while heartbreaking, it does make the audience feel a certain child-like joy that Caillou was happy while he lived and that he enjoyed life.

In addition to that claim, people have also stated that Caillou’s younger sister, Rosie, is adopted. Many fans have made a connecting theory that Caillou’s sister, with her flowing red hair, could not be related to Caillou and must have been adopted in the parents fear of having another child with cancer. While Rosie could just have a recessive gene, many have a hard time believing that she, the only red headed family member, could be related to Caillou.

The shows demographic were toddlers and even if these theories were intended by the creators, they definitely weren’t incorporated, in an obvious way, into the show. Most people watch the show and see a bald headed boy with a big imagination and a sense of wonder of the world around him. But many believe they made the show the way in order to give young children and their families battling with cancer a show to watch that not only relates to them, but gives them a peaceful, comforting normalcy and a sense of hope for the situation they are in.

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