"You Stole Fizzy Lifting Drinks! RAAHHH!" or "The Internet Ruined My Childhood"

[Seil]

So let's talk exclusively about the Willy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-uV72pQKI) Wonka horror remake. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f9I5Bmp-6E) Or at least talk about how our beloved nostalgia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHICX9OLYtI) has been turned into something animal and ugly. (http://www.pixfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/mario_mapache_realista.jpg)

[Meister]

This is just a joke trailer, right? imdb's got nothing on it, for example.

Regardless though this is a pretty illustrative example of a tendency of modern culture to take things commonly remembered as friendly and innocent and turn them into gritty dark violent stories. Doubly interesting in this case because the Chocolate Factory film from the 70's is already commonly remembered as rather dark and frightening for a kids' movie and because Roald Dahl himself was certainly no stranger to writing material that started out as an innocent endearing storie and ended in insane murder.

Anyone who knows their cultural sociology well enough to shed some light on why we tend to do this today? Is it just a thing about growing up and realizing some of the stuff we watched as kids was actually pretty twisted, or is there something else going on?

[Loyal]

Pretty sure it's a joke. Regardless though this is a pretty illustrative example of a tendency of modern culture to take things commonly remembered as friendly and innocent and turn them into gritty dark violent stories. Doubly interesting in this case because the Chocolate Factory film from the 70's is already commonly remembered as rather dark and frightening for a kids' movie and because Roald Dahl himself was certainly no stranger to writing material that started out as an innocent endearing storie and ended in insane murder.

Anyone who knows their cultural sociology well enough to shed some light on why we tend to do this today?I'd like to know this myself. It's very irritating. I mean, looking back on our childhood stuff, we all end up seeing stuff that was pretty dark in hindsight. I don't understand, though, why some producers have this thing about accentuating the dark points (some of which of their own imagination) to the point where it overshadows (lolpun) the rest of the work to the point where the rest of the work may as well not be there.

Near as I can tell, such people are probably just hoping to rake in a few extra sales by association. Like in this case, you could make a movie where people are kidnapped, killed, and turned into candy. Ooorrr you could say it was Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and he has a terrible secret about how he makes his candy out of people.

[Seil]

These are jokes, too, but they're fun to look at. (http://www.cracked.com/photoshop_103_if-hollywood-decided-to-give-everything-gritty-reboot_p26)

What Hollywood actually does, though, is much worse.

http://www.godzilla1998.org/Images/godzilla-poster03.jpghttp://www.toxicshock.tv/news/wp-content/uploads/quantum_of_solace_poster8.jpghttp://imovies4you.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/alvin-and-the-chipmunks.jpg

[Archbio]

Willy Wonka used to be friendly and innocent?

[Jagos]

This is just a joke trailer, right? imdb's got nothing on it, for example.

Regardless though this is a pretty illustrative example of a tendency of modern culture to take things commonly remembered as friendly and innocent and turn them into gritty dark violent stories. Doubly interesting in this case because the Chocolate Factory film from the 70's is already commonly remembered as rather dark and frightening for a kids' movie and because Roald Dahl himself was certainly no stranger to writing material that started out as an innocent endearing storie and ended in insane murder.

Anyone who knows their cultural sociology well enough to shed some light on why we tend to do this today? Is it just a thing about growing up and realizing some of the stuff we watched as kids was actually pretty twisted, or is there something else going on?

Ya know... Humans are attracted to the morbid. As I learned in my English class, they don't want to hear about the good things in life. It's more about how much bad can happen and how to have something to talk about.

Another thing to comment on, I don't think it's modern society wanting to change things to morbid tales. We just change it to suit our needs. There was a time that Disney ran the show and we saw some innocent movies. But even Bambi had tragedy. And almost every one of the fairy tales we imagined have a Grimm version that they originated from.

Perhaps, the moral here is that we can't hide from our nature and attraction to crazy media.

[tacticslion]

Ok, yeah, I'll weigh in on this one.

The answer? Yes, it happens, and happens all the time. From your intro, I think you're looking primarily for Willy Wonka stuff, secondarily for freaky anti-nostalgia in general, and I like to write/talk far too much, so:

Wonka-horror is symptomatic of a greater issue throughout the internet, that of the (for lack of a better word) "darkening" impulse we have to our nostalgic moments. Really, it's not an internet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen)-exclusive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen) thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Girls) - this sort of stuff happens in non-internet ways often enough (I grant those are all Alan Moore - it's 'cause he's so easy, but here's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fables_(comics)) some (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Son_of_the_Demon) more (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReBoot), if you want)., but. In Wonka's case it takes a genuinely freaky character trait (his mania) - one that was always head-scratchingly stupid to me - and expands it into a nightmare fuel (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NightmareFuel)-worthy thing that waits on the other side of the link. Similarly, the picture portrayed - it shows the Mario (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario) brothers in an overly "adult" way - by being expressing the extant violence in gory, overly-realistic (sort of) ways and veering (purposely) dangerously into the Uncanny Valley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario) on otherwise "cute" anthropomorphic entities.

Both the new crazy wonka movie and the mario art indicate something - an attempt to bring something built for "cuteness". It indicates, to me, an attatchment to something that has moved past its normal expiration date - a lingering fascination with something that is no longer capable of holding the more "mature" and "experienced" mind. When we were young, it would be perfectly viable for a strange man to run a magical factory candy-land: it wasn't beyond the realm of impossibility, because we simply didn't know any better. As we age and become more experienced, we desire the wonder, joy, and magic that we once held, but we misplace our associations - instead of the emotions themselves, we seek the original apparent source. Now, of course, it doesn't mesh with our concept of reality, so it no longer "does it" for us, like it used to. And so, we "update" the object of our misplaced emotional association in order to reacquire the magic. Alternatively the emotional focus' inability to stand up to previous emotional release causes bitterness - and results in a desire to degrade or hate upon that which we previously loved, bringing the sense of disillusionment and the desire to act on impulses of "revenge" (regardless of whether it's justified).

Regardless of the reasons, it's the idea that there was once some truth, or some apparent truth, to something we once held dear. Once that seems falsified, we will go to great lengths to ensure that the singular object of our affection (past or continuance) has a place for affection once again in our new state - or rejection, so that others don't feel the frustration of the disappointment.

Anyhoo, that's my guess as to why it happens. I've probably been ninja'd in the time it's taken me to write this and get lost in TV Tropes.

[Meister]

I think this is basically also why there's furry porn, incidentally.

Also lotta people are probably mostly in it for the shock value. I'm pretty sure the guys who made that trailer didn't intend to prove a point about our conception of popular media and our perception of it in the light of advanced age and maturity but it happens to work out very well.

[tacticslion]

I think this is basically also why there's furry porn, incidentally.

Also lotta people are probably mostly in it for the shock value. I'm pretty sure the guys who made that trailer didn't intend to prove a point about our conception of popular media and our perception of it in the light of advanced age and maturity but it happens to work out very well.

Oh, I would never argue that it's done consciously. I think it's mostly unconscious. I'm just looking for a justifiable and comprehensible reason behind the actions. Incidentally, yeah, henatai, furry porn, even most pornography in general is probably based on this. Nurses really aren't as interesting/fun when you get to know their real job - so you recreate them to be as interesting as they were when you were a kid. Basically, it's all fanfiction and cosplay.

Even barring sexual elements, however, there's the same drive to conflate the emotion with the element originally associated with the emotion - so I equate Mario with "being happy". When, later, the empty cartoonish elements no longer satisfy and I lose the ability to suspend my disbelief, I change it so I can enjoy it once again - funny, happy, sad, violent, or whatever. Since we're mostly introduced to happy-bright-fun-time kids stuff when we're little, this results in it going the other way to mesh with reality as we see it - darker, grittier, grimier. My hypothosis (that I'm unwilling to test) is that if we were exposed the opposite way, we'd (as a culture, not any one individual) grow up and "cutify" the dark things we'd originally been exposed to - we're contrary that way. We'd also be traumatized, however* so that's probably a no-go.

*Depending on what, exactly, and how dark the things were that we were exposed to.

[Julford Hajime]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f9I5Bmp-6E
I've said it once, and I'll say it again.
What the hell, Doc Brown. You're above this.
But no actually that was a pretty amusing trailer. The one guy at the beginning who constantly talked about fucking and boners was annoying though. Not gonna miss him.

That said, I was expecting something more like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvkhvUzYKEI), where preexisting footage was re-cut with new music to make it seem like a horror film.

[Seil]

Like this? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hikUzfFaEho) All things considered, The Shining is a family film, in that it contains a family.

[Rejected Again]

My childhood has been destroyed within an hour of waking up. Yep, its a normal day here on NPF.