One of the scariest moments of my life was when I was 7 years old and watching the new episodes of Pendleton Ward’s (“Bravest Warriors”) “Adventure Time” with my siblings. There was a time when we would religiously watch it every week, obsessed with the ridiculous plot lines and hilarious characters. However, this particular set of episodes was not quite as funny as the others. I remember being horrified the first time I saw what was to be the main antagonist of “Adventure Time” cause such a face of hopelessness in Finn (Jeremy Shada, “Julie and the Phantoms”) and Jake (John DiMaggio, “Futurama”) as The Lich (Ron Perlman, “Hellboy”) causes them to almost die by taking over their minds. True terror had never been instilled in me as much as a single word from The Lich could — his icy breath being able to take down the seemingly invincible Finn with one word, the insinuation that he couldn’t die and would never die, the thought that it took all of Ooo to trap him and that it would take all of Ooo to trap him again. Never having experienced such an intense atmosphere in a show, I can’t explain the sheer degree of fear I felt at that time. It was a scene that I would be afraid of for years to come, and one that still sends shivers down my spine.
Of course, I now recognize the incredible storytelling of the writers behind “Adventure Time,” utilizing absurdist concepts to emphasize the more serious episodes of the series that followed. However, the only reason I know that now is because that terrifying scene was burned into my brain for more than a decade. Although Ward is an absolute monster for giving enjoyers of animation around the world nightmares through this show and others that he has created, like “The Midnight Gospel,” he has also made it clear that children’s media are often only appreciated fully when it is as ridiculous as it is terrifying. Now, I am not saying that we should simply traumatize all children for the fun of it. But by incorporating semi-nightmare fuel into the right places and at the right amounts, one is left with a creation that is most memorable, intriguing and meaningful.
Another great example of a show full of terror: “Gravity Falls.” More like “Adventure Time” in its exploration of absurdism, its occasional terrifying themes made it an extremely memorable piece of media. For example, the very first episode is oriented towards showcasing how weird of a town Gravity Falls is in the first place without necessarily tackling that concept in a scary way. Instead, it introduces the “strangeness” of the town with a red herring: A character who is seemingly a zombie but instead turns out to be a bunch of gnomes stacked on top of one another. Something so ridiculous is not considerably scary in any way, allowing the episodes that followed to shock its viewers with genuinely terrifying themes and plotlines that ultimately offered deeper, more impactful messages. I still remember the absolute insanity that went on in my household when the season two midseason finale of “Gravity Falls” aired, as the stakes were high and my siblings and I all genuinely believed that Mabel (Kristen Schaal, “Bob’s Burgers”) was going to get the entire town killed. I still think about what that scene means to me — about the message of trusting one’s heart over everything else, and how wonderful of a season finale it was because of it. The genuine fear in my heart made that message all the sweeter, and I don’t know if I would have remembered that episode as well otherwise.
However, horror in children’s media does not always mean one will remember the points of each episode for the better. For example, “Courage the Cowardly Dog,” a popular show in the early 2000s, has memorable characters and themes, but not too many memorable plot points. This is likely due to the sheer consistency of terrifying characters in every episode, as the show is centered around main character Courage’s overactive imagination. This allows the artist to load the show with nightmare fuel in extraordinarily clever and thoughtful ways. The over-exaggerated animation style of each episode’s antagonist along with the genuinely terrifying situations the characters would be put through was more than enough to make the show scary as all hell. However, it didn’t have the dichotomy between horror and lighthearted absurdity that most other memorable shows with a scary nature do. Although I am certain “Courage the Cowardly Dog” had many intriguing life lessons (as most children’s media does), I cannot recall the lesson nor the plot of a single episode, due to how terrifying all of them were. That, along with the fact that most media in the early ’00s opted towards pocket episodes rather than consistent storylines, makes it difficult to truly remember what sort of stories “Courage the Cowardly Dog” told in the first place.
Horror without a purpose made the sights memorable, but it feels nearly impossible to remember the plot that came with it. This doesn’t mean that any show that focuses more on pocket episodes or artistry than plot is a bad show, but it does make it less effective on the viewer in the long-run. The creators of “Courage the Cowardly Dog” were wise and creative enough to have antagonists portrayed with several different forms of art media with different reasons they were scary, but nonetheless it is hard to remember it for anything but being a beautifully scary show. There is only so much variation that can be portrayed in a deserted field with a single house, and the show did amazingly with what it had. Meanwhile, shows like “Gravity Falls” and “Adventure Time” emphasize other aspects of the worlds they’ve created, making the terrifying parts even scarier because it was possible to contrast it from the other encounters the protagonists had.
Overall, I have come to learn that being scared for a large portion of my childhood due to the media I watched was less harmful to my psyche than one would guess. Fear ensures that important messages properly stick to one’s memory, citing back moments and feelings whenever a significant decision is to be made. A show might scare a child, but it is more important that a child learns that fear is a regular emotion that is to be understood and accepted as normal and temporary. Good children’s media teaches kids to overcome those fears, trust themselves and always look forward to being braver and better — just as Finn from “Adventure Time,” Mabel from “Gravity Falls” and Courage from “Courage the Cowardly Dog” taught me.
Daily Arts Writer Adaeze Uzoije can be reached at auzoije@umich.edu.