Full Series Clone Wars Too Violent for Kids?

Posting this topic because I'm sincerely interested in everyone's thoughts on this. My 8-yr-old daughter LOVES TCW, and watches each episode multiple times. However, my husband is not happy about all the violence in the show and thinks it's too much, especially for young kids. I personally don't really have a problem with it and my daughter seems to get that it's "cartoon violence". She and her friends often have lightsaber battles and act out scenes from the show when playing but it doesn't seem particularly aggressive. Does anyone else have an opinion or experiences with this? Just curious, thanks.

 

I grew up with the violence of kids T.V. from the 90s. To name a few I watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Street Sharks, Power Rangers, Batman: The Animated Series, Gargoyles, and later Toonami which parents often overracted to for violence. TCW is about on par with that as far a fighting and shooting stuff goes. I also grew up on Disney movies which despite being rate G had a few powerful deaths back then. I think I turned out alright. You probably don't want to let your 3 year old watch it but for an 8 or 9 year old I think its fine.

 

I survived Dragonball, and I'm not violent at all. I think an 8 year old can understand the difference.

 

I think eight years old it is fine to watch this kind of TV show. Theres action and sometimes violence but it won't go far away than that.(There is no blood for exemple.) We have not to forget that there is also some positive morals and values that kids can learn. So, I think each parents have to decides what they want their kids to watch and in the TCW cases keeping in mind that the show is not only focused on violence.

 

Agreed. One thing I love about TCW are the positive female role models (and not so positive ones - but at least the bad girls are good at what they do which is impressive!) and you're right that there are many other things to focus on besides the fighting.

 

TCW is violent, but no more so than a typical Lucas or Spielberg production. Indiana Jones is typicaly considered to be a family/children's movie despite containing some of the most horrific violence in the history of cinema. Remember how graphic the face melting scene is?

[image=http://dalecityknightz.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/face-melt.jpg]

There are some questions raised that I find questionable in a kids show. Should Anakin have really torchered Poggle for answers about brain worms when he is currently seen by young children as a hero? But there are positive messages too. As has been pointed out in the thread the sci-fi fashion of strong female characters continue in this show.

Ultimately though it's up to the individual child. Some children can't handle the violence, and would probably be terrified of TCW. But your daughter not only seems to handle it, but sounds like she also has the proper upbringing to understand that such uber-violence isn't tolerated in the real world.

 

Some stuff is bit much, but i think 8-year old can handle most episodes well enough - at least season1 and most of season2 are fine especially with parents or older siblings- so there is someone kids can talk to about episodes and their themes - that's relieving if they did find some scene shocking-

Of course problem with kids is that they don't want be "little babies" so they are also embarassed if something is scary- talking about episodes probably helps and TCW has much to talk about .....

-some like last half of season 3 is bit too dark with suicides, backstabbings and child dying and all - but that's hard to say since it is very individual thing how much you can take as 8-year old.....

I would say no episode is suitable to under 5-year olds at least, but 8-year old- I don't think you can keep those kids from watching TCW without being like a tyrant -forbidding things make them only more interesting in eyes of eight-year old....

I would say it's okay if kid thinks so himself/herself and if he/she don't have to watch it alone- watching eps together with someone is also much more fun than watching them alone...

Haha i sound like psychologist... sorry

I wouldn't show Indy to 8-year old -seriously it is too violent for so young people from Sw-movies ROTS may be the only one that is somewhat close but generally SW is bit more childfriendly than Indy.....

Legacy of Terror, Brain Invaders, Mandalore-episodes, Mortis, Citadel-arc and Padawan Lost are episodes that have elements that are not really kidfriendly.....but more kidfriendly than Indy....

 

It all boils down to how much the child/parent can handle. If a kid watches LaPR and develops an interest in matches then it might be time to turn off the TV but other than that I think the show does a good job (perhaps too good) of separating good from bad with very little gray matter in between. The violence level hardly ever goes farther than the movies so I think that if a child can handle the films then they can handle TCW.

 

Funny you mention Brain Invaders since I think that's my daughter's favorite episode of all time. She also doesn't have a problem with the violence in the movies, although doesn't like ROTS because it does get a little too intense so usually skips that one. As for the Indy face-melting (oh why oh why did you post that picture??), that scared the crap out of me when I first saw it at 12 but my daughter saw it when she was 6 and was like "so what? Not scary." I'm glad that she seems to get it and is well adjusted, and we do talk about certain scenes just to make sure she gets it. I find what scares her more is when the violence or situation is more "real" - for example, the faces melting in Indy are just fine to her because it's not a realistic situation, yet she can't watch Home Alone of all movies because it's about 2 guys trying to break into a house where a young kid is all alone. That situation scares her because it's more realistic & believable (even though the crooks are bumbling idiots and not very scary).

Season 3 did get very dark at times but we're looking forward to Season 4 with excitement.

 

I don't have kids myself, but I can understand why some parents would be reluctant to let younger children watch certain episodes, especially if they're easily frightened by mild horror elements or are prone to getting aggressive after watching fight scenes. However, in terms of violence it seems to be pretty standard PG rated action movie fair, certainly no worse than TPM or AotC.

 

Well it is a war to be fair, and considering what other thing are available for kids to watch on television and the internet nowadays, TCW is a safe bet. If you as a parent don't feel like Savage chocking Feral to death is appropriate, then that much of the episode can be missed.

 

In the UK all 3 'classic' Indy movies have a PG rating. This means that by law they are considered child friendly, but aren't reccomended for children under 5 due to mild violence/horror.

Not to mention the thousands of people who talk about seeing Indy when they were a kid (myself included), so my point still stands.

 

Overall, I don't think it's too violent for kids. It varies, as you can expect from pretty much any audience.

 

When I was a kid my parents were probably the epitome of "overprotective." They wouldn't let us watch Cartoon Network. They didn't like us watching most of the old Looney Toon shows. We were only allowed to watch a very few shows on Nickelodeon. And yet, I'd imagine if I were 8 again, they'd let me see TCW.

Basically it always came down to the type of violence. Wilde E Coyote? Offlimits. Mindless violence. But they had us watching all the Star Wars movies since before I can remember, because they thought they were classic films with a plot.

As silly as some of the TCW shows are (Blue Shadow Virus ), every single one of them has some sort of moral (albiet sometimes vague). They're not using violence for the sake of violence, or for humor -- when something violent happens, there's usually a message behind it.

 

The same Barriss said -indeed, ridiculously the same, I also couldn´t watch CN -, but I saw the SW films and Indy films as a child. There are kid-friendly in my opinion.

 

We are sheltered in America. Watch Anime from Japan, and then ask yourself that question.

 

This isn't Japan.

 

Indeed

 

Hell, I watched Starship Troopers as a kid and I am the kind of person who feels bad if I accidentally step on an ant. So. while I am occasionally caught off guard by what is in the show, I doubt any kids are going to go around impaling each other javelins after because of it.

Of course, some kids find this stuff scary and disturbing on their own, but they'll generally let you know if that is the case.

 

Well seeing as its a kids show about a war, albeit in a fantasy universe, yeah-theres going to be violence. No more so than the movies which all had a PG rating and thats where the rub is-Parental Guidance. So long as parents can provide context to the violence there should not be an issue. They can get just as much flipping on the news or even worse playing thier XBox or whatever.

 

CT he beat us to it.

 

In fact some droid humour is violence for humour because droids are made too humanlike then sliced with no mercy .....

what comes to Brain Invaders i think that Barriss asking Ahsoka to kill her and grotesque worm in her mouth- it was quite a dark for a TCW-episode- in fact I did find it quite frightening myself one of the two reasons i dislike that episode really - it was too scifi and too scary for me....

This is internet- not U.S. territory.....

 

The only episodes where I was surprised at the level of violence were the Ventress-Savage episodes. Especially when Ventress is swinging that nasty scythe-flail around all over the place!

 

The thing is, it is Star Wars ''The Clone Wars'' so, it is a war between a Republic and the Separatists in this case and also in the background, a war between the dark side and the light side. If the kid can't understand basiclly what is good and what is bad then I agree, he/she should not watch the show yet.

Other thing, Does the kid can watch a Star Wars movie? Because, obviously TCW take place between AOTC and ROTS and it shows what the clone wars is about and some events in link with the movies. So, in my opinion it is probably better than the parents make sure that their kid can watch Star Wars.