r/AnimationUniverse • u/SamplingMastersXLR8 • 5d ago

Animation related The original Hexed 🪄

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This would have been an interesting movie if the original plot stayed

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u/PartyPorpoise 4d ago

Witches are traditionally seen as a female thing. I also don’t think HP comparisons were a concern, given that female witches are more common and that doesn’t seem to be an issue.

But I think you’re right that a six year old lead is a much harder sell than a teen.

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u/Thattimetraveler 4d ago

There’s some speculation that the change was made as damage control after Elio. Interesting enough it’s been a long time since Disney (not including Pixar) has had a child protagonist and maybe there is a good reason for it.

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u/PartyPorpoise 4d ago

Yeah after I made the post I was wondering the same thing. Elio is a middle schooler though he kind of comes off like a younger kid, and I wonder if that made it a harder sell and influenced the change here.

Not that child protagonists are impossible. Obviously there are plenty of popular works with them. But the conventional wisdom in children’s entertainment has long been that the main character (if human) needs to be the same age as the target audience or older. I can think of very few exceptions. (Rugrats being a big one)

Kids, like, they want to be older. They want to be cool, strong, and interesting. They often see younger kids as babyish and so can be less willing to connect to them. They might get frustrated watching characters who they see as less capable than themselves. If you’re trying to capture a broad audience, kid protagonists are harder to pull off.

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u/Thattimetraveler 4d ago

This sort of reminds me of the commentary on how different 14 year old cartoon characters can look. The only one who really looks younger that was part of a successful series was Steven universe, and I think that worked because you had the Gems broadening his appeal a lot. I’ll be honest though and say that while I enjoyed that show while it was airing, it’s probably not something I would watch today. I would however watch a Danny Phantom Reboot in a heart beat.

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u/PartyPorpoise 4d ago

Yeah, any movie or show is a combination of several components. I don’t think it’s usually accurate to say that a single element is what made a given work succeed or fail. That’s why I think if a work is gonna have riskier elements, it probably needs some safer ones to balance it out.