Stop Remaking OUR Childhood

A collection of DVDs from my childhood. Source: Maia Aramakutu. 

Growing up in the 2000s felt like the peak of childhood video media, from TV shows like The Wiggles and Ben 10 to movies like Barbie & the Diamond Castle and Shrek. It felt like we were swimming in all the amazing options. 

Many of us hold these beloved movies and shows dear to our hearts, holding onto nostalgia for our childhoods attached to a character, a storyline, and sometimes an animation style. 

In recent years, studios have been releasing reboots, spin-offs, remakes, and sequels of our favourite childhood shows, and although they’re targeted at a new generation of children, many people our age have been vocal on social media about how these shows are “ruining our childhoods”. 

One example of this is the Ben 10 franchise. For those who don’t know, Ben 10, now known as Ben 10 Classic, was a show that aired on Cartoon Network from 2005 until 2008. The show followed a 10-year-old hero, Ben, who discovers a device called the Omnitrix which allows him to transform into different aliens with unique superpowers. 

This show is beloved to many kids that grew up watching Cartoon Network. The show had two popular spin-offs, Ben 10: Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, and although these were well-liked, the reboot was not. 

The 2016 Ben 10 was a complete reboot of the original show, following the same premise with changes to the animation. Although this show was made for a new generation of kids, to grow up with the same characters many others did, the show was not well received. It received a 2.8/10 rating on IMDb, compared to the original show’s 7.5/10. 

When the show first came out, many adults took to various social media platforms to air their frustrations. In TikTok comment sections, users wrote “the new ones are for babies”, “I swear Ben became such a joke,” and “I miss the old Ben 10”. 

These commenters disregard the fact that the target demographic for this new show is 8-to-12-year-olds, and they’re reviewing it as if it’s for over-15-year-olds. 

Earlier episodes of Ben 10 were released on DVD. Source: Charlotte Thornton. 

I asked a group of UC students how they felt about reboots, with the consensus being that they were sick of them, and thought a lot of them were bad.  

Ella said, “Monster High was rebooted last year, and they completely changed the design of the characters and their personalities, which is annoying because they were fine the way they were.” 

But why do we feel like this when these shows aren’t for us? 

The short answer is: nostalgia. 

In an 2016 article published by The Guardian, titled “‘Your film has ruined my childhood!’ Why nostalgia trumps logic on remakes”, Dean Burnett identifies the notion of the “reminiscence bump”: the idea that memories obtained during childhood and early adulthood are more vivid and easier to recall than others, since our brain are developing and nearly everything we experience as children is new. 

Burnett writes that nostalgia itself can be “very powerful, for numerous reasons. But it can actually be too powerful in many ways, leading a majority of people to think things are worse now than they were in the past.” 

This is also known as the “positivity effect”, where different generations hold onto something in their past from a time where they viewed things as completely positive. 

For younger generations raised in the beginnings of technological advancement and a “golden” age of television and movies, our positivity effect is tied to the films and TV of our childhoods. This is why many of us hold certain pieces of media so close to our hearts. 

Therefore, when we feel something we loved as children – which holds a lot of nostalgia for us – is being changed, we instinctively react negatively towards it, ignoring the demographics of the show or movie and the context of the reboot.  

This is why whenever a studio or company announces a reboot, spin-off, remake, or sequel for a beloved favourite from our childhood, the instant feedback is negative. We feel that these stories are for us and will never hold up to the originals. 

But honestly, these shows and movies aren’t for us – they are for children, and we need to keep that in mind next time we get up in arms. They are for a new generation to enjoy the same characters and stories we did, just in a modern format.