Counterpoint: there is a very obvious target demo for this movie, which is small children. After I left the theater I saw a bunch of little Cantonese-speaking kids posing in front of the film's poster while their mom took a picture, and I was like... yeah, this movie is amazing for six-year-olds! And then all my reservations about its lack of grit vanished into thin air.
It's funny that critics aren't viewing this as a kids' movie despite having KID in the title, but I guess it's the inverse of the "all animation is for children" trope, and now we assume all children's movies are literal cartoons.
Thanks for the comment and for reading, Quiara! Actually, the movie was PG-13 and there was the whole half hour where Ben Yang was training his friend's father, the pizza shop guy... at that point, I started calling the movie The Karate Dad. :) We definitely should talk movies more in person, Quiara... for those seeing these comments, Quiara is the brilliant editor of the crossword puzzles at Slate... I'm a huge fan, even though I have a tougher time with those (even the minis) than the NY Times :)
Counterpoint: there is a very obvious target demo for this movie, which is small children. After I left the theater I saw a bunch of little Cantonese-speaking kids posing in front of the film's poster while their mom took a picture, and I was like... yeah, this movie is amazing for six-year-olds! And then all my reservations about its lack of grit vanished into thin air.
It's funny that critics aren't viewing this as a kids' movie despite having KID in the title, but I guess it's the inverse of the "all animation is for children" trope, and now we assume all children's movies are literal cartoons.
Thanks for the comment and for reading, Quiara! Actually, the movie was PG-13 and there was the whole half hour where Ben Yang was training his friend's father, the pizza shop guy... at that point, I started calling the movie The Karate Dad. :) We definitely should talk movies more in person, Quiara... for those seeing these comments, Quiara is the brilliant editor of the crossword puzzles at Slate... I'm a huge fan, even though I have a tougher time with those (even the minis) than the NY Times :)