On this journey, we have gone from wordless illustrations, to picture books, images in movement with and without words. It is time for us to look at the cinematographic and audio-visual world to explore these techniques, in which worlds and narratives are created for any kind of audience.
Once having gone into the world of TV and cinema through animation, the next logical step is to have a look at live action series or films. It is evident that TV and cinematic universes are forms of ‘manipulation’ (Nodelman & Reimer, 139), more so than literature, songs or toys. Even though TV and toys – especially in the last few years – favour some series that have some kind of merchandising attached for children or young adult audiences. It does not happen just with these age groups. It is important to realize that series like Marvel on Disney+ market their hot toys in many versions, almost immediately after the episode is broadcasted. This consumer-driven tendencies show the remarkable power TV and cinema have, when it comes to influencing an audience. This is why adults and carers worry about content for children or young adults. One of the cases that Nodelman & Reimer quote in the page mentioned above is the case of violence on the screen. It looks as though research that has been carried out over the influence of consuming audio-visual violence gives contradictory results. Some examples favour violent attitude, while others seem to numb the audience making them less emotional and less violent, in general they simply seem to be less prone to an emotional response. These couch potatoes tend to be more lethargic and less violent.
What permeates through all this is that TV and cinema normalize certain physical images or cultural norms, as well as the appearance of ideal role models and behavioural role models, as if they were the most absolute and only truth possible. On the other hand, this type of representation on TV and cinema make them the most viable tools to show and prove ‘otherness’ and to validate it. This confronts the audience with certain realities that they would not have accessed any other way. The problem is truly ideological and it does not just concern the content of the products: in other words, what is portrayed on screen (141), but it is linked to the structure and sequencing of episodes, freedom and the power of the remote control. Nowadays, viewers can choose what they watch, on which platform, at what time and they can also turn their attention away and come back another day or simply change channels and look for something else they are more interested in or less uncomfortable for their sensitivities. This feature of our current viewing habits is an advantage because we can deepen our personal interests, but it also has a dark side: our choice limits the range of cultural products that we are exposed to, which would expand a child´s comfort zone, giving them an opportunity to experiment new things and find new interests. On the other hand, the possibility to change contributes to the lack of exercising concentration skills, as quoted in new educative theories.
With this in mind, it is important to have a look at the history of film duration. It used to be 90 minutes for a long time and other films were called shorts if they did not meet this standard. Lately, especially after the success of Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, the duration expanded beyond 150 minutes, but nowadays the duration seems to be shrinking again. The boom of TV platforms, online viewers and the countless high-quality series that are being produced on shorter formats may have influenced the tendency for shorter films. Some viewers binge-watch a series of episodes, binge-watching allows the brain to relax between episodes. Some series tell a story that has a beginning and an end in one episode and, in order to follow the episode, we do not need to know a lot about the series or the story (Friends); and other series contribute to a bigger plot and they are not circular (Loki). These aspects contribute to the development of a certain type of attention or another, when we look at the fictional world’s children and young adults are exposed to.
Ideology raises its head again in the world of films. Values and a range of characters are represented in successful films and have marked the response of their viewers synchronically or diachronically. For example, some classics are nowadays, considered unacceptable because they portray cultural values and racial stereotyping that we would consider obsolete. Sometimes, TV develops fictional worlds and narrations more as myths, rather than animations. Myths are stories with a special status for believers, as they are presented as truths, not in the symbolic sense of truth but as a real report of nature, as it is (324). We will not get into too much detail about these central myths in children and young adult worlds (Santa), and we will not get into fairy tales either. However, for those of you who are interested in expanding on this topic, we will leave you a couple of recommended books in the last section of this chapter.
As important as ideology is, and perhaps because of the realism that is portrayed in live action movies, representation is vital. The question that arises every time we watch a film or series and want to talk about its mimesis is if the film/series is more realistic, is the product better? If it were like this, what would we do with character types and worlds that are portrayed in film and TV programmes? Do we need to include every sector of society, ethnicities, social groups, individual differences in a positive light, so as not to offend anyone? In addition, if we don’t, what does it say about our art? In the same way, we could talk about the relationship between the viewer and the characters; do we need to see a reflection of ourselves in a series or a film for it to be likeable? Alternatively, will we enjoy meeting and empathizing with different characters at first sight, and if they share some of our features? Then again, could we simply enjoy how different they are, because we would like to be like them or because we understand them better now? The key topic here is how we use cinema and TV in our lives and how much they determine our values and beliefs.
Underlining this issue is the question of what agendas we can be hidden in these values and accepted dangerous bias about race, gender, power and social organization (capitalism, individualism…), religion, neurodiversity, disability, socioeconomic status and other differences. We have to mention that YouTube videos, albeit semi amateur or professional, play a vital role, nowadays. This form of entertainment builds a fictional world, which could be the point of escape for children, as it is a key issue that is connected to countries like our own, Ireland. We should point out that one of the main differences in this regard is that, for instance, in Spain, almost no mobile device contract has limitless data (2021). This does not facilitate the use of these tools as entertainment in the car, in a waiting room or in situations where the child is not at ease. In spite of this, the easy access of a mobile screen has fostered the popularity of YouTubers such as El Mundo de Ryan https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRA8YQZnqAZM8Nj-_4FlfGg (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC) that we have mentioned before, La Familia Hauser, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQpi23dQSq_OVM8k5yE70yw (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC) (associated to playMobil) and Mundo PinyPon https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkx-4QNiuifVNjhdI7MCikQ (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC) It is crucial to realize that these types of channels are created with marketing purposes, in other words, they are doing product placement for a brand in a very interactive way, creating a different kind of product placement for marketing purposes.
Evidently, adults and children are not compelled to adopt the values they are consuming. When we realize the main idea is to interact with active viewers, we notice that when we participate in the process of understanding these products and when a dialogue is established with children, we can kick start a process, in which the child critically views this product and we can even free ourselves or at least distance ourselves from a passive consumeristic approach to entertainment 148). In many ways, kids and young adults can be more critical than adult viewers and their criticism can start very interesting conversations. That is why it is important to show children some of these critical and analytical strategies, to develop their agency as readers and viewers to an active approach. The ability to recognize and consider what an ideology shows in a text/series/film/videogame is very important because the personality of a producer or a narrator, as well as the reader/viewer, is never going to be as coherent as it is presented to us. Their ideas on history and culture, class and gender, family and sexuality, nationality and ethnicity, politics, the authenticity of the narrator, their view of individuality and collectively, ecological ideologies and so on put a mark on their worlds and it is very important to realize whether their art conforms or rejects core values of our society, to measure their transformative potential (180) and establish, in this way, a powerful dialogue with our children.
Cinema and TV for children in Spanish
It is not easy to find a full list of films in Spanish, created for a young or child audience. In fact, Spanish-speaking countries mostly rely on translations, when producing films. The TV world is slightly different, however, there are many series and films dubbed or subtitled as well. Young adult cinema is a bit more common but we will have a look at it in the next section of this book.
When we started working on the idea for this module, I created a survey for Spanish, Chilean, Colombian and Mexican young adults on Google Forms and Twitter, to get a full perspective of what they had read or watched in their childhood. We asked them to give us a list of the series and films that had an impact on their childhood and adolescence. Most of them were translations, and if they were Spanish, they were animations. We will now have a look at some of the examples given by these young adults. Given the huge variety of programmes that could be tackled here, we are going to focus on TV series, of which the main character is a child. In the example, we are going to present here, two of them also present a child narrator. We have chosen these two series, which were created years apart from one another, because they present different periods and places, but also, they show an archetype of child that may or may not be common in other cultures. It is important to add that one of the examples that we will focus on, is a Swedish product and the other two are adaptations of Spanish books that were not originally written for TV. We are talking about Manolito Gafotas, Celia, and Pippi Longstockings.
Let us start by the most recent of these series: Manolito Gafotas is based on a series of eight novels, written by Elvira Lindo. This series is narrated in the first person and is a story about a child, who wears glasses because he is short sighted. He talks about his family life, which is set in a lower working-class neighbourhood in Carabanchel Alto, Madrid. The story originated on the radio and the books show a marked tendency to be read aloud. The text is the stream of the main character’s consciousness: Manolito. The first novel was published in 1994 and the last one, which talks about adult Manolo, in 2012. They have produced two films, based on two of the books, both of which were subtitled and one was dubbed, and a TV series as well. The series broadcasted in 2004 and seems to be a favourite amongst the people who took the survey, even though it was a short series which was quickly cancelled, due to low ratings. It was broadcasted on Antena 3, one of Spain´s leading TV channels.
Let´s have a look at episode 1:
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
We will also have a look at the beginning of the two films that were made at the end of the 20th century, because I would like you to see how Manolito (and other characters in his gang) were shown by these adaptations. In a way, the character Manolito García Moreno, as a narrator and main character/hero, makes us question some of the parameters that we tend to define childhood by.
In the same way, these novels and the series show the important concept of ´family´ and the type of family portrayed in children’s fiction. In Manolito’s family, there is his mother, Catalina Moreno, famous for her slaps, Manolo García, a truck driver who doesn’t stay at home much. There is Grandpa Nicolás Moreno, Catalina’s father who lives with them and loves the wine in the bar called ‘Tropezón’ and he also loves dancing; and the Idiot, which is the nickname for Manolito’s little brother, who Manolito doesn’t get on with but loves anyway.
It also shows the importance of the relationship between kids at school. In his gang, we have Big Ears López, of whom we never find out his first name. In the summer he goes to Carcagente, their parents’ village, we are introduced to Yihad, who is the bully and the gang leader and who breaks Manolito’s glasses many times, Susana Dirty Knickers, a clever and strong girl Manolito fancies; Paquito Medina, who is the nerd and a fan of Rayo Vallecano, a football club from another neighbourhood, Jessica the ex-fatty, Manolito’s classmate who loses weight at one stage; Arturo Román, who asks every single question no one dares to; Mustard, who sings very well and is Melani’s brother, who is in junior infants with the Idiot. Mustard’s mom is a cleaner and he never wants to talk about them because their father left. Finally, Melody Martínez – the new girl, who falls in love with Manolito and defends him from Yihad.
As they live in a block of flats, the neighbours are important characters in their lives: Luise spoils them and has a dog called Boni. Bernabé is her husband and they do not have children. We constantly come across two teachers, Sita Asunción, who calls them delinquents, and Sita Espe, who is the school counsellor and recommended Manolito to start writing his story, from the beginning of time.
Manolito shares many characteristics with the universal ´ideal´ child; he is innocent, curious and most importantly, has a survival instinct and a way of looking at things that is new and refreshing. However, in many ways Manolito is a ‘Spanish’ kid because he is radically different in some aspects. In spite of these differences, it´s success has gone beyond the linguistic border of the Spanish-speaking world and it is one of Spain´s most translated and exported series around the world. It is so much so, that there is an international Manolito’s club: http://www.clubmanolitogafotas.com/
As a counterpart, we will use an older novel: Celia by Elena Fortún. The namesake series is a collection of 21 books, 18 of which were written between 1929 and 1951, with two collecions of short texts, published in a maganize called Gente Menuda y Crónica and its last collection was published posthoumously in 1987, 35 years after Fortún’s death. The first book of the series, Celia, lo que dice, is a collection of short stories, published in magazines in 1928. The books follow the life of a 7 year old girl called Celia Gálvez de Montalbán, in Madrid and tell the story from her point of view. She was born into an upper working-class family but she questions the world in an ingenious and naïve way and this made her a very popular character in the 60s. In 1992, TVE produced it publicly for Spanish viewers. They used the first and second book and the series was adapted by Carmen Martín Gaite, an already esteemed writer. It has 6 episodes and was supposed to come back for a second season, but that never happened.
Let us turn to the first episode and compare this female narrator to Manolito:
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
To finish the list of children’s characters, which left a mark on Spanish TV and cinema, we will talk about the translation of a Swedish classic, which influenced children’s and young adult narratives throughout the last 50 years. We are referring to Pippi Långstrump by Astrid Lindgren, or Pippi Calzaslargas in Spain, also known as Pipi Calzasgargas, Pipa Mediaslargas, Pippi Mediaslargas and occasionally Pepita Mediaslargas or Pita, in other dialectal variations of Spanish. This girl, whose name is Pippilotta Viktualia Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraimsdotter Långstrump (daughter of Efraim Långstrump), has extraordinary characteristics, such as her enormous physical strength. Her two best friends are: a polka dotted horse (Little Uncle) or in Swedish, Lilla Gubben (Little Guy) and a monkey, called Mr Nilsson. Her mom passed away and her dad is a pirate and also, the king of the Congolese. She lives on her own in a house, called Villa Villekulla in Swedish. She has red hair and two, almost horizontal, plaits. Her main trait is her rebellious nature against any conventional norms: she makes pancakes for breakfast and flips them over the floor, she walks backwards and sleeps with her feet on the pillow. Her dress is tattered and her shoes are huge and she has two different colours, over the knee stockings. That’s where her name comes from. She has a lot of money as well, in fact it is a lot of gold, and she can buy everything she needs or wants. She is only nine years old when she meets Tommy and Annika, who become her sidekicks from then on.
Pippi has reached international popularity abroad, thanks to the TV series with a script, written by the same author. The books and series were censored in Spain for many years, but when Franco’s censorship became less imposed, the 1969 Swedish series made it to Spain in 1974. In 1990, it was re-made into a show, called Megatrix and in 1998, it came out on VHS and then on DVD. In the 70s, they created a new animated series in the US. The character also showed up in a Japanese RP videogame called Mother/Earthbound hero. There’s also a theme park dedicated to Pippi.
Here is the first dubbed episode in Spanish: https://youtu.be/Ttx8h0MtZjc (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
Despite Pippi’s fictional world being rather different to Celia’s and Manolito’s, to finish up, I would love to highlight the impact a character like this has, because it proves the strength of a small girl can break conventions and she can survive on her own in a hostile world. What is important in the stories of Pippi, adults always remain an obstacle in her adventures and endeavours. I wanted to close off this section of the book with such a dynamic character because she presents a counterpoint to the oppressive, educational adult world, imposed by society, which Pippi attempts to destabilize and Pippi manages to do this with her personality and behaviour that is outside any dictated norm. In the episode that deals with Pippi’s schooling, we can see how the need for education is questioned at all times, embodying some of the educational theories of the 70s, such as deschooling by Ivan Illich (1971): https://youtu.be/wagNmD4xcq8 (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
Another type of show often created for children, is a programme with a great deal of variety and includes series and original shows with several different characters that tend to give the show its idiosyncratic characteristics, such as the previous ones we mentioned, which included Pippi. Many times, we are faced with puppets or muppets, which was the case in Sesame Street – Barrio Sésamo. We will have a look at the first episode of the Spanish version of Sesame Street:
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC) and we can compare it to the American version:
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC) Although they share similarities in certain parts, the muppets (Kermit, Cookie Monsters…) are very different in both episodes and the Spanish episode includes very strong, cultural elements, such as the concept of ‘barrio’ and the relationships between neighbours. Sesame Street was broadcasted on the main channel of TVE from 1979 to 2001. Every episode presented the same, tele-theatre for children structure, with actors and puppets. The two first seasons used only Henson family products. From 1979 to 1980, the first season had Big Bird and the Snail. The second season (1983-1988) had Espinete (a pink hedgehog) and his friends: Don Pimpón, Chema, Julián the newsagent, Matilde, Ana, Antonio, Ruth, Roberto and Susana. We also see Quica and Cuca, who were the ‘bag girls’ in the final episodes. From 1996 to 2000, the third season included a new character, called Bluki and his friends: Gaspar, Vera and Bubo. Racial diversity and cultural difference was one of the new values in this season, having Sulimán, who was a Guinean greengrocer, Salím, a Moroccan waiter, and a biracial couple, Fátima and Manuel. Episode 1:
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
A remarkable example of this type of programme was the popular Bola de Cristal. It was a programme on TVE during the 80s, which left a mark on an entire generation and dented the genre, influencing the popular, contemporary Lunnis. Directed by Lolo Rico, whose perspective of children’s entertainment was unique, it started in October 1984 and finished in 1988. It reflected a socio-political change in Spanish culture, which marked the transition period towards democracy, cultural explosion and musical boom, known as la movida madrileña.
The programme had four different sections. Each section had a different audience in mind, from a young audience to young adults. In each section, you had transitional, short comedic pieces that invited you to think or gave time between programmes. These transitions were kept in colloquial language, using the following phrases: ‘yo solo no puedo, con amigos sí’, (on my own I can’t, but with my friends I will)
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
‘si no quieres ser como estos, lee’, (If you don’t want to be like these ones, read)
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
‘tienes quince segundos para imaginar… si no se te ha ocurrido nada, a lo mejor deberías ver menos la tele’, (You’ve got 15 seconds to imagine something… if you weren’t able to think of anything, maybe you should not watch so much TV)
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
to mention a few. One of the most important aspects of the series was the sound track that can be found nowadays on Spotify.
The first section, called los electroduendes, was dedicated to the youngest audience. In this section, the witches Avería and Truca, the fairy Vídeo, Brother Cámara and Sister Sonoro went on different adventures, normally to sort out some mischief, caused by Avería. Once again, a lot of new phrases and words were popularized in this programme: viva el mal, viva el capital (all hail evil, all hail iniquity), soy avería y aspiro a una alcaldía (I’m Avería and I want to be the city mayor), meapilas (batteries-peer), lo mio es… ¡El cine! (my thing is …cinema!), me importa un vatio (I don’t care a watt), desenseñar a desaprender cómo se deshacen las cosas (to unteach how to unlearn how to undo things).
(complete first episode electroduendes – 1:45 – 21:19) (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
The second section of the programme, called book-visor, was for older kids and preadolescents. In this section, there was a story told about a particular historic period and a mystery was solved. They added comedians later and they would finish up this section with videoclips of songs. (21:30 – 46:10)
The Magnetic Band was the name of the third part, which introduced episodes of a children or young adult series, presented by Alaska, as were the previous sections. They showed The Little Gang, The Adam’s family, Bewitched, to name a few. At the end of the episodes, they would show a monograph, written by the witch, Truca, dealing with the lives of old artists from the cinematic worlds, such as Charlie Chaplin or Romy Schneider… (46.10 – 1.28 57)
The fourth part was for young adults between 14 and 18 years old and it was the most varied part of the show, which was normally shown on Saturday mornings. It was an independent part of the programme because it was not made for younger kids. It started with Little Duck’s interviews:
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
Then it went on to The News, with Javier Gurruchaga, who had the freedom to deal with whichever topics he deemed suitable and when it was extended, it had the title ‘The Fourth Man’.
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
They showed videoclips and short, comedic films like The Traka and the Pedro Reyes’ show.
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
Given the political innuendo of the programme, the arrival of Pilar Miró in 1987, as director of RTVE, generated the ceasing of certain sections of the programme. This programme had enjoyed total freedom up to that point because it exercised criticism and inspired debates about anything they wanted. In an interview with Lolo Rico in 2014, the producer affirmed that RTVE had censored a section of the show that defended public schools, without her permission and that led to her leaving the channel and the end of the programme. A programme, called Cajón desastre, led by Miriam Díaz Aroca took its place.
https://youtu.be/O2XCfeR3nlw (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
Taking a look at the aesthetics and format of this follow-up child and young adult’s entertainment programme, it showed huge differences between them. This was a type of programme that was easily recognized and it is similar to some of the programmes that we can see nowadays, which conform to a more globalized and less critical model on current TV.
Let us have a look at a contemporary programme that is hugely successful, Los Lunnis, produced by TVE and broadcasted from the 2nd September 2003 to 2010 (on Clan). It was on the main channel, on Saturdays until 2011. The characters are puppets, performed by actors. Thanks to the song ‘Los Lunnis and the children are going to bed’, composed by Daniel Cerdá Emery & Jaume Copons, the programme achieved massive popularity, with more than 3 million viewers on average. The show had a ´good habits´ section, an English section, road behaviour tips, TeleLunnis would give information and reports aimed at the younger viewers, Lunicef (in collaboration with the NGO), Olympic Lunnies, which had main sportspeople from Spain, Lunigag, Lunipedia and more songs. They produced Christmas specials from 2003 to 2005 with cameos from Robbie Williams, Shakira and Coldplay.
The Lunnis are aliens, living in the Moon Moony world and they go on adventures there and solve problems, caused by the pirate Lucaneer, whose objective is to steal the Great Magic Book, in Lubina the Witch’s library. It was presented by the singer, Lucrecia from 2008 to 2016. Nowadays, it is led by Alex Casademunt from the first edition of Operación Triunfo.
Legend Lunnis: https://youtu.be/lsm4-0sTop8 (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
These are the sections of the program overtime:
| Legend Lunnis: (2016 – Now)
Work and Play (2009 – 2014) Lunicef (2009 – 2014) Lunnipedia (2011 – 2014) The musical rocket (2011- 2014) Pirate Lunnis (2014) |
Telelunnis (2003-2007)
Lulila’s questions (2003-2007) Lutecio’s world (2003-2007) Lubina’s kitchen (2003-2007) Lublú’s stuff (2003-2007) Los lunnis – the series (2004-2009) English for all (2005-2007) |
In 2018 ‘Lunnis and… Action!’ was premiered on Clan TV, showing how cinema works through the use of crafts. The main aim of the programme was the mediatic literacy for kids through craft-making with the funny Youtuber BJ and her biggest fans, Agus and Lui. https://www.rtve.es/infantil/series/lunnis/
Videoclip:
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
On the other hand, the Lunnis have also made it to the big screen with a movie from Columbia Pictures Los Lunnis en la Tierra de los cuentos in 2004, La Navidad con los Lunnis by Sony Music in 2004, Los Lunnis y su amigo Don Quijote by Sony Pictures in 2005, La Nochebuena in 2005, La Odisea de los Lunnis in 2006, Los Lunnis sobre Ruedas in 2007, La gran Aventura de los Lunnis y el Libro Mágico in 2019. The series was sold in 20 countries, among most of which are Spanish speaking, Italy and Portugal.
Episode 1: https://youtu.be/CEi9-tlm3U0 (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
To close off this section about TV, we will refer to another programme that a lot of young people, who took the survey, spoke about with great nostalgia. This time we are looking at a programme produced in Mexico, by an independent TV channel: El Chavo del 8. Once again, we are dealing with a comedy, created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños. The TV programme revolves around the life of a group of people living in a Mexican neighbourhood, where the main character, Chavo, wreaks havoc and creates misunderstandings. It had huge success and in 1975, it had on average more than 350 million viewers each week. The last broadcast of this programme was in January 1980, but it continued as a section of Chespirito until 1992. Its success could be due to the impact that Chapulín Colorado had before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU4JjFaiAHU (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
Chavo is an orphan that normally gets into trouble with Don Ramón, Doña Clotilde y Doña Florinda because he is distracted. He has two friends, Quico and Chilindrina. The critics claimed it to be vulgar, dumb and stupid and it was not recommended. One of the most problematic issues was the explicit violence and insults between the characters. It also included recorded laughter, as you can see on episode 1 (deleted from YouTube currently):
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
Videogames in Spanish for children and young adults
As the national library has proven when they call on the audience help to complete their 80s collection, where they are missing a lot of games, videogames are an art form and an entertainment industry that we cannot ignore for children, young people and adults. https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2021-01-22/se-buscan-6000-videojuegos-para-reconstruir-la-historia-del-sector-en-espana.html
Videogames offer a lot of opportunities and in the last few decades, the Spanish industry of game development has been growing, as you can see on this webpage, with the list of the greatest games produced in the last few years in the Spanish speaking world: https://es.ign.com/espana/155276/feature/los-10-mejores-videojuegos-espanoles-de-la-historia
There have been games that have revolutionized the gaming-world scene, becoming an inspiration to other game developers. In 1987, La abadía del crimen, is a remarkable example, as it is known as the masterpiece of Spanish software. It is a videoadventure that came before its time, created by Paco Menéndez & Juan Delcán. These two friends created a historic novel with Amstrad. Influenced by the novel, The Name of the Rose, written by Umberto Eco and published in 1980, it was developed in 14 months by two friends in a 3x3meter-squared room, without windows. It is a timeless classic that has aged gracefully. Its difficulty, complexity and control system will be the first barrier for those that want to play. The game has been rebuilt several times, owing to its popularity – as you can read here: https://www.vidaextra.com/analisis/abadia-crimen-obra-maestra-videojuego-espanol
Another game that came before its time is PC Futbol, created in 1992, followed by Commandos 2 (2001), for PC, PS2 and Xbox, which is a game of strategy and action based on the Second World War. In the domain of multiplayers, we have Runaway (2001), which also came out on IOS and Blade: the Edge of Darkness (2001) was one of the best graphic adventures of the 21st century in 3D. For strategic game fans, Praetorians, which is based on Julius Caesar campaign, arrived on the gaming scene for PS4 and Xbox and PC in 2003. Other similar games are Castlevanía: Lords of Shadow (2010), Metroid Samus Returns (2107) for Nintendo DS, RIME (2017) and GRIS (2018).
(trailer)
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
Although RIME already includes the dynamics of empathy and emotion that a lot of these games subscribe, Gris became the greatest surprise in the field of videogames at a global level. Its plot does not lead you to big obstacles or enemies but the plot and music engage with the senses, highlighting the suffering of the young, main character.
(defending Gris) https://youtu.be/egK-pVZuYb0 (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
Last but not least, Blasphemous (2019) is available on all platforms and it offers many difficult combats that will test your patience as a gamer.
In this webpage, they also mention Moonlighter (2018), a manga game; in which if you die you need to start basically from scratch. They also mention The Red Strings Club (2018) as an indie videogame, different from the others, in the sense that the gamer is a barman being given information from each client, based on the drinks we are making. It has a cyberpunk aesthetic and both scripts and characters are very well crafted. They are Billions (2018) is having an international impact because it offers a strategic game with zombies. Likeways in 2020 TemTem premiered. It is heavily influenced by Pokémon. https://www.businessinsider.es/8-mejores-videojuegos-espanoles-actualidad-441741
This is the Spanish videogame, which has profited most in Kickstarter up to now and whose launch made it an international success. It has been nominated for a BAFTA. Other interesting games to mention are Dawn of Fear, Summer in Mara, The longest road on Earth, the Waylanders, and Arima. https://as.com/meristation/2020/02/16/reportajes/1581840835_849114.html
You can find a full list on Wikipedia: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor%C3%ADa:Videojuegos_desarrollados_en_Espa%C3%B1a
Let us have a look at a Spanish speaker, who is going into the world of Temtem:
(CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
This is not the place to delve into these kinds of fictional worlds that foster animation and interactivity. But we would like to finish up, by bringing the constant debate that we meet when anyone starts speaking about videogames to the fore. Eva Forcadell explains it in this podcast:
Podcast – TED – ¿Aprenden los niños con los video juegos? Eva Forcadell (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
As counterparts, we will listen to some input by particular gamers that explain the benefits that this particular fiction has provided for them. They mainly talk about the creation and belonging to a community, linguistic ability, entertainment and cognitive and emotional skills, such as empathy. In this podcast by ProfedELE, some gamers give us their opinion and tell us why they like videogames.
We will wrap up by highlighting the fact that this genre combines a lot of genres and formats that we have already touched on: graphics, characters, plots, orality, movement, empathy and last, but not least maybe the most important feature, which brings it to the summit of children’s and young adult’s narratives nowadays: interactivity.
Profedele podcast – (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC)
REFERENCES TO TICKLE YOUR FANCY
Butler, C. & K. Reynolds (2005) Modern Children’s Literature: An Introduction, London: Palgrave. The section dealing with the influence of TV sums up the main ideas of our chapter. https://search.library.nuigalway.ie/permalink/f/3b1kce/TN_cdi_askewsholts_vlebooks_9781137365019
Echevarría Molloy, G. (2001) Una vida de héroe: función y significado del mito, Buenos Aires: Biblos. This book classifies how myths are used and what they are for.
Nodelman, P. & M. Reimer (1992) The Pleasures of Children’s Literature, Boston: Ally and Bacon. Chapter 13 – Fairy Tales and Myths (302 – 329) This section questions our way of reading and its purpose. It asks us how to read this type of fiction for our purposes.
Zapata Ruiz, T. (2007) El cuento de hadas, el cuento maravilloso o el cuento de encantamiento. Un recorrido teórico sobre sus características literarias. Ciudad Real: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. This book isolates the main features of fairy tales and why they are so crucial in the understanding of fiction.
Podcast:
Hello Friki – Juegos (82/41 – 151.33) – In this podcast, you are going to hear gamers using terminology and typical gamer speech among young people. (CC-BY-ND-SA-NC) https://open.spotify.com/episode/5zJ5uIlerRa14RYOlvpnhU?si=ACH0WUIURWqQkzNvgJl1mg&utm_source=copy-link&dl_branch=1
