The year is 1985, and the movie, Rambo: First Blood Part II, just came out. Now, this is a hard-R movie, full of guns, knives, arrows, you name it. You know who shouldn’t see it? Kids. Do you know who they made a cartoon for the very next year starring John Rambo? Also kids.
That’s right, Rambo: The Force of Freedom came out the very next year in 1986. And…it’s pretty much a G.I. Joe rip-off, but that’s besides the point. The point is, why did they make a cartoon based on an R-rated series like Rambo? Like, when I think of a movie like First Blood, the first thought that comes to my mind isn’t, I need to show my kids this! It’s, I can’t show my kids this.
So, why then were R-rated movies marketed to children back in the day? Well, let’s talk.
It’s Hard To Believe That Action Figures From Hard R Flicks Were Actually Marketed To Kids
The answer to the above question is money. Duh. It definitely worked The clearest indicator of this is, is that I begged my dad to take me to see Terminator 2: Judgment Day when it first came out, and he took me. I was only 8. I’m glad he took me. The opening scene alone blew my 8-year-old brain back then.
My dad wasn't happy, though. It wasn’t so much the violence. It was more so the language, as they were dropping F-bombs aplenty! That said, I don’t blame my dad for thinking the movie would be okay to bring me to. There were toys, after all, made for the film, and why would there be toys produced FOR CHILDREN if the movie was too much for them?
However, multiple R-rated films had toys made for them. Such as RoboCop. Have you ever seen RoboCop? If not, then you should. It’s one of the best sci-fi movies ever. It’s also a movie where a would-be rapist gets his member blown off. So, it’s definitely not the kind of movie where there should be children’s toys. Or a cartoon. Oh, wait…
Do You Remember The RoboCop Cartoon?
When I was a kid, I was deeply into both RoboCop AND Terminator. It might be because there was a video game where they fought each other. It might also be because there was a RoboCop cartoon that I watched regularly. Back then, I knew that a RoboCop movie EXISTED, but I hadn’t seen it yet. That said, would you believe that they sprinkled some of the movie’s lore and characters into the cartoon?
This, of course, made me want to watch the movie, which I did…when my parents were asleep. The same could be said for The Toxic Avenger - which is SUPER R-Rated - as Toxie had his own series called Toxic Crusaders. This, of course, built brand recognition, and it got me to be a fan of these R-rated characters way before I honestly should have been a fan.
I mean, Tales From the Crypt even had its own cartoon, so you know they were going overboard back then.
In The End, It Just Seems So Weird Today, And It Will Likely Never Happen Again
Years ago, I took my then-six-year-old son to see Godzilla Minus One, and I kind of felt like a bad parent because the movie is PG-13… and my son was only six.
Now, it wasn’t bad at all, and he ended up loving the film. It just makes me think about how I (and several others, because every millennial I talk to has a similar story about their dads taking them to see T2) was somewhat coerced into wanting to see R-Rated movies.
In the age of parents being super concerned about their children these days, I doubt that a marketing push to get kids into R-Rated films will ever happen again. That said, it was wild while it lasted!
