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In this episode of my podcast, I talk to special guest Dr. Tom Clark about the recent portrayals of villains or “bad guys and gals” in children’s movies.

SPOILERS abound. We will discuss, among other movies, Toy Story 4, Coco, Inside Out, Ratatouille, and other recent animated and children’s films.

This episode was spurred on by Dr. Clark’s review of “Toy Story 4,” which noticed that the villain has a redemption arc of sorts. That got us to think about how many kids’ movies feature either redeemed villains or even no villains, which we speculate is a change from how children’s and family movies used to present villains.

Why this change? Is it good for children or not? We try to tackle these questions and more.

Dr. Clark is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Dordt University. He’s a lover of all fine things, including literature and film, and with young children of his own, he deftly maneuvers between many family films.

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