Is Marvel's What If? For Kids: How Violent & Gory Is It?
Just how appropriate is Disney+'s new animated show What If...? for children? Given that it's an animated show, the question of appeal to younger audiences is no doubt more pertinent than for the likes of Loki and WandaVision. The show is not particularly marketed towards children - at least not in a conscious way - with heavy impetus on established MCU lore and seeing characters who are already familiar with shocking new twists. But that doesn't mean the show's tone hasn't been changed to better reflect a broader audience.
What If...? is another of Marvel's early Disney+ shows that aims squarely at the weirder side of the MCU. WandaVision set the stall out early with Scarlet Witch's reality-bending antics in Westview, while Loki pushed things even further thanks to its ticket to the multiverse. And now What If...? builds on what the ending of Loki's final episode promised (and what Doctor Strange's upcoming sequel warns about) a Multiverse of Madness. The overall experience is exhilarating and the anthology style of story-telling means it rumbles on at a great pace through each episode, with lots of moments designed squarely at exciting fans who've stuck with the MCU journey since Phase 1.
But for all of its ties to the MCU's past, What If...? is also different from everything before it thanks to its medium. This is the first animated show for Marvel (at least in the MCU canon), with more animated releases promised (including What If...? season 2) and there is a natural expectation that "cartoons" are for younger audience members. Perhaps because of that shift in perceived demographic, What If...? is noticeably broader in its appeal and less adult-oriented than the likes of Loki and Falcon & The Winter Soldier. Yes, there are mature themes and ideas, but there's limited gore, the action feels softer at the edges because of the animation, and the language is mostly less course than has been seen elsewhere post-Endgame. In other words, it is absolutely suitable for kids.
Still, watching What If...? there is no sense that Marvel went into the production seeking to make a family-friendly show at the cost of the story. The animated medium allows for telling stories that the mainline MCU simply cannot in established canon and for a fraction of the cost, presumably. There is more scope in animated cells to show off the true scale of the Collector's collection or to see an interdimensional monster transported through a wormhole without blowing a huge part of the budget. And it means that said monster, and the sight of Hayley Atwell's Captain Carter beating down Nazis, can be a little more grotesque or brutal without compromising on any concerns over censorship.
Ultimately, animated violence is no less of a concern for parents looking to protect what their younger children are watching, but most of what is shown in What If...? is hyper-stylized or very super-real thanks to the art style. There may be some justified concerns over exposing that demographic of kids to violence, deaths (whether legitimate or more MCU fake-out deaths), and nightmarish interdimensional creatures, but the tone of the show is largely fitting of a Universal rating.
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