The Filmin platform broadcasts an animated series for kids between 4 and 8 years old, which caused a formidable controversy in Denmark
The cartoon series that kids devour on the endless channels and platforms that offer them sometimes disturb their parents. Any adult who has seen “SpongeBob SquarePants” will be surprised by the degree of surrealism and madness that the adventures of the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom reach. In Ukraine they went further when the National Commission for the Defense of Moral Values considered that Bob and the long-suffering Patrick were homosexual. The Chinese platform Douyin censured Peppa Pig as “subversive, inactive and antisocial.” And what about ‘Shin Chan’, the star cartoons of regional televisions in the 90s, starring a mischievous five-year-old boy who used to put his mother’s panties on his head and who loved to show his butt and neck. “Trunk,” as he called it.
Yet no children’s series has created as much of a stir as ‘John Dillermand’ caused in Denmark earlier this year, angering conservative parents and politicians. The first season of ‘Juan Pilila’, as it has been renamed by the auteur film platform Filmin, which
It offers it from this Friday, November 5, It consists of twenty five-minute episodes starring the man with the longest penis in the world. The tune with which it starts makes it clear: «It is the longest of the pililas, if you need to do something, he can with it. It spins it shyly and saves the world quickly.
Juan Pilila has a long, red-and-white tail, like his costume, similar to that of the strongmen in the circus. He lives in a house with a garden with his great-grandmother, who treats him like a child despite wearing a mustache. All the episodes have the same structure and work like a little fable from which a moral is drawn. Juan’s little girl acquires a life of her own by responding to his worst instincts and gets him into trouble that he will have to solve. With it, he lights a barbecue to roast sausages with a bottle of flammable liquid or takes the neighborhood dogs for a walk, always with disastrous results. As the constant voice-over says, “It’s not easy to be different.”
John Dillermand (Juan Hombre-pene, strictly translated into Spanish) was born in the Danish public channel DR by the hand of a team of animators, psychologists and consultants on sexuality. His characters are dolls moved by the technique of ‘stop motion’ or frame-by-frame animation and at certain moments they can recall Terry Gilliam’s pieces for Monty Python. The series, aimed at children between 4 and 8 years old, broke all audience records in Denmark. Its creators defend its purely pedagogical nature: “The series shows an impulsive man, who makes mistakes, just as children do,” they argue. “But the most important thing is that Juan Pilila, in the end, does it well. Take responsibility for your actions.
Juan Pilila gets into trouble for his long limb.
The Danish People’s Party is not of the same opinion. His spokesman Morten Messerschmidt condemned the series on social networks: “They will call me delicate and say that I have no right to compromise freedom of expression. But am I the only one who finds it reprehensible that children think this is funny? I don’t think looking at the genitals of adult men should be a common thing for boys. ” Writer Anne Lise Marstrand-Jorgensen wondered: “Is this really the message we want to send to children as we are in the middle of the big wave of #MeToo?” For his part, the director of the public channel replied: “The series talks about being true to oneself, including faults. It addresses children’s curiosity about the human body, from the most embarrassing things to the funniest.
Jacob Ley, director of the series, invented Juan Pilila to star in the stories he dedicated to his children. As the clinical psychologist Erla Heinesen Højste assures, the character shares the way of thinking that children have, who find genitalia funny. “Categorically, this is not a program about sex,” says the expert. Juan Pilila fights with his member, who as soon as it helps him to propel himself when riding a bike, steal an ice cream or stop traffic for a group of children to cross the zebra crossing. “That hurt,” complains our hero when his organ is trapped in a sausage-making machine. The great-grandmother scolds him and tells him to put the dick inside his pants.
A picture of ‘Juan Pilila’.
The Nordic channel was not daunted by the criticism and continued broadcasting its most successful space, which is now seen throughout Europe renamed John Penisman or John Willieman. “We could also do a series about a woman without control over her giant vagina,” challenged the public channel, which a few years ago caused a certain scandal with the program ‘Ultra Smider Tøjet’, in which naked adults appeared before children from 11 to 13 years to answer all kinds of questions. In Danish carnivals, Juan Pilila’s costume was the rage. Spanish viewers can rest easy. The Filmin series avoids any double meaning or sexual nuance in the misadventures of this big boy, who could also have a tail like a lion and respond to his most primal urges. There is nothing dirty or perverse about these coarse and charming dolls, which recall the educational nature of ‘Sesame Street’, the series that revolutionized children’s content on television half a century ago.
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