What is a Kids-on-Bikes film? Kids-on-Bikes films are about a group of kids of varying ages going on a coming of age journey together, usually while riding around on bikes. This journey always involves some kind of adventure, often with supernatural events or Science Fiction encounters, but not always. Some examples are: E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), BMX Bandits (1983), The Goonies (1985), Stand By Me (1986), The Monster Squad (1987), Now and Then (1995), Small Soldiers (1998), Attack the Block (2011), Super 8 (2011), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Turbo Kid (2015), The Babysitter (2017), IT (2017), Power Rangers (2017), The Kid Who Would Be King (2019), IT: Chapter 2 (2019), Rim of the World (2019), Childs Play (2019), Good Boys (2019), Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) and the TV shows Stranger Things (2016-present), Nowhere Boys (2013-2018) and The Unlisted (2019).
Various Kids-on-Bikes movie posters
In the limited online discussion about Kids-on-Bikes, it has generally been considered a sub-genre of Science Fiction.[1] This might be due to one of the earliest and most recognisable instances of the genre being Steven Spielberg’s film E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial. Since then, it’s been hard to separate Kids-on-Bikes from Science Fiction. While many Kids-on-Bikes stories have elements of Science Fiction and Fantasy, there are also many that don’t. Of the 23 films and TV shows listed at the beginning of this paper, six have no Science Fiction or Fantasy elements at all. The Goonies is considered an Adventure Comedy,[2] while the Australian film BMX Bandits is a Crime Drama.[3] Neither is accurately represented by the genres assigned to them. Despite being differentiated based on their current genre, these films share enough character, world and themes that they could be classed in a new genre entirely: Kids-on-Bikes.
Stranger Things Season 2 banner
Due to the success of Stranger Things there has been a clear increase in Kids-on-Bikes films and TV shows being produced over the last few years, with at least six major Hollywood films and one Australian TV show featuring kids and their bikes having been produced in 2019 alone. There is currently no discussion around the genre of Kids-on-Bikes in academic circles and it has only been discussed minimally online despite this increase. This newfound popularity makes Kids-on-Bikes a worthwhile discussion.
Why is it important for Kids-on-Bikes to be accurately represented as a genre? Well, genre has a number of purposes. In Genre Screenwriting: How to Write Popular Screenplays that Sell, Stephen V. Duncan states that “you write a popular film genre screenplay because they sell and make money for everyone involved.”[4] That can provide a strong motivation for studios and creators, but what is the advantage of genre for an audience? In Film Genre 2000 it is suggested that all genre films have an expectation placed upon them by the audience to fit into the parameters of that genre, because for some audience members they will find “along with the exterior surface of the film, many genre films of previous decades contained a subtext that could be appreciated by those who cared to delve below the glossy surface of the work.”[5] These are two very different uses for genre, however Rick Altman pragmatically summarises both perspectives into a useful definition in his book Film/Genre. He puts forward that “genre, it would appear, is not your average descriptive term, but a more complex concept with multiple meanings.”[6] Genre it would seem is a fluid but important term. It’s used to help get films funding, it outlines what an audience expects from a film, it’s used by creators as a framework for storytelling and it’s used in film analysis and criticism. Therefore it can be important for genres to be correctly labeled so that creators can accurately communicate their intention for a film to studios, audiences and critics. For the Kids-on-Bikes genre to continue to thrive and have longevity, it should be well defined so that creators can continue to provide new and interesting varieties in their mediums.
In Film/Genre, Altman lays out the essential elements required for genre, these are: blueprint, structure, label and contract. Altman details each one as:
Film/Genre by Rick Altman
Blueprint: “genre as blueprint, as a formula that precedes, programmes and patterns industry productivity.”[7] This means the blueprint is for production; it is a formula for style and tone.
Structure: “Genre as structure, as the formal framework on which individual films are founded.”[8] The structure therefore is a framework for the screenwriter; it’s the building blocks for the story and characters.
Label: “Genre as label, as the name of a category central to the decisions and communications of distributers and exhibitors.”[9] Primarily studios and executives use the label; it’s a form of recognisable categorisation used to sell these stories to distributers and exhibitors.
Contract: “Genre as contract, as the viewing position required by each genre film of its audience.”[10] Finally, the contract is what the audience expects from the film; it’s the context of the Kids-on-Bikes stories they’ve seen before with a fresh and exciting take.
For Kids-on-Bikes to be classed as a genre it must fit into these categories. In addition, it should have clearly defined tropes. There are numerous examples of what constitutes a trope in Film Genre 2000: “Horror films must, of course, have monsters, mad scientists and Gothic castles; westerns need dusty towns, posses, and a climactic shoot-out; musicals need dance numbers, exotic locations.”[11] The tropes of the Kids-on-Bikes genre can be explored by discussing the expectations of executives and audiences using Altman’s requirements of genre.
Blueprint:
The blueprint of a Kids-on-Bikes film is usually very clear. Early examples of the genre such as E.T. and BMX Bandits, which are both set in the eighties, set a precedent of Kids-on-Bikes films taking place in past-decades. While these films were both made in the eighties, like many other early Kids-on-Bikes films, such as The Goonies and The Monster Squad, the Kids-on-Bikes films and TV shows that followed have often taken place in the eighties as well, such as Stranger Things and IT. In his video essay, The Return of Kids on Bikes, Matt Draper takes note of the fact that the eighties were perhaps the last decade that kids were free to roam on their own.[12] In addition, the eighties were prior to the digital revolution, making it the last time kids had to ride their bikes to connect with each other. If E.T. was discovered in 2019 he would have been seen on social media within seconds. This also applies to earlier decades, with movies such as Moonrise Kingdom and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark being set in the sixties and Super 8 in the seventies. The lack of modern technology in these decades makes the titular bikes the most important aspect in the kid’s lives – it’s their only freedom, there is no digital escape. The little escapism the kid’s in these movies and TV shows have is limited to the analogue limitations of pop culture at the time, such as cinemas and home video.
Pop culture references also play a big role in Kids-on-Bikes movies and TV shows and is an important aspect of the blueprint. Pop culture references offer nostalgia for the characters but also for the audience. Hutcheson and Valdes put forward that “nostalgia is not something you “perceive” in an object; it is what you “feel” when two different temporal moments, past and present, come together for you and, often, carry considerable emotional weight.”[13] Therefore, if you reference something from the past in something new, audiences will associate their feelings for the past material with the new as well. For example, in E.T. there are numerous references to Star Wars,[14] providing audiences with a familiar positive feeling. The audience then associates their feelings for Star Wars with E.T. Similarly, but even more significantly; The Monster Squad uses nostalgia by making the characters fans of the monsters that the audiences are fans of, such as Dracula, the Mummy and the Wolf Man. The kids then have to find and defeat these monsters using only the knowledge they have from watching those monsters on screen.[15] It provides a fantasy for audiences because they have the same information as the characters in the film. However, nostalgia for pop culture is not the only thing that makes the Kids-on-Bikes genre so successful.
The Monster Squad featuring the Wolf Man, the Gill-Man, the Mummy and Dracula (1987)
In an online article, AJ Zender suggests that the nostalgia is not for the eighties but instead for childhood, the dream of going on a grand adventure – a dream that dissolves as we get older, “as kids, we all expected some big story to happen to us someday. We wanted to fight off some evil wizard or an alien invasion. As we hit adulthood, we realize that story will never happen.”[16] This makes Kids-on-Bikes films successful with children and adults because adults enjoy the potential of adventure as much as the children do. Zender elaborates by saying, “I think Kids-on-Bikes exists to allow writers to explore that childhood desire. If they and their childhood friends faced some great evil, what would they actually do? The question leads down so many twisting narrative tracks that a writer would be a fool not to follow them.”[17] This leads to a wide variety of stories to tell and results in an extensive list of Kids-on-Bikes films to watch.
This all applies to E.T, BMX Bandits, The Monster Squad, IT, Super 8 and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. They are all set prior to the digital revolution and they are all nostalgia heavy. While for some, pop culture references play a part in the blueprint it isn’t the most important part of nostalgia. Instead the nostalgia for your own childhood adventures may be the most important aspect to the blueprint for a Kids-on-Bikes film or TV show.
Turbo Kid (2015)
While many Kids-on-Bikes films and TV shows are set in the past to avoid the digital revolution and capture that nostalgia for past-decades, there are a number of Kids-on-Bikes films and TV shows that are set in the modern day. Yet they still find a way to be nostalgic and avoid technology. The Kid that Would be King is set in 2019, but it renders the kids advanced technologies useless by making everyone disappear when the supernatural forces invade, forcing the kids to be self-reliant and figure out the problem on their own.[18] They manage a similar effect in Turbo Kid, which is based in an apocalyptic version of the eighties. The main character explores the world of the eighties through apocalyptic remains. Instead of having nostalgia himself, the audience is drawn into their own nostalgia by watching him explore that world for the first time.[19] Kids-on-Bikes films and TV shows don’t have to be set in the eighties, they just need to have nostalgia for adventure, mixed with an exciting adventure on screen, with some pop culture references thrown in for good measure. This is where the blueprint meets the structure.
Structure:
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of genre writing is correctly identifying the structure. Structure informs pacing and plotting[20] as well as characters and story.[21] All of which are usually derived from tropes within the genre. Trope is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a common or overused theme or device.”[22] They are a recognisable element that the audience expects from a given genre, however Duncan says that “you must not only deliver on those expectations, but you must also deliver the unexpected.”[23] So while you must deliver the tropes the audience expects, this suggests that you must also have an awareness of how those tropes have been used before so you can deliver them in a fresh and interesting way. Tropes for the Kids-on-Bikes genre are no exception. Two tropes of the Kids-on-Bikes genre bear mentioning before any other: the kids and the bikes.
BMX Bandits (1983)
Glen Weldon lays out what he believes are the key tropes of Kids-on-Bikes in his article Kids On Bikes: The Sci-Fi Nostalgia Of 'Stranger Things', 'Paper Girls' & 'Super 8'. The first trope on his list is the bikes.[24] They are the key plot element in the Kids-on-Bikes genre. Without them the stories don’t exist. Weldon says the following in regards to Stranger Things: “The bikes allow the kids to slip between the cracks and explore on their own, beyond adult attention. So important are they to this form of storytelling that the discovery of one kid's abandoned bike is the trigger that first alerts Stranger Things' sheriff that something isn't right.”[25] This is especially true of BMX Bandits. There is an early chase scene in a graveyard which shows us how incapacitated our heroes are without their signature BMX’s. On foot they are forced to hide and wait out their pursuers, but later, once they have their bikes, they can easily out pace them, as their bikes are more manoeuvrable than their pursuer’s car.[26] This is also true of E.T, with the police unable to keep up with the kids, until the very last moment when E.T. flies everyone, including their bikes, to safety.[27] In Attack the Block, the kids use their bikes to outmanoeuvre the law and the attacking aliens.[28] In Turbo Kid, without any petrol left in the world, anyone who wants to be mobile is forced to use bikes as transportation.[29] In Power Rangers (2017), the main character is responsible for a car accident and loses his license, making a bike the only way he can move from point A to point B.[30] While the importance of the bike varies between Kids-on-Bikes films, it is rare for the bike not to make an appearance at all. However there are some exceptions, such as Child’s Play (2019) and Stand by Me, these films replace the bike with a different form of freedom. In Child’s Play, the main character makes friends within the apartment block where he resides with his Mum. As he lives a walkable distance away from where he is going, he doesn’t need a bike to have the freedom to roam.[31] Meanwhile, Stand by Me shows the kids hiking into the wilderness, unsupervised, to find a dead body.[32] Other forms of transport can replace the signature bikes, such as in The Kid Who Would be King, where the main characters end up riding horses on their adventure.[33] Bikes are the most common form of transport used in Kids-on-Bikes stories, but variations on this can be used to keep the genre fresh.
Stranger Things Season 1
The next trope is just as essential to the Kids-on-Bikes genre as the bikes: the kids themselves. In Kids-on-Bikes movies and TV shows the kids are generally young, nearly always at a crossroads in their life and are about to go on a coming-of-age adventure. In Attack the Block, the main character must learn to take responsibility for his actions and accept the consequences, which he does so by the end of the film.[34] The Babysitter’s main character fights a literal cult which he must overcome, and in doing so, learn to stand up for himself against bullies.[35] In BMX Bandits, the kids are down on their luck. They want new bikes because their bikes have been broken. When they find the walkie-talkies that are going to be used by the bank robbers they have the ingenious idea to sell them. But more importantly, they then come up with a plan to catch the bank robbers with the walkie-talkies. However, the police ignore their idea, so the kids have to save the day on their own.[36] Similarly in E.T, Elliot and his siblings must save E.T from anonymous, faceless government agents that ignore the kid’s wisdom on the matter of aliens.[37]
Moments from the trailer for E.T
Faceless authorities who think they know better are often present in the Kids-on-Bikes genre. Weldon places these authority figures fifth on his list of important Kids-on-Bikes tropes, making special note that the authorities are always “not to be trusted.”[38] The kids in this genre are smart and capable, but they don’t have autonomy, limited by their age. Yet they always do what the authorities and adults can’t or won’t in order to save the day.
While the kids are exceptionally important to the tropes of the genre, equally so are the adults in their lives. Weldon places the tropes of adults fourth on his list, he says “their existence in these stories serves to isolate and define our young main characters. To our kid protagonists, adults are too wrapped up in themselves to pay attention, much less take necessary action. They cannot be convinced, so they must be circumvented — that's the story engine that drives every "Kids on Bikes" tale.”[39] The adults always let down the kids in some way. They have lost the hope and promise of being a child and in their own struggles with adulthood often put down the kids around them, whether they intend to or not. In E.T, BMX Bandits and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, the kids struggle against a police force that thinks they know best and refuses to take the advice of the kids, despite in this case, the kids knowing best. Attack the Block also deals with a police force, however in that case the aliens quickly kill the police, removing them from the picture. The other adult characters in Attack the Block either go on to be reliant on the kids for safety or antagonists for the kids to overcome.[40] In IT, the adults in the town of Derry are nasty and evil, affected by the presence of Pennywise, the titular IT. The kids in IT are better equipped to fight Pennywise because they are not weighed down by the responsibilities and anxieties that come with being an adult.[41] In the sequel, IT: Chapter 2, this idea is subverted. The kids from the first IT have grown up and have to fight Pennywise again. This time they are less well equipped because they all have trauma and anxieties that they have carried from their childhood and allowed to worsen in their adult life.[42] In Stand by Me, The Monster Squad, Moonrise Kingdom, Power Rangers, Good Boys and Child’s Play, the adults aren’t actively against the kids, however they are too busy dealing with their own problems to listen to the kids and deal with the bigger threats coming for them.
Weldon’s final trope for Kids-on-Bikes is “The Monster(s).”[43] Monsters often play a big role in Kids-on-Bikes stories. They can be: big, grey, monstrous creatures such as in Stranger Things and Super 8; beings with supernatural powers like Pennywise in the IT series or Sarah Bellows from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark; killer robots in Turbo Kid and Child’s Play and in the case of The Monster Squad, they are more or less the entire Universal Studios back-catalogue of movie monsters. However, Weldon goes on to describe the Monsters in Kids-on-Bikes films and TV shows as “the least interesting or engaging thing about the "Kids on Bikes" sub-genre. Maybe this is because, on any story's metaphorical level, it always represents the same thing — the fear of growing up.”[44] This often makes the most effective monsters in the Kids-on-Bikes genre the adults in the world around them, meaning some of the best Kids-on-Bikes movies have no monsters at all. For most of the Good Boys, the titular boys have accidentally stolen some drugs from some older girls who relentlessly pursue them to get their drugs back. The girls represent growing up and losing touch with your childhood innocence, something the boys are simultaneously running to and from, creating a great deal of conflict within themselves and their group.[45] Moonrise Kingdom features two young kids that fall in love. They run away together and are relentlessly pursued by the adults who don’t understand the love that they share.[46] The Babysitter’s primary antagonist is the titular babysitter, who has formed a cult and is going to sacrifice the main character.[47] While the Monsters in the Kids-on-Bikes genre can be fun for audiences, it is important that they are used effectively in reflecting the main characters journey to maximize their effect.
The Babysitter (2017)
Tropes are the building blocks that a creator uses for structure. Altman outlines this with “each film displays the basic structure commonly identified with the genre.”[48] The film must be recognisable as the genre it is claiming to be, but as indicated earlier, Duncan says you must deliver the unexpected.[49] One must understand the tropes so that they can then subvert them in an effective way to create refreshing genre films and TV shows. Knowing the structure is also important for selling the film or TV show that has been created.[50]
Label:
The label is generally used for distribution to exhibitors. Altman states, “During its exhibition each film is regularly identified by a generic label.”[51] For a label to be generic the distributers and exhibitors involved must recognise it as such. This is also true of audience perception, which leads into the contract.
Contract:
Altman’s two final criteria for genre, label and contract, are interconnected. Label considers the perspective of executives, while contract considers the audience. In regards to contract, Altman notes a possible problem with genre identification. “If the existence of a genre depends on general public recognition rather than on individual spectator perception, then how does the public recognition come about?”[52] The question must be then, are Kids-on-Bikes recognised by distributers, exhibitors and audiences as a genre? As a genre, Kids-on-Bikes has the advantage of having its two primary tropes in its name. This is an advantage because it can make the genre obvious even if you haven’t heard the term before. There are now enough films with kids riding around on bikes that there is implied knowledge when using the term. Audiences and distributers will unintentionally associate the term with the Kids-on-Bikes films they’ve seen before. Duncan puts forward that “few – if any – studios will purchase a screenplay, and ultimately produce it as a film, if the studio doesn’t feel it can sell the movie to an identifiable segment of the movie-going public.”[53] Reversing that, if studios think they can sell the genre, then they are more likely to fund it. Kids-on-Bikes has shown its viability with a noticeable increase in the number of stories being released to the public, with The Kid Who Would be King, IT: Chapter 2, Rim of the World, Child’s Play, Good Boys, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Stranger Things Season 3 and The Unlisted all being released in 2019 alone.
Kids-on-Bikes RPG (2018)
The genre has also begun to expand beyond the film and TV world, which can lend it more status as a genre. In 2017, Renegade Games released a Role Playing Game named Kids on Bikes on Kickstarter. The crowd funding campaign received 3,069 pledges and raised over $90,000.[54] In the game, you play as kids, in a Stranger Things style story, set in a small town of your own creation, playing with the same tropes of the genre that are outlined by Weldon: Bikes, Time, Place, Adults, Authority Figures and Monsters.[55] In addition, there is a comic book series named Paper Girls, which ran from October 2015 to July 2019. The comic subverts many of the genre’s tropes and expectations by having a predominantly female cast and by asking the question: is the nostalgia held for childhood something that should be hung onto? This is summed up nicely by Brian Raftery who finishes his review of Paper Girls with “this may be the biggest lesson Paper Girls provides to its characters, and to its readers: Namely, that getting too nostalgic about what came before, or fretting too deeply about what's to come, is really no way to spend the present. I mean, I'd love to take another trip on that squeaky, chain-chewing bike I had when I was 12. But it's only going to take me to the places I've already been.”[56] Paper Girls had barely finished its run in July of 2019 when it was picked up for a TV adaptation by Amazon.[57] Amazon’s adaptation of Paper Girls coupled with Netflix’s Strangers Things, The Babysitter and Rim of the World, makes the genres representation on streaming services substantial.
Altman states that something can be classed as a genre if “audiences systematically recognise each film as belonging to the genre in question and interpret it accordingly.”[58] With so many varieties of the genre already on our screens with more coming soon, it’s less a question of ‘if’ audiences will recognise Kids-on-Bikes as a genre, but when.
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Genres have always come into existence in response to the evolving ways we tell stories. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) is considered to be the first work of Science Fiction literature. This is argued by Brian W. Aldiss: “Frankenstein rejects alchemy and magic and turns to scientific research. Only then does he get results,” he goes on to say “to bring about the desired initial suspension of disbelief, Mary Shelley employs a writerly subterfuge which has since become the stock-in-trade of many [Science Fiction] writers.”[59] Moving from literature to film, Robert Grant suggests that Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902) is “possibly the first science fiction film ever made.”[60] Both of those opinions are retroactive, as neither was originally classed in the genre of Science Fiction. As stated in Encyclopedia Britannica “The term science fiction was popularised, if not invented, in the 1920s.”[61] The term Science Fiction came into existence well after the first Science Fiction stories were released. The same could be true for Kids-on-Bikes.
Kids-on-Bikes meets all the criteria for a genre, but it will usually be mixed with something else. More often than not it will be coupled with Science Fiction, Fantasy or Adventure. Any argument that suggests this disqualifies Kids-on-Bikes being recognised as a genre could only be based on the idea that genre is a pure form of categorisation. Altman finds that, though genre is often considered to be pure, historically, genre is actually made up of “crossbreeds and mutants.”[62] That is to say, most films are a melting pot of genres rather than a single genre themselves. This is true of the Kids-on-Bikes genre. While it is often mixed with Science Fiction, like in Super 8, it is mixed with Horror in IT, Adventure in The Goonies, Comedy in Good Boys and even Romance in Moonrise Kingdom. The characters, worlds and themes in these films are all very similar and instantly recognisable when looked at through the Kids-on-Bikes lens. It may not be necessary for Kids-on-Bikes to stand independently as a genre. In Writing the Science Fiction Film, Robert Grant claims that Science Fiction doesn’t stand-alone as its own genre either, always mixed with something else. He says that “unlike other genres, [Science Fiction] comes in all shapes and sizes. Romantic comedies are, well, romantic and funny, horror films are horrifying, dramas are dramatic, and thrillers are thrilling. But science fiction can be all of those things and be science-fictional.”[63] He goes on to list a number of films as examples of Science Fiction mixed with other genres, including E.T, which he says “is a family movie and a science fiction film.”[64] While Grant was able to identify that E.T isn’t solely Science Fiction, he didn’t benefit from having the term Kids-on-Bikes. Science Fiction films are rarely pure Science Fiction. Despite this, Science Fiction is firmly considered a genre. If it can hold its own as a genre, so can Kids-on-Bikes.
BMX Bandits poster
As with Science Fiction Kids-on-Bikes needs to be recognised by audiences as a genre. With so many Kids-on-Bikes stories being fed to audiences through various forms of media, it isn’t going to take long for the term to gain traction, especially as audiences and critics begin to identify tropes of the genre for themselves: the kids, their bikes, the numerous adults manipulating their lives and the various monsters they must fight. Despite being currently considered a sub-genre, all the elements of Kids-on-Bikes qualify it as a genre in of itself. It offers a blueprint through its world and nostalgia. It offers structure for a writer when creating characters, stories and plots. It is a useful label for distributers, as they can play on people’s childhood nostalgia to sell the film or TV show. Finally, it can provide context for the audience; kids on bikes going on an adventure. Now, go make some great Kids-on-Bikes content for the child inside you that is begging to go on an adventure.
References
[1] Glen Weldon, “Kids On Bikes: The Sci-Fi Nostalgia Of 'Stranger Things', 'Paper Girls' & 'Super 8',” National Public Radio, published July 27, 2016, https://www.npr.org/2016/07/27/487602000/kids-on-bikes-the-sci-fi-nostalgia-of-stranger-things-paper-girls-super-8?fbclid=IwAR13OI2VI7MGOe-pUWV_LYLiaoy2FywPXJ2_Wjc3F8Ol-kvF3K5wi3muGCI
[2] “The Goonies,” IMDb, accessed October 2019, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089218/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
[3] “BMX Bandits,” IMDb, accessed October 2019, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085204/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1
[4] Stephen V. Duncan, Genre Screenwriting: How to Write Popular Screenplays That Sell (New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008), XV.
[5] Wheeler Winston Dixon, Film Genre 2000 (Albany: State University of New York, 2000), 2.
E.T (1982)
[6] Rick Altman, Film/Genre (London: The British Film Institute, 1999), 14.
[7] Altman, Film/Genre, 14.
[8] Altman, Film/Genre, 14.
[9] Altman, Film/Genre, 14.
[10] Altman, Film/Genre, 14.
[11] Dixon, Film Genre 2000, 2.
[12] Matt Draper, “The Return of Kids on Bikes - Stranger Things, IT & Paper Girls,” November 22, 2017, Video Essay, 11:05, https://youtu.be/3PwAxmwLcms.
[13] Linda Hutcheon and Mario J. Valdés “Irony, Nostalgia, and the Postmodern: A Dialogue,” Poligrafías 3 (2000): 22, http://revistas.unam.mx/index.php/poligrafias/article/viewFile/31312/28976
[14] E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial, directed by Steven Spielberg (Universal Studios, 1982), https://itunes.apple.com/au/movie/e-t-the-extra-terrestrial/id551129608
[15] The Monster Squad, directed by Fred Dekker (TriStar Pictures, 1987), https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-monster-squad/id1033675059
[16] AJ Zender, “PAPER GIRLS and the Rise of Kids-On-Bikes,” Comicsverse, published March 26, 2018, https://comicsverse.com/paper-girls-kids-on-bikes/?fbclid=IwAR0AhFrmzyhQQbN9Ae5hbQFY3bAqDkg7WdQlILngMQB6NnG4PTxdr-ZRmec
[17] Zender, “PAPER GIRLS and the Rise of Kids-On-Bikes.”
[18] The Kid That Would Be King, directed by Joe Cornish (20th Century Fox, 2019), https://itunes.apple.com/au/movie/the-kid-who-would-be-king/id1449207807
[19] Turbo Kid, directed by Anouk Whissell, François Simard and Yoann-Karl Whissell (Epic Pictures Group, 2015), https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/1482205251925/turbo-kid
[20] Duncan, Genre Screenwriting, 10.
[21] Duncan, Genre Screenwriting, 2.
[22] “Trope,” Merriam-Webster, accessed October 2019, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trope
[23] Duncan, Genre Screenwriting, XV.
[24] Weldon, “Kids On Bikes: The Sci-Fi Nostalgia Of 'Stranger Things', 'Paper Girls' & 'Super 8'.”
[25] Weldon, “Kids On Bikes: The Sci-Fi Nostalgia Of 'Stranger Things', 'Paper Girls' & 'Super 8'.”
[26] BMX Bandits, directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith (Nilsen Premiere, 1983),
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/1117145667983/bmx-bandits
[27] E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial.
[28] Attack the Block, directed by Joe Cornish (StudioCanal, 2011), https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/attack-the-block/id469907708
[29] Turbo Kid.
[30] Power Rangers, directed by Dean Israelite (Lionsgate, 2017), https://www.netflix.com/title/80144309
[31] Child’s Play, directed by Lars Klevberg (United Artists Releasing, 2019), https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/childs-play-2019/id1464734327
[32] Stand By Me, directed by Rob Reiner (Colombia Pictures, 1987), https://itunes.apple.com/au/movie/stand-by-me/id263821729?ign-mpt=uo%3D4
[33] The Kid Who Would Be King.
[34] Attack the Block.
[35] The Babysitter, directed by McG (Netflix, 2017), https://www.netflix.com/title/80164456
[36] BMX Bandits.
[37] E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial.
[38] Weldon, “Kids On Bikes: The Sci-Fi Nostalgia Of 'Stranger Things', 'Paper Girls' & 'Super 8'.”
[39] Weldon, “Kids On Bikes: The Sci-Fi Nostalgia Of 'Stranger Things', 'Paper Girls' & 'Super 8'.”
[40] Attack the Block.
[41] IT, directed by Andrés Muschietti (Warner Bros. Picture, 2017), https://itunes.apple.com/au/movie/it-2017/id1275323693
[42] IT: Chapter 2, directed by Andrés Muschietti (Warner Bros. Picture, 2019), https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/it-chapter-two/id1477409210
[43] Weldon, “Kids On Bikes: The Sci-Fi Nostalgia Of 'Stranger Things', 'Paper Girls' & 'Super 8'.”
[44] Weldon, “Kids On Bikes: The Sci-Fi Nostalgia Of 'Stranger Things', 'Paper Girls' & 'Super 8'.”
[45] Good Boys, directed by Gene Stupnitsky (Universal Pictures, 2019), Cinema Release.
[46] Moonrise Kingdom, directed by Wes Anderson (Focus Features, 2012), https://itunes.apple.com/au/movie/moonrise-kingdom/id537947696
[47] The Babysitter.
[48] Altman, Film/Genre, 17.
[49] Duncan, Genre Screenwriting, XV.
[50] Duncan, Genre Screenwriting, 192.
[51] Altman, Film/Genre, 17.
[52] Altman, Film/Genre, 15.
[53] Duncan, Genre Screenwriting, 192.
[54] “Kids on Bikes RPG - Strange Adventures in Small Towns,” Kickstarter, accessed June 2019, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jgilmour/kids-on-bikes-rpg-strange-adventures-in-small-town
[55] Weldon, “Kids On Bikes: The Sci-Fi Nostalgia Of 'Stranger Things', 'Paper Girls' & 'Super 8'.”
[56] Brian Raftery, “Paper Girls Is the Perfect Comic for Your '80s Nostalgia Trip,” Wired, published May 10, 2016, https://www.wired.com/2016/10/paper-girls-must-read/
[57] Nellie Andreeva, “‘Paper Girls’ Graphic Novel Adaptation From Legendary TV & Plan B Gets Amazon Series Commitment,” Deadline, published July 11, 2019, https://deadline.com/2019/07/paper-girls-series-adaptation-amazon-studios-legendary-tv-plan-b-brian-k-vaughan-stephany-folsom-1202644995/
[58] Altman, Film/Genre, 17.
[59] Brian W. Aldiss, The Detached Retina: Science Fiction and Fantasy (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1995), 78.
[60] Robert Grant, Writing the Science Fiction Film (Studio City: Michael Wiese Productions, 2013), 213.
[61] Bruce Sterling, “Science Fiction,” Encyclopedia Britannica, modified September 2019, https://www.britannica.com/art/science-fiction/Soviet-science-fiction
[62] Altman, Film/Genre, 16.
[63] Robert Grant, Writing the Science Fiction Film, 6.
[64] Robert Grant, Writing the Science Fiction Film, 7.