movieartman wrote:Netflix period piece cult horror film Apostle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1JdWOqc9Q8
Heh, reminds me of how in the 90s Spider-Man cartoon he wasn't allowed to throw direct punches
That was actually a universal policy applied to all cartoons airing on Fox Kids at the time. Physical violence against human characters, especially kicking and punching, had to be either not shown or visually censored. Superhero cartoons were especially badly affected by it. For example, in the X-men cartoon, which aired around the same time, Wolverine was only allowed to use his claws on inanimate objects or robots. The Thing in the Fantastic Four cartoon wasn't allowed to "clobber" humans, only monsters and aliens.
However, sometimes this allowed the creators to get more creative rather than less. When the writers for Batman: The Animated Series (which aired in syndication on Fox affiliates before being picked up by KidsWB) were told that they couldn't show the Joker physically attacking his victims, they came up with an alternate solution: they would show him flashing his signature "Joker Grin" at the victim, and then the screen would fade. Bruce Timm, the head animator for the series, commented that this was actually scarier than just showing him attacking.