PJ Masks: A Dad’s (Highly Unreasonable) Perspective

We watch PJ Masks. I feel like I’m at the beginning of group therapy session for a serious condition – but this is just a small comment on what I observe. We watch PJ Masks because, let’s face it, our kids control the tv. My kids love this show. Honestly, when there is nothing else on…we watch it too. Ok, enough digression. If you have not watched it before please see the video introduction .

To begin, the cartoon of the PJ Masks is actually based on the book series Les Pyjamasques by Romuald Racioppo. The premise of the story is based on the lives of three six year olds who have normal lives during the day, but at night become super heroes with super powers! Does this sound familiar? PJ Masks is basically the same idea. The three super heroes are: Connor (Catboy), Amaya (Owlette) and Greg (Gecco). During the day they are normal 6 to 8 year old (I can’t exactly tell the age based on the cartoons, but we’ll get to this) kids who attend school.

When they notice problems during the day, they then dawn their costumed identities – Catboy, Owlette and Gecco – to fight crime at night. They all have super powers with Catboy having super speed; Owlette having the ability to fly and use her owl wings to promote owl winds; and Gecco has super strength and grip. In addition to this, they have a base (which seems to be a massive totem pole) in a park with a pond/lake. And each of them has a vehicle which they drive (I’ll address this): Catboy has a cat-car that can go really fast, Owlette has an Owl-glider that flies and Gecco has a Gecco-mobile which can become a submarine and can grip to buildings.

They have three “super villains” – who are also kids. Their main rivals are: Romeo ( a mad scientist supervillain), Night Ninja (as the name implies and also has minions – who are cute) and Luna girl (who has some innate capacity to harness the power of the moon and also has fancy tech). I don’t want to go on a tangent here but these are three KIDS who are SUPERVILLAINS. OK?!? Let’s continue.

Now, just like any movie or show that I watch, I wonder just how possible these things could be. I know it’s a cartoon and I know that it’s just a KIDS cartoon! That being said, I’d like to explore the likelyhood that PJ Masks could actually exist. Connor, Amaya and Greg are all neighbors. They happen to live homes which seem to be in a cul-de-sac (add pic). The first home (on the left) belongs to Connor and it is a single family two story home with a blue roof. To the right of Connor’s home is Amaya’s home, which seems to be a three story with a red roof. And finally, Greg’s home is a two story home with a green roof.

It’s difficult to make a conclusion based on this data, but If you look closely at the pictures of the homes, none of these kids seems to have the resources to live double lives or to support their crime fighting adventures. Financing their “crime fighting operation” may require serious “mula.” Let’s compare this to let’s say Batman – whose alter ego is Bruce Wayne. We can’t compare really because these are kids and Bruce is an adult. It also not entirely clear that these kids have parent, but they all seem to have parents. Bruce – well – his parents were killed in front of him. So we really can’t compare. But let’s compare anyway.

For Mr. Wayne, all the data and evidence (including his home – Wayne Manor) suggests he may have the means to support his crime fighting operation. According to Time Money, in the super heroes universe Bruce Wayne is the third riches super hero – with a net worth of just over $9.2 billion dollars. The Black Panther is by far the wealthiest because of Wakanda’s Vibranium ore riches (Vibranium – the stuff Captain America’s shield is made off – is valued at $10,000/gram!). But I digress, Bruce is the head of Wayne Industries (or Wayne Enterprises). However, the precise nature of Wayne Industries is a bit nebulous as well.

There is no clear indication of what exactly is made by Wayne Industries except military tech (but this is also not entirely clear as Bruce doesn’t like going for Military contracts). But I’m digressing again. Mr. Wayne’s wealth, along with his superior intellect, access to military grade equipment, combined with his training in virtually every form of martial arts, enables him to succeed as Batman.

(I think I’ll make another post on this as all of this is driving me to think about Shell Companies and the people who would manufacture such equipment which would make it nearly impossible NOT to know who Batman is. Additionally, all of the necessary non-disclosure agreements that must be signed is begging for a post right now.)

Then there is the matter of the power supply to their base and the fuel that is used to power their vehicles – all of this not made entirely clear. But they would need fuel and energy, presumably, to power these vehicles and the base, respectively. Whatever the fuel or energy source is, they would need money to purchase or to do the research to develop it. The fact that these are kids, and as the evidence suggests they come from modest backgrounds, would make it very difficult for them to have the vehicles they drive and the base they use to house their vehicles. However, it is entirely plausible that these kids have trust funds (but the parents would be entrusted with the care and management), which would in theory allow them to have all of these materials and equipment. The parents would be aware of fluctuations in the kids’ finances.

One fact that I can’t let go is that they all drive – and Owlette can pilot an aircraft. I don’t know of any state that would provide licenses to drive to children under 14. Only a few states provide the lowest age limit of 14 : Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. So what these kids are doing is breaking the law. But there seem to be no law enforcement in any of the episodes. For that matter, in many kids cartoons, law enforcement is absent entirely – suggesting a type of utopia like state.

The other issue I have is night time as “the best time to fight crime.” Those are the lyrics. We all know children need to sleep – especially as they are growing and their brains are developing. There is no clear evidence for the exact time the PJ masks go to sleep. Let’s just assume they go to bed by 9pm. This is when they dawn their super powers and costumes.

I think most kids (below the age of 14) would likely be very tired after several consecutive nights of crime fighting. These kids, Connor, Amaya and Greg, all have to attend school early in the morning. This means, that on a good night, they would have 6 hours of sleep. I won’t linger here for too long. Their academic performance would likely suffer. And eventually, their crime fighting skills would also diminish as the need for sleep will take its toll on all of them. However, this could all be negated if they all had Special Forces training which would include consecutive days and nights of little sleep and tremendous exertion each day to survive “hell week.” This would imply that the PJ Mask children are truly exceptional in both intellect and physical ability.

Ok. I think it is highly unlikely that there would be kids capable of having the means to engage in crime fighting.

What do you think as a parent or as a fan of the show PJ Masks? This could just be a lot of nonsense, but it’s interesting to think about the possibility. I still think “The Jetson’s” lied to me. Where are the flying cars and talking robot servants?

Any ideas about what could be going on? Your comments and ideas are welcome!

My kids love PJ Masks. The intro song is seared into my brain. And despite the cartoon watching that occurs in our home, imaginative play is still something that we all engage in almost on a daily basis. And I do enjoy the fact that it makes my kids happy. For the record, we all love Disney. Disney knows how to provide engaging children’s entertainment. These are only the unreasonable musings of a parent…late at night. That’s it for now. Thank you for reading. I’ll follow up on some of the comments made here. I may do a book review! Until next time. Same bat time. Same bat channel. Live long and prosper!

-The Husband