Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

provided by

This clip shows scenes in which a group of four young people accept the roles of superheroes from an image of the long-dead 'Silver Shadow’. Another young character is shown testing out a costume that endows the wearer with special powers. The characters then swear an oath, the group for good and the other young character for evil. The clip concludes with the superheroes ascending in a lift and accepting that their double identities must remain a secret at school.

Educational value points

• The superhero genre of imaginative texts includes comics, animations, movies and television series and contains certain distinctive elements that enable the audience to recognise characters as superheroes. Many of these elements are present in the clip – a range of superpowers, a secret identity, a distinctive costume and motif, a vow to fight evil, a secret headquarters and an archenemy or two.

• The Crab and his granddaughter, Crab Girl, are examples of the 'archenemy’ (super villain), a stock character in the superhero genre who is very nearly a match for the superhero; perhaps in this case, more than a match. In costume decisions wittily designed to cast doubt on who will triumph in the end, the filmmakers present The Crab wearing a conventional Western superhero outfit, while Crab Girl wears a high-tech Japanese-style superhero suit that renders her capable of ninja moves.

• The clip is filled with both direct and counter-intuitive references to the superhero genre. Viewers from the target audience familiar with manga and Western superhero animations would probably identify the references immediately and recognise the humour in using superhero references for archenemies, in the choice of B-grade movie costumes and in the juxtaposition of the stereotypes of superhero genre against stereotypes of teenage behaviour.

• Various filmmaking techniques highlight the similarities and differences between the team of superheroes and the pair of archenemies. Their relative superpowers are described or shown in consecutive scenes. As they make solemn vows, one for good, the other for evil, the scene cuts from one to the other. The archenemies complete the superheroes’ sentences or repeat their form of words, giving them an evil twist.

• 'Legacy of the Silver Shadow’ was produced by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation. As described on their website, the Foundation is a national non-profit organisation dedicated to writing and producing high-quality television programs for Australian children, providing them with entertaining media made especially for them.