‘Ben 10’ (2005) is an American animated television series created by Man of Action and aired on Cartoon Network. The first show in the franchise, Ben 10 spawned 3 sequel series and the franchise stayed on TV until 2014 and after a brief 2 years off the air was rebooted completely in 2016. The show was just one of many ideas that was rapidly pitched to CN - Man of Action had just 60 seconds to give a synopsis before moving on to the next pitch - and this is the one that was picked. Although originally quite different and lacking any aliens whatsoever, the pitch would grow into what is now the global franchise Ben 10.
The series follows the adventures of 10
year old Ben Tennyson, an ordinary kid who, after encountering a piece of alien technology, has the ability to transform into 10 different alien species, each with their own unique abilities, in order to fight crime.
The franchise was immensely popular, spawning both animated and live action movies, video games and millions of dollars in revenue through its unfathomable amount of merchandise. The franchise generated $7.85 billion, making it the 64th most profitable franchise in the world.
As far back as i can remember, i was a Ben 10 Fan. I have very distinct memories of being young and staring at the TV, simply absorbing and admiring all that was happening on screen. The show was different to its contemporaries, it had a much more clear focus on narrative and world-building, and every aspect of it from the action cartoon style animation to the incredibly unique character designs was simply perfectly done. The continuity between episodes and character arcs was something i had never seen before, as many of the other cartoons i was familiar with were much more episodic in nature. The way villains, such as Vilgax, were teased throughout the first season before finally making his real debut in the finale was mind-blowing as a kid, and is still effective on rewatch because of how cleverly the threat was built up.
Being a ben 10 fan as a child meant i was surrounded by a never-ending stream of merchandise. The series was incredibly marketable, the aliens and the ‘omnitrix’ were the main appeal of the show and were very easy to translate into toys, action figures and costumes. Even as a child, I realised that the shelves were being flooded with wave after wave of these toys and I loved it. It was always thrilling to visit the toy shop and pick out a new alien to take home with me, eagerly anticipating the stories I could create and recreate with the small plastic figure.
Analytically, one could say the show was only created to sell toys. This might be true, it’s probable that a lot of decisions were made to ensure marketability, however I think this criticism is quite hollow because it doesn’t factor in the clear amounts of care and craftsmanship put into the series. Each member of the crew clearly cares about what they are making, and the product does not suffer for its merchandise. Another common criticism is that the show, especially its titular character, can be immature and hard to emphasise with, and to that I suggest you think about who the target audience was. The show was meant for children the same as age as Ben, and he acts very much like a child would given incredible amounts of power. The show is easy for anyone to enjoy, and while some older viewers might groan at some of the immature humour and characterisation, it’s important to contextualise it and realise who it was really made for.
Mainly, Ben 10 is the show that really made me fall in love with narrative storytelling. It was the first time I was worried about missing an episode when watching a series. I didn’t understand that what i was watching was re-runs, i thought it was all brand new content and so would eagerly anticipate how the characters and plots would develop in each ‘new‘ episode. The way the stories were woven in Ben 10 really struck a chord with me and definitely inspired my passion for storytelling, and it’s tremendous success both financially and in terms of quality is a great motivator that no matter how small an idea may seem it can grow into something massive that could last forever, and this rings true as new Ben 10 content is still being produced to this very day.
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