In 1981, as the Monty Python sketch comedy troupe approached the end of its most fertile period, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin co-wrote the feature film Time Bandits, which Gilliam also directed. Though Monty Python’s Flying Circus and some segments of their various movies would be entertaining to kids and adults alike, Time Bandits was pitched at a younger audience and, according to an essay by Bruce Eder at Criterion.com, became “the most critically well-received children’s film in nearly two decades.”

For some Gen Xers who saw it as children, Time Bandits was a formative event: a fantasy story that didn’t hold back on physical or emotional violence, and (spoilers ahead for a 40+-year-old movie) had no compunction about giving the young protagonist’s terrible parents an unambiguously punitive ending.

Now Time Bandits is getting a revival in streaming TV series form. I can’t speak to how 2024 kids will receive it,...