> I think the difference is that the mentor might introduce them to the magical world, but its still up to the character what they want to do with it e.g. to quote the matrix "But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it." And the decision as to what to do with it has consequences and changes them.

And in most cases they accept blindly, otherwise there's no story. Madoka Magica is one of the few stories that I know where this trope is broken by the characters questioning the decision.

Nah. Superman, spiderman, hluk, any of these got skills by accident. Even karate kid which shown some training, shown imaginary low effort low time investment training. The typical action movie of my youth had guys winning all the fights for no reason other then that they are awesome. Audiences loved it. The past movies had enough of pure power fantasy or other "just gonna win" in it for the whole generation to drawn in it.

And not just American movies. Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill were super famous and did basically nothing but that. They don't train, never ever, they are lazy as cool factor and are strongest guys most sharpest shooters around. Franch movies, fairly often the same thing. Random middle aged man thrown in situation and suddenly climbing and jumping roofs.

And series targetted at kids still show plenty of training. Lego ninja go, winx club, all show training or classroom scenes often.

> Even karate kid which shown some training, shown imaginary low effort low time investment training.

The point of his training is that the moves have completely become muscle memory/second nature. I have no clue how long that would take, but it would be significantly more than "low time investment".

Note also that (1) he claimed to have had karate training before; (2) after hebuilds up the needed muscle memory, training continues to teach him when to use what muscle memory.

2-3 years of regular training is a good guideline for the movements to become autonomic in real-time situations with fluent synchrony situational context, for someone reasonably coordinated at the start.

The movie is about becoming good enough to win tournament against people who trained continuously for years.

It takes over summer or something like that. He is 17 when movie starts and tournament he wins is when is 18 birthsday gift. Bulk of training is housework chores. No, you cant do housework for few months and emerge tournaments winning fighter out of it. That is literally plot of first Karate Kid.

However, it is kid/teenage fantasy. Which is fine! But not some kind of hard work message movie.

> Nah. Superman, spiderman, hluk, any of these got skills by accident

And half the plot is typically devoted to if they want to accept their new found powers or ignore them to live a normal life. So its still quite devoted to a choice with life changing consequences.

> And half the plot is typically devoted to if they want to accept their new found powers or ignore them to live a normal life. So its still quite devoted to a choice with life changing consequences.

There is no way for Hulk to ignore or reject the powers. Nor for superman or spiderman for that matter. Superman in particular is just born that way, full stop. And speaking about action movies that nope, no big deep choices there. Even in matrix, the choice is singular scene where main character picks the pill so that movie can happen.

And I liked Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill movies, so I have seen them multiple times and consequences for choices and actions are not the theme there at all.

I have also read Spiderman comic targeted at kids back then. Half the time he just reacts to what is going on around, not having much choice nor choice being theme beyond "Am I going to do the right thing or not" false choice. Ninja Turtles had training in them ... but also they are essentially magical turtles due to some experiments or what done on them.

Average movie and entertainment in 90ties just was not that deep.

It's true it's not new. But when AI is mainly responsible for rewriting old scripts over and over, every 10 years, and telling children they're new movies, it may be missing out on the human elements that made those stories good the first time.