Parents angry over ‘sexualized’ Netflix cartoon ‘Battle Kitty’

The popular Netflix children’s interactive cartoon “Battle Kitty,” which launched last year, seems fun and harmless at first glance.

But the series — about a “feisty kitten” who embarks on a quest to become a great warrior and defeat all the monsters on “Battle Island” — has disturbing sexual overtones, according to some parents who are trying to get Netflix to cancel it or at least change its age rating. The streamer has rated the show as appropriate for children 7 and up.

Although “Battle Kitty,” which debuted in 2022, has garnered some positive reviews, characters dress in bondage gear and obsess about butts and twerking to the point that it’s inappropriate for young children, some parents say.

Rosalia Rivera, founder of Consent Parenting, a site aimed at helping parents protect their kids from sexual abuse, said she was horrified when she began watching “Battle Kitty” after her kids put it on. She wants the show canceled.

“I was shocked at how much sexualized content is in this show,” she said in a video on Consent Parenting’s Instagram account. “Netflix, you need to ban this and you should know better.”

In the cartoon, Kitty’s sidekick Orc has escaped from a place where he and others wear BDSM-type outfits. In one scene, the camera lingers on the backside of a character, dressed in black leather shorts, fishnets and spikes, as he leans over and displays his butt.

The official Netflix Youtube channel has a lengthy compilation on Youtube of all the rear-end action that takes place on “Battle Kitty,” which some parents say goes beyond a typical child’s love of butt and bathroom humor.

“There’s a BDSM theme throughout and an over-the-top emphasis on buttocks,” Rivera told The Post. “Battle Kitty is constantly twerking and using his butt. There’s a ton of sexual innuendo disguised as potty humor. This is a result of a pornified culture infiltrating content for younger and younger kids.”

Creator Matt Layzell told Wired last year that he knew what he wanted to focus on: butts.

“There’s just something about little cute characters shaking their butts,” he said. “I think there’s some ancient magic there.” 

The show has a gay theme, but parents say that’s not the problem.

“The whole setting is off,” author Kimberly King, a sexual assault survivor who specializes in books promoting child safety, told The Post. “It starts off in a dungeon with a kitty chained to the wall and then you see Big Bad Daddy Orc. There are way too many aggressive sexual innuendoes. And too many characters are wearing punk BDSM gear with spikes. At one point you see about 15 orcs all together rubbing their butts and making noises. There’s a lot of what looks like genital play.

“I’m a mom and a kindergarten teacher and I can tell you my 5-year-old doesn’t need to see bondage wear and play in his cartoons.”

Melinda Tankard Reist of Collective Shout, a grassroots campaigns movement against the objectification of women and the sexualization of girls, agrees. “it’s essentially an ode to the butt,” she told The Post.

“The characters repeatedly engage in sexualized movements involving their bums, including manic twerking, rubbing bums against each other, and ticking, rubbing and slapping each others’ bums. Horned characters in BDSM-styled garb pump their bums back and forth and pound them against each other,” Tankard Reist said. “In one scene, Kitty ends up stuck in her friend Orc’s butt. Kitty begs to be released. There are other fetish themes. The series has no educational or artistic merit. Parents should find something better for their kids to do.”

Some sites that review children’s shows give “Battle Kitty” the thumbs up, however.

“The show is very different from what is out there right now and that is due to the animation, the humor that some might find crude, and the inclusivity of the characters,” wrote a reviewer on Fandads. ” I do feel that some parents might not want their children to watch this show due to some of the characters and their behavior, but that is what makes the show so great. These characters are just going through their daily lives and trying to take down the monsters to get to the next level. Never do they mention the gender roles or sexuality of their characters and they just work together to make it to the next level.”

A reviewer for Comicon said he loved “how overtly and unapologetically gay the characters are. In ‘Battle Kitty,’ queer identity is normalized, celebrated, and gay is synonymous with joy. It’s an excellent example of how creative and fun entertainment can be if we just loosen up.”

But a number of parents on various social media sites disagree.

“There are characters that are obviously in bondage wear and along with the ass jokes there’s a whole episode where a person is talking out of their butt and something needs to go into their butt to save them,” wrote one poster on a Reddit parenting forum. “It’s like a bunch of sodomites popped into a boardroom and made a cartoon for 7-year-olds.”

Netflix did not respond to a request for comment, nor did. “Battle Kitty” Matt Layzell.