Post by Night Bear on Jul 22, 2007 13:02:32 GMT -5
This is an interesting discussion that has been brought up in another board I go to.
It would seem that, today, cartoons are more tame when compared to the older cartoons. Today's cartoons lack the morals that the older ones did. They lack morals about recycling, death, human nature, etc.
When we compare a 1990's cartoon, Animals of Farthing Wood with..oh say, Spongebob, you see a HUGE difference.
Avatar the Last Airbender is a great animated show because it teaches morals other shows on Nickelodeon seem to skip out on. Avatar touches a darker side of life with mentions of death, war, rejection, etc. Avatar is, in my opinion, everything cartoons today should be like.
Here are the posts that were included in the topic on the other messageboard.
And they do have a very good point. An excellent example is The Land Before Time. What was the original like? We had a tenacious sharptooth who relentlessly hunted a gang of young dinosaurs. We had the killing of a mother, the orphaning of a child. We had racism as well. The movie touched on the subject of famine (sp?), the dinosaurs were starving. The movie was clearly darker than its sequels, yet it was made for kids.
What happened with the sequels? Right away they tamed down the violence, and made the dinosaurs sing in every movie, and in every episode that followed. The sharpteeth themselves have been extremely dumbed down to nothing more than "toys" in recent sequels. So far, none of the sequel sharpteeth matches Sharptooth's ferocity, although Redclaw does come closer than any other sharptooth I've seen so far.
So the question is have cartoons become too tame? If you were to ask me, I'd say yes, yes they have. If the more violent cartoons didn't mess up the kids of that time, what makes people think that the same cartoons would mess up the kids of our generation? What is so bad about teaching children the morals they need to understand the world they live in?
What do you guys think? Are cartoons too tame nowadays, or are they not tame enough?
It would seem that, today, cartoons are more tame when compared to the older cartoons. Today's cartoons lack the morals that the older ones did. They lack morals about recycling, death, human nature, etc.
When we compare a 1990's cartoon, Animals of Farthing Wood with..oh say, Spongebob, you see a HUGE difference.
Avatar the Last Airbender is a great animated show because it teaches morals other shows on Nickelodeon seem to skip out on. Avatar touches a darker side of life with mentions of death, war, rejection, etc. Avatar is, in my opinion, everything cartoons today should be like.
Here are the posts that were included in the topic on the other messageboard.
Why don't they make cartoons like Denver, the Last Dinosaur or Widget, the World Watcher? Ok, these shows were a bit silly (a dinosaur playing the guitar, pretty cool though ) but they were every interesting and they were consciencious about our world's problems. Why are cartoons just too childish? Does it damage a kid if they become aware of recycling and that you should take care of our planet from a young age?
I don't know why cartoons have changed like they have. There was something about the old ones that just seems to be missing from the common everyday things like Spongebob, Fairly Oddparents, etc..... Then again, have you ever thought we're very VERY biased because we grew up with certain cartoons and because we're older and don't see them in the same light, anything that doesn't remotely resemble what we grew up with is bad?
Actually we cannot generalize here. Cartoons such as "Happy Feet", "Ice Age 2", "Finding Nemo" still refer to environmental problems. I certainly wouldn't object a closer reference to some real problems in LBT though (not necessarily environmental problems). Sometimes presenting problems and morals in cartoons can be overdone though (e.g. LBT 11, and possibly LBT 3).
I guess our opinion is a bit bias, but still I find something missing from todays cartoons, the same doesn't happen to anime. If you look at Dragon Ball, Pokemon or Digimon, and you compare them to kid directed anime of today, you'll find little difference.
Cartoons are missing what "The Animals of Farthing Wood" had. Sure there's a bunch of death and a bit of blood here and there, and a few fights between the foxes and such, and the rats, but...Kids need to understand what REALLY happens in the world and DEATH is part of it. Cartoons today lack REAL LIFE morals-death is one of them-wars are some of them (the war wtith the rats)-fueds are some of them, all of those things really should be in cartoons today.
Other things they are missing are how bad hunting is. We had fox hunting in AoFW from the Animals' veiw and it was...pretty darn bad. Then, we had poachers in the park, and then the stream that humans polluted. We need lessons that shows what happens in the real world and not silly cartoons.
We need cartoons that show how horrible we (humans) can be and how badly we affect our enviornment that our ancestors had. Sure, we've evolved and got smarter, but...we need to remember that we used to live along side animals basically.
Thus, I think cartoons are missing what REALLY needs to be taught to young children and that is how badly we affect the lives of animals, what happens when we pollute bodies of water, that murder and death really happen. It's GOT to be taught so young children can understand what REALLY happens in the world.
They're so...cheesy now...because people don't want little kids to see characters to die...gruesome death, may it be minor, major, secondary (SINUOUS !!!). Let alone, they seem to want to keep them from thinking that hunting and poaching, fueds, and wars are some of the worst things in the world and they NEED to understand that. AoFW is an EXCELLENT example of a GOOD series with GOOD morals. GET THAT SHOW ON THE AIR....AND IN AMERICA!!!
Other things they are missing are how bad hunting is. We had fox hunting in AoFW from the Animals' veiw and it was...pretty darn bad. Then, we had poachers in the park, and then the stream that humans polluted. We need lessons that shows what happens in the real world and not silly cartoons.
We need cartoons that show how horrible we (humans) can be and how badly we affect our enviornment that our ancestors had. Sure, we've evolved and got smarter, but...we need to remember that we used to live along side animals basically.
Thus, I think cartoons are missing what REALLY needs to be taught to young children and that is how badly we affect the lives of animals, what happens when we pollute bodies of water, that murder and death really happen. It's GOT to be taught so young children can understand what REALLY happens in the world.
They're so...cheesy now...because people don't want little kids to see characters to die...gruesome death, may it be minor, major, secondary (SINUOUS !!!). Let alone, they seem to want to keep them from thinking that hunting and poaching, fueds, and wars are some of the worst things in the world and they NEED to understand that. AoFW is an EXCELLENT example of a GOOD series with GOOD morals. GET THAT SHOW ON THE AIR....AND IN AMERICA!!!
And not only shows, but books can teach such morals as well. Excellent examples are Firebringer and The Sight. Both are animal books, one focusing on red deer and the other focusing on wolves. I won't spoil anything, but both books contain something that leave you questioning our own actions.
And you're right about the character death thing. I mean in Sonic X there are a couple character deaths that FoxKids censored because they consider any kind of death as a no-no for a children's show.
And you're right about the character death thing. I mean in Sonic X there are a couple character deaths that FoxKids censored because they consider any kind of death as a no-no for a children's show.
AOFW was not animated in the US. Many things that are lack the element of death or blood, I agree. Should it be included? Maybe not in stuff made for the real young but I imagine showing that you can get a cut/injured and bleed wouldn't be a cause for alarm.
We all saw cartoons with blood, death, scary and dangerous situations and we all turned out ok. Cartoons shouldn't deprive kids of real world issues, they are in fact one of the best ways for them to learn new stuff and to begin to understand how the world works.
Odays parents are always way too over protective. Sure there were a couple of kids who jumped off roofs, ran in front of trains and killed classmates but to what point are cartoons really responsible for that? Aren't does just cases of bad parenting and toutering?
Nevertheless they are isolated cases, that would've happened any other way, even if they had never watched cartoons.
Odays parents are always way too over protective. Sure there were a couple of kids who jumped off roofs, ran in front of trains and killed classmates but to what point are cartoons really responsible for that? Aren't does just cases of bad parenting and toutering?
Nevertheless they are isolated cases, that would've happened any other way, even if they had never watched cartoons.
And they do have a very good point. An excellent example is The Land Before Time. What was the original like? We had a tenacious sharptooth who relentlessly hunted a gang of young dinosaurs. We had the killing of a mother, the orphaning of a child. We had racism as well. The movie touched on the subject of famine (sp?), the dinosaurs were starving. The movie was clearly darker than its sequels, yet it was made for kids.
What happened with the sequels? Right away they tamed down the violence, and made the dinosaurs sing in every movie, and in every episode that followed. The sharpteeth themselves have been extremely dumbed down to nothing more than "toys" in recent sequels. So far, none of the sequel sharpteeth matches Sharptooth's ferocity, although Redclaw does come closer than any other sharptooth I've seen so far.
So the question is have cartoons become too tame? If you were to ask me, I'd say yes, yes they have. If the more violent cartoons didn't mess up the kids of that time, what makes people think that the same cartoons would mess up the kids of our generation? What is so bad about teaching children the morals they need to understand the world they live in?
What do you guys think? Are cartoons too tame nowadays, or are they not tame enough?