Cartoons have certainly come a long way from when we were kids. Nowadays anything and everything is animated using state of the art computer graphics, and almost always there’s a moral to the story or a valuable lesson to be learned. Political Correctness has invaded our children’s programming to the point where the cartoons we watched as kids are almost non-existent today. While I have no problem with it, I think that constantly trying to deliver a ‘message’ sometimes takes the pure fun away from television.
Remember when we were young and we watched the Wile E. Coyote endlessly chase the Road Runner before inevitably being crushed by the ACME anvil? Or watching the rivalry between Tom and Jerry as they mercilessly went after each other? We would never see this on television these days for fear that some parent group would be outraged and get the show banned for causing emotional harm to our children.
Often I don’t think we give our kids enough credit to use their own brains to determine what’s right from wrong when watching a television show. The last time I checked it was not only our job as parents to monitor what and how much television our kids watch, but also to teach and guide them down the right path, that responsibility didn’t lie with television. Not to mention, I grew up watching Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner, Tom and Jerry, and even Gargamel plot the demise of the beloved Smurfs, and I turned out pretty good!
Just today as I was making breakfast for my kids I noticed they were unusually quiet. I stopped to check and see what they were watching and realized it was Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny on TELETOON Retro. They loved it! Then they proceeded to watch She-Ra Princess of Power followed by Thundercats. They’d never seen these particular shows before and were mesmerized by them. Even with the old school animation and lack of ‘messaging’ they were actually enthralled by the cartoons themselves, and I must admit I found myself being sucked into watching an entire episode of Thundercats!
Instead of condemning these classic shows for being too violent or not providing our kids with the right ‘message’ or capitalizing on a learning opportunity, we need to give them some credit. Many of them are being remade for the current generation because they’ve lasted the test of time. There’s a big screen version of The Smurfs heading to theatres this August, and even Tom and Jerry have gotten the makeover treatment. Warner Home Video started creating new Tom and Jerry movies in 2001 and are still making them to this day. So if you want to feel like a kid again you can enjoy Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes this Saturday on TELETOON’s Big Ticket Movie.
I bet your kids will love it (almost as much as you)!
Scene and Heard
Confessions of a Pop Culture Mummy
More upcoming TELETOON Big Ticket Movies on
Saturdays at 7pm ET/PT:
- June 4: Madagascar 2
- June 11: The Pink Panther
- June 18: The Pink Panther II
- June 25: Double Bill - Scooby-Doo: Curse of the Lake Monster & Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins
You can check out www.teletoon.com for more details.
This blog proudly sponsored by TELETOON Network
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