A Cartoon Thought

Posted by Vulnadia on Dec 08, 2008 at 08:05 AM Yes, it's early, I know, even for me, but I've been up a few hours, trying to get a headstart on work before my trio wake up for the day... I just happened to be listening to the cartoons playing on the Disney Channel through the baby monitor... It dawned on me. Some people try waaayyy too hard to make the cartoon genre educational... I mean, waayyy too hard! I find some things convoluted, really I do. Don't get me wrong, I love educational cartoons as much as the next Mum, but ONLY when they make sense! When it's presented in a way that actually entertains children (& adults) and the information can be retained,remembered and used, then an educational cartoon has done it's job. When it is presented in the form of nonsense, however, I tend to wonder why anyone bothered to produce it at all! For example, Nickelodeon has a Chinese character show that does a great job at not only teaching kids a smattering of Chinese (my kids have picked up quite a few phrases actually) but the interpersonal skills & the social problem solving & resolution is fabulous. My kids love Dora, and I don't mind her, save for her obvious abuse and use of her outside voice! The Backyardigans also do a lovely job at introducing concepts and ideas and historical ideas/figures and places in a kid-friendly and imaginative manner. But this morning, I was reminded of how silly things can get when folks try too hard for that educational mandate guideline adherence. I mean really, baby cello?? How exactly is that teaching my kids anything? Baby cello's don't really exist (well they are called violins I suppose, and they certainly don't have mommies!) Even in a pretend world it"s a bit silly. I can think of a lot of different ways to teach the same concepts but in a more realistic and easily digested manner. If you want to teach musical concepts, and introduce composers, then INTRODUCE THE COMPOSERS!!!! Mozart was a cute person historically, and a young portrayal could be grand and fun to watch when portrayed as a cartoon character, giving kids someone to relate to, and emulate (when presented positively!) In fact, when looked at from the right perspective by the right person, any historical character can have life breathed into them even when they appear dull and boring at first glance! Then again, maybe it's the actor/ren-faire person in me coming out. I spent many a year working on Faire scripts & characters, taking historical characters and some literary ones and breathing life into them in such a way that modern society could relate, understand, and be entertained by the finished product. If we can take Henry the VIII, or any of the De Medici's and produce likable, funny and educational characters out of them, then why cant the network executives and producers give our kids something along the same lines? It isn't terribly difficult to make these folks interesting or even realistic historically and when put into modern perspective. It's even easier to take these concepts and update them with a modern spin to where folks can relate to them. Heck we used to do it at Faire all the time with what most people considered stodgy and boring historical characters. When my son was cast as a member of the Yeoman of the Guard at faire one year, we went with a renaissance super-hero angle, complete with a Yeo-scout motto of sorts that helped the patron kids really relate to his historical character easily. Honestly, all they could come up with was baby cello's? I think they can do better than that!