I will never understand the adult aversion to animated content, otherwise known as “cartoons”. The pre-conceived notion that an animated show is “low-brow” never really made too much sense to. Where The Simpsons are widely accepted by the public and critics alike, if you have no children, are above the age of 10 and still watch Spongebob Squarepants, you are looked at like a freak. I suppose that cartoons have the stigma that they do simply because the majority of them are dumbed down ridiculously. Simply because many of the shows are aimed at children, they are either constructed as either a half hour commercial or written as if the intended audience has the IQ of 4.
I grew up with G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-Man, The Smurfs and zillions of other poorly written animated tripe. But I did enjoy some of that tripe, and realize now that they were just commercials. G.I. Joe was the most effective commercial for me; I could watch the cartoon, and then I could get the toys and reenact what I had just seen? Get me my dad’s wallet and let’s go shopping. Transformers and He-Man had toys too, but they didn’t really do that much for me. And I remember The Smurfs had a cereal, but I was more of a pancakes kid so they could keep their blue cereal and go someplace. This marriage of show and toy is still true today, with shows like Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine or Ben 10 that have extensive product lines so that fun never has to stop. And it is this unholy union that I believe causes many adults to feel that cartoons are a kids’ business, and the only way you should be watching a cartoon is if you have kids.
That’s crap.
I think that a big issue is that most simply have not seen a cartoon since either they grew up or since their kids grew up. So while that they may know of The Simpsons and South park, which may mainly be due to the fact that they are broadcast in prime time, they know nothing of The Venture Brothers, which is possibly the one of the best half hours on television. There are even many animated shows that are aimed at children by the networks, but are written for an older audience or at the very least, are not written in an insulting fashion. Say what you want, but the version of DC Comic’s character Batman as represented in the cleverly titled Batman: The Animated Series (and all of the shows spawned from it*), Gargoyles (from Disney!**) and the old Warner Bros cartoons dealt with some pretty adult material. The shows based on the DC Comics dealt with everything from brutal revenge for the loss of a loved one to a hero contemplating the upside of genocide. Gargoyles dealt with themes of betrayal, loss and success through manipulation, which was new ground for an animated show put on television from Disney. And as for the Warner Bros cartoons, I remember seeing an interview with the Warner Bros animators and they simply acknowledged that they drew what they wanted to see on screen. This meant shotguns to the face, cross-dressing rabbits, smoking, drinking and a host of other no-no’s in kids programming today. The Warner cartoons were not even edited for content until recently.
The sad thing is that this affliction seems more prevalent to American adults than the adults of other countries. Those of foreign nations seem readily able to embrace animation as simply an entertainment medium instead of child’s play. I could go on about the different types of shows represented by Japanese animation alone, but that is a rant for another time. Americans are cool with the latest release from Pixar for the most part, but an all new animated version of Wonder Woman coming out on DVD simply gets placed next to the Barbie DVD’s and is summarily ignored.***
Will people ever change their opinions in this matter? I don’t know. My mom used to hate the mere idea of Batman and Superman, and looked to have no use for cartoons in general after my brother, sister and I grew up. She now watches The Venture Brothers regularly, and has watched multiple episodes of Batman: TAS, Justice League Unlimited and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. For a long time, she was the most hoity-toity person that I knew. But if she changed, maybe other people can too.
*from the success of Batman: The Animated Series came Batman Beyond, Superman: The Animated Series, The Zeta Project, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.
**the first 2 seasons of the show were great, then the stories took a turn for the worst, introducing a time travel element, the main characters long lost daughter and other ridiculousness
I grew up with G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-Man, The Smurfs and zillions of other poorly written animated tripe. But I did enjoy some of that tripe, and realize now that they were just commercials. G.I. Joe was the most effective commercial for me; I could watch the cartoon, and then I could get the toys and reenact what I had just seen? Get me my dad’s wallet and let’s go shopping. Transformers and He-Man had toys too, but they didn’t really do that much for me. And I remember The Smurfs had a cereal, but I was more of a pancakes kid so they could keep their blue cereal and go someplace. This marriage of show and toy is still true today, with shows like Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine or Ben 10 that have extensive product lines so that fun never has to stop. And it is this unholy union that I believe causes many adults to feel that cartoons are a kids’ business, and the only way you should be watching a cartoon is if you have kids.
That’s crap.
I think that a big issue is that most simply have not seen a cartoon since either they grew up or since their kids grew up. So while that they may know of The Simpsons and South park, which may mainly be due to the fact that they are broadcast in prime time, they know nothing of The Venture Brothers, which is possibly the one of the best half hours on television. There are even many animated shows that are aimed at children by the networks, but are written for an older audience or at the very least, are not written in an insulting fashion. Say what you want, but the version of DC Comic’s character Batman as represented in the cleverly titled Batman: The Animated Series (and all of the shows spawned from it*), Gargoyles (from Disney!**) and the old Warner Bros cartoons dealt with some pretty adult material. The shows based on the DC Comics dealt with everything from brutal revenge for the loss of a loved one to a hero contemplating the upside of genocide. Gargoyles dealt with themes of betrayal, loss and success through manipulation, which was new ground for an animated show put on television from Disney. And as for the Warner Bros cartoons, I remember seeing an interview with the Warner Bros animators and they simply acknowledged that they drew what they wanted to see on screen. This meant shotguns to the face, cross-dressing rabbits, smoking, drinking and a host of other no-no’s in kids programming today. The Warner cartoons were not even edited for content until recently.
The sad thing is that this affliction seems more prevalent to American adults than the adults of other countries. Those of foreign nations seem readily able to embrace animation as simply an entertainment medium instead of child’s play. I could go on about the different types of shows represented by Japanese animation alone, but that is a rant for another time. Americans are cool with the latest release from Pixar for the most part, but an all new animated version of Wonder Woman coming out on DVD simply gets placed next to the Barbie DVD’s and is summarily ignored.***
Will people ever change their opinions in this matter? I don’t know. My mom used to hate the mere idea of Batman and Superman, and looked to have no use for cartoons in general after my brother, sister and I grew up. She now watches The Venture Brothers regularly, and has watched multiple episodes of Batman: TAS, Justice League Unlimited and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. For a long time, she was the most hoity-toity person that I knew. But if she changed, maybe other people can too.
*from the success of Batman: The Animated Series came Batman Beyond, Superman: The Animated Series, The Zeta Project, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.
**the first 2 seasons of the show were great, then the stories took a turn for the worst, introducing a time travel element, the main characters long lost daughter and other ridiculousness
***I actually saw the Wonder Woman DVD in a display next to a Barbie dressed as Wonder Woman in a toy section, and cautioned a mother that thought of getting the disc to rent it first. She didn’t think that there could be anything there that was damaging or inappropriate. Wonder if she still felt that way after the first beheading…
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