Cartoon Evolution
June 1st 2010 01:41
My wife got me a Looney Tunes box set a few years ago as a Christmas present. It has a lot of my old favorites on it from when I was a kid. We popped it in a few days ago before bedtime for our son to watch, and though I still loved all the old cartoons, I strangely found myself glad my son didn't understand most of what was happening. Why?
Daffy Duck gets shot in the face. A lot. And at the end of one, he shoots himself in the head! Granted, he always lives through it, but it's not the greatest example to set. Looking back, a lot of the cartoons I love have things that generally wouldn't be seen as acceptable in this day and age. Many of the Looney Tunes are heavy drinkers, and many smoke quite a bit. I can think of one episode, Hare-Way to the Stars, where Bugs wakes up hung over. He makes it clear he'll never mix radish juice and carrot juice again, but he's definitely hung over! Stuff like this is all over the place in Looney Tunes cartoons.
And it's not just there. Disney animated classics are full of stereotypes-the Red Indians in Peter Pan, the crows in Dumbo...they're things that weren't thought of as wrong then, but are now.
I probably sound pretty conservative here, pointing out racism, drinking and smoking in old cartoons. Don't get me wrong-I love these cartoons! They're beloved parts of my childhood. But they're sure a far cry from the politically correct cartoons we have on TV today. Things started shifting back in the 80's and 90's when people got a lot more politically sensitive. Granted, there's still a whole lot of violence. That's to be expected (Transformers was my favorite cartoon as a kid). But cartoons are usually multicultural (perhaps the most campy example of this is the team from Captain Planet!). Not way back when-try finding any African Americans in The Jetsons. Plus these days animators make sure to stay away from smoking and drinking. Again, way different. Guess who a major sponsor of The Flintstones was. Winston Cigarettes!
Perhaps one of the most interesting examples of how attitudes toward those old cartoons have changed happened a few years ago in England. A TV station over there decided to show reruns of Tom and Jerry. Before they did, however, they edited out a lot of scenes-namely, any scene where they smoke, or where smoking was "condoned, acceptable, or glamorized." This seems extreme to me...they should leave it up to parents to decide what their kids see on TV. But make sure you're ready to explain a few things when you pop in those classic cartoons!
Daffy Duck gets shot in the face. A lot. And at the end of one, he shoots himself in the head! Granted, he always lives through it, but it's not the greatest example to set. Looking back, a lot of the cartoons I love have things that generally wouldn't be seen as acceptable in this day and age. Many of the Looney Tunes are heavy drinkers, and many smoke quite a bit. I can think of one episode, Hare-Way to the Stars, where Bugs wakes up hung over. He makes it clear he'll never mix radish juice and carrot juice again, but he's definitely hung over! Stuff like this is all over the place in Looney Tunes cartoons.
And it's not just there. Disney animated classics are full of stereotypes-the Red Indians in Peter Pan, the crows in Dumbo...they're things that weren't thought of as wrong then, but are now.
I probably sound pretty conservative here, pointing out racism, drinking and smoking in old cartoons. Don't get me wrong-I love these cartoons! They're beloved parts of my childhood. But they're sure a far cry from the politically correct cartoons we have on TV today. Things started shifting back in the 80's and 90's when people got a lot more politically sensitive. Granted, there's still a whole lot of violence. That's to be expected (Transformers was my favorite cartoon as a kid). But cartoons are usually multicultural (perhaps the most campy example of this is the team from Captain Planet!). Not way back when-try finding any African Americans in The Jetsons. Plus these days animators make sure to stay away from smoking and drinking. Again, way different. Guess who a major sponsor of The Flintstones was. Winston Cigarettes!
Perhaps one of the most interesting examples of how attitudes toward those old cartoons have changed happened a few years ago in England. A TV station over there decided to show reruns of Tom and Jerry. Before they did, however, they edited out a lot of scenes-namely, any scene where they smoke, or where smoking was "condoned, acceptable, or glamorized." This seems extreme to me...they should leave it up to parents to decide what their kids see on TV. But make sure you're ready to explain a few things when you pop in those classic cartoons!
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