Cartoon violence
Thinking back, it’s very hard to remember the violence in a Tom & Jerry cartoon without smiling at the slap-stick humour of it all. It was pure class watching Jerry always get one over poor Tom and the various tools and implements he used to do it. I remember my parents letting us watch cartoons without worrying too much about what we were watching, as in those days (I’m not that old), it was mainly Disney and Warner Bros such as Bugs Bunny etc.
I can’t think of a time when slapping and crashing saucepans over heads in cartoons ever disturbed me enough to ask for it to be switched off. So what has changed? We have a few DVDs for the kids which are mainly Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks and which we consider to be ’safe’ for our kids to watch – as opposed to the Japanese, anime rubbish that fills most of the kid’s TV channels at the moment. But even these have somehow upped the stakes and, in my opinion, occasionally go a little too far when it comes to adrenaline packed action.
The latest film we bought was Madagaskar 2 and the film is great. Really funny and the kids love it – all except a few parts when the alpha-male is fighting a rival in the first few scenes. Alex always asks me to skip a few scenes as he thinks ‘Alex the lion’ (real character name) is getting hurt. I’ve tried explaining that it’s only a cartoon and no-one gets hurt, but he won’t have it. So why put these scenes in and if they have to, why make them so prolonged? Even for me the clip above goes on for too long, and I really can’t see what it adds to the overall enjoyment of the film.
We also bought them Kung-Fu Panda after much contemplation and in-store rejections, but Alex has only seen the first half of this and doesn’t seem to be too fussed about watching the rest of it. The grown-ups finished watching it one night and it does get rather violent towards the end – albeit with incredible graphics and great humour (more for adults than children). So this poses the next question – are they making cartoons too grown-up now? It’s one thing making a film that appeals to a wide audience and age-group, but if kids are too scared to watch it, is there much point making it animated? Technology can do wonderful things, but it seems to be becoming slightly out of control, and the strive to produce better graphics and challenge the artists is making films too complex to watch. Or is this another example of society being too acceptable of violence and assuming that action-packed films are all kids want nowadays? If so, I’m worried.
Here’s some of the good stuff.
Good point. You should try Toy Story – kids love it, and the idea is great, but part one of the movie is so violent, that my kids refused to watch it (bad boy is destroying toys by making the creatures from different parts – like a eyeless doll head on spider’s legs). There is a theory, that kids love to fear, but this is just meaningless cruelty.
The new so called “cartoons” are pure trash. They are made by a bunch of fat 20olds and the most important thing for them is “realistic graphics” and “special effects(usually violence)”. And both is not good for children because it kills their imagination and creativity. The new US cartoons are for children like Mc Donalds food “empty calories”
I think the problem nowadays is finding a storyline which hasn’t been conceived before.
Mon: The one-eyed doll on spiders’ legs. I have two boys, so maybe they’re not so creeped out by that! I think watching Buzz Lightyear at the tea-party scared them more.
Guest: I think you’re right. Combat scenes are obviously a huge challenge for the graphic artists, so realism is their core objective. Perhaps the DVD boxes should carry the warning “Not tested on children”.
Good point again, yellerbelly
but this kid was so vicious, that they were scared of him too!
Tom & Jerry – the GREAT ones were the late ’40s/early ’50s Hanna-Barbera cartoons (pre-Cinemascope, when the animators still put their hearts and souls into the backgrounds).
Those directed by Chuck Jones (such as the YouTube clip above), are an order of magnitude less funny, while the Gene Deitch ones are execrable.
I grew up on the T&J greats (black and white Saturday evenings on BBC1), my children in their infancy on VHS, now re-watching on YouTube.
Toy Story scared Eddie when he first watched it aged four (too young, I think).
Today, it’s the Simpsons that runs heads and shoulders above any other animation watched in our household. The children can quote whole episodes. (“But no, you had to be ten“)
And in the Simpsons, you will see THE most extreme moments of cartoon violence – the Itchy and Scratchy Show.