mediaphile

Heim and I were thinking earlier about kid’s shows. They were so much better when we were kids. Like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They’ve screwed it up miserably! The theme song now is horrible (yes, I realise the theme used to suck, but it was better than now), and the fact that April can stick up for herself just…sort of defeats the purpose of the show, in my opinion. I remember playing the old SNES game—score for 2D animation!—and the whole point was rescue the helpless chick. I know I’m a girl, but I’ve just…never been so bothered by the stereotypes of women. Maybe because I’ve seen both sides of that fence in popular media. But it doesn’t seem like there’s anything negative about women being weaker in some cases.

But. Back to kid’s shows. Remember how back in the day Power Rangers were actually really cool? I was watching the original series on Toon Disney a while back…it’s still a good show. Really bad, but it’s kind of like it knows it’s bad, so they embrace it and go with it.

Then there’s like, Sesame Street. Aside from the fact that the older Sesame Street episodes are considered “adult” in nature…COOKIE MONSTER DOES NOT THINK COOKIES ARE A SOMETIMES FOOD. No. He’s the Cookie Monster! Not the “Cookies after I eat my Veggies” Monster! Actually…this comic strip sums up my Cookie Monster feelings pretty well. IT IS SO TRUE.

Today’s shows treat our kids like idiots. Take Dora for example:

“Where is the tree?”

*big arrow points at tree*

“Come on…you can find it!”

*arrow starts flashing and pulsing*

“I know you can do it!”

*arrow lights fireworks to draw attention to it*

“You’re getting closer…”

*arrow gives up and goes home because if you haven’t found the dang tree yet, you ain’t gonna*

I’m sorry, I didn’t realise my child was mentally handicapped. Okay, that was mean. But really, they can’t make it any clearer. And for an “educational” show, shouldn’t there be slightly more thinking involved?

And then…cartoons were so much cooler even when I was a kid. Not to say I don’t still watch them, but…Rugrats! That show was win. So were Ren and Stimpy and Doug, to be fair. And Dexter’s Lab, and Rocko’s Modern Life…oh, those were great. You can’t find any of them anymore. But we can watch Spongebob, which, while amusing, is just…brain-rotting. Oh, but we can’t do that, because…which group was it that threw a fit over Spongebob in its tape because his happy attitude made him a homosexual?

At this rate, our kids won’t have anything wholesome to watch.

Remember, even Donald Duck walks around without pants. Walt Disney should be ashamed.

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