Cartoon Censorship

By Zelda

                The issue of cartoon violence in the media has been an overblown one since those introverted crazy kids in black trench coats decided to do the stupid thing of shooting their school up like a practice range. Assuming these kids, and a few others who strangely enough decided to fill their classmates with lead too, were motivated by popular music and media, parental groups all over the country reared their ugly heads with the new purpose of cleansing our society of violence. To the blindly valiant parents who follow such a crusade, I say good luck, because you'll never win. And oh, you happen to be ruining the fun for us in the process.

Okay, lemme focus here, because although I feel all censorship is pretty wrong in one context or another, I'm talking about cartoons here. Remember when we were all little? Every child of the 80's remembers shows like Fraggle Rock, Care Bears, and Sesame Street. Yup, all happy and friendly. And hey, I'm not complaining, I still love 'em today! A few years down the line everyone was into Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Looney Tunes. Sure the superhero/action cartoons were there, but I don't think there was ever any motivation for us to order anything from the Acme company, was there? Did you honestly think you could jump off a building and fly like Superman? Nope. There was, and still is, a clear delineation between the animated world and the real one. Now, if your favorite action cartoons were actually live action shows, then things would be different.

And this is where I actually give parental groups a credit. When Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers came out in the early 90s, parental groups went nuts over it. Lemme say, despite how absolutely crappy the show has gotten, the original series was pretty darn good from a plot point of view. Any cartoon critic could look at the Power Rangers and see well-developed characters, good storylines, and progression as the series went on. Too bad parent groups only saw the fight scenes. But it was real violence. It's pretty easy to give a kid a costume, a plastic morpher, and tell him that he's a real Power Ranger. And it's even easier for the kid to believe you. That's why the Power Rangers series has been toned down quite a bit since then. It totally sucks now too, but that's not related.

Other late childhood cartoons come to mind: Darkwing Duck, SWAT Kats, Beast Wars, Mighty Max, etc. I was never much of a cartoon watcher at that age, but I do know that anything popular had a superhero theme. The cute and cuddly always stayed appealing to the younger audience. Also, the early and mid-90's saw a rise in the fringe cartoons. Ren and Stimpy, Pinky and The Brain, and Animaniacs all became popular shows, especially amongst adult audiences. Pinky and The Brain and Ren and Stimpy actually had prime-time slots, and MTV re-ran Ren and Stimpy at 10 at night for a few months. No violence in these cartoons folks, but I'd be a fool to say that shows like Ren and Stimpy haven't influenced those who watched them. In fact, the show broke a language barrier of sorts, yes, the characters have been known to utter the word 'crap' in several episodes, which is a feat that hasn't been repeated since. Ooooh, foul words!

So what's the matter with everyone today? Why do we have Joe Lieberman and Al Gore preaching to stick it to Hollywood for sex and violence? (I'm sure George W. would too if he could remember where Hollywood was...) The over-simplified answer would be that parents are letting TV babysit their kids, and they don't like what they see when they turn on the tube. So, they want things changed.

Unfortunately, it's not that simple, and thank goodness it isn't or else we'd have sharing and caring driven into our brains until the day we died. See, there happens to be a market for sex and violence. People wouldn't put it in movies if the audience didn't like it to begin with. So, it's out there, whoop-de-do. Does the same market exist in cartoons? Well, definitely not the sex part, that's a subject I won't get into, period. But superhero cartoons have to be violent. And kids like superheroes. Better than just liking them, kids buy superhero toys. They watch commercials while their superhero shows take a break. They get happy meals for the fast food tie ins. It's a marketer's dream, so it's no surprise that every major local network has their own cartoon lineup. ABC, the WB, UPN, FOX, and CBS have all have at least Saturday morning cartoons on the schedule. I personally wonder why NBC hasn't jumped in yet, but there's still time. Superhero cartoons sell bigtime, and kids love them more than they ever did Barney. So, if the kids want 'em, the networks make them, plain and simple.

But that's not all that kids want. Let's consider that there are some very different types of kids out there. There are kids who go goo-goo over Rugrats, and those who thrill to the adventures of Pokemon... oh joy. And then there is my favorite group of kids, myself included, who have followed the adventures (and misadventures) of beloved superheroes long beyond an age where it's considered normal to watch cartoons with such devotion. This is the group of kids (and adults) that gets seriously POed when some group tries to scare the most talented writers, producers, and animators in the business to 'tone it down'. Can't have kids thinking they can get away with some of the stuff they show on TV these days, can we? Give me a break.

My big beef with those who would censor out cartoons is that they're the ones looking for the easy way out. Go ahead, let TV babysit your kids. But don't you dare bite the hand that feeds you because you're not satisfied with what's coming in over the airwaves. TV never asked to babysit your kids, so don't blame programmers for merely catering to what they want. It's not their job to decide how your kids perceive reality. If you don't like it, TURN IT OFF, GET INVOLVED. Trust me, as much as I love cartoons, they don't come close to comparing to the time I've spent with my parents and my friends, out in something called the REAL WORLD. TV is not a reflection of reality, that's why it's in a little box and not actually tangible. Anyone who can operate a remote knows that. TV is meant to entertain, not to teach. If you don't like your babysitter, fire them. If you don't like what your kids are watching, pull the plug. And don't look for the easy way out, your own children are worth a bit more than that.

If you parental groups had your way, TV would become an even grosser misperception of reality, for all of the fluff that would take the place of the quality entertainment people like me can safely enjoy without blowing away my classmates. What would happen when kids actually got out into the real world and discovered *gasp* that the good guys don't always win. Your over-righteous struggling is ruining some of my favorite cartoons, movies, and music, and I don't like it. Instead of lecturing Hollywood or some house of government, talk to your kids. You're the only ones who can.