Hey Y'all,

I like watching certain cartoons and animated films. For some time now, I have been noticing a trend in both mediums, that animation is geared more toward adults than to children. I mean it still has it's appeal to children, but the cartoons are frought with innuendo, recent case being "Shrek".
Maybe I was naive as a child/teen, but I don't recall television cartoons or animated films having such content, do you? If so, what do you think about the change?

If you go to other countries, say like obviously Japan, the very idea that animation is "only for children" is considered ludicrous. It's mainly in America and Canada were animation has almost always been looked at as stuff for kids. It's a visual medium that anyone can enjoy. The change is definately for the better, it's about time North America started to realize that animation is not just kiddie stuff.

I'm not sure how the intense prejudice towards "cartoons" began. I think it may have been in the '40s and '50s when cheap animated matinee features such as Looney Tunes and stuff like that started appearing. Somehow or another they began airing on Saturday mornings, and more cheap animated TV shows began appearing with an obvious target audience of children. The prejudice towards animation is still very ingrained into the American psyche though, and it will still take some time for America/Canada to truly respect the medium.

I used to watch Saturday morning cartoons all the time when I was a kid, but I remember slowing down around 13 or 14 mainly because the old cartoons really began to suck. But there were many well made animated series with a mature feel to them in the '90s such as the Batman Animated Series, the Superman Animated series, the Simpsons, the Tick, Spawn, and the Critic. Still, it sucked having to watch some of these great animated shows like Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man on a channel called the Fox KIDS Network with goofy hosts and commericials aimed at 6 or 7 year olds. Even the Cartoon Network is pretty idiotic. The prejudice is still there. Attempts to change the American pereception of "cartoons" is slow. Titan A.E. and Shrek are still automatically seen as kids stuff. Many people who are parents may even through a fit if they see an animated TV show or movie with violence or maturity to it, because of their prejudice towards the medium. They think it should only be for kids.

I agree, Awesome Dude. I'm glad that American mainstream animation is maturing again. When Atlantis: The Lost Empire came out, (which I truly enjoyed, BTW) I remember a lot of anger from the parents in my office-- they said a "cartoon" shouldn't be so violent. It's a Disney movie, but it takes more of its inspiration from anime and action movies. I told them "Well, it's rated PG, would you take your kid to see a PG-rated movie that wasn't animated?" and they said "Of course not!" It is unfair, in my mind, to hold animated entertainment to a different set of standards than filmed entertainment... and not to keep the intended audience in mind.

Then again, I grew up watching G-Force and other violent cartoons... I think my parents left me alone with the TV because they thought "Cartoon, good for kids!" (IMO, the 70s-PC New Zoo Revue (http://www.michael.mcelwain.com/wierd/nzr.html) was way more disturbing to my child psyche than G-Force ever was :D )

Even Looney Tunes & other movie shorts of the 40s and 50s were censored for kids' TV showings. (for violence, racial & ethnic stereotypes, etc.) I won't talk about my opinions of any of the cuts here, because I don't want to start a debate which could get out of the bounds of our gracious moderator's guidelines, ;) (love ya, Sal!) but I'll post the link and people can read it on their own. It's a fascinating history of the relationship between theatrical animation & television, for those who are so inclined.

Censored Toons (http://www.toonzone.net/looney/ltcuts/)

You can PM me if you want to talk about the specifics in detail.

I think that Cartoons now are maturing more. I think it is for the worst. Cartoons of the 80's were mature but nothing like they are now. They have children, have sex, you name it they are doing it. Mature subjects like this takes something away from cartoons.

I like anime a lot but most of it is not suitable for children. It contains a lot of mature material. Even SailorMoon, one of my favorite animes, has material that should only be viewed by adults. Yet is probably considered one of the Anime cartoons Most geared toward children.

I think the reason why the cartoons of the 80's were better is because they worked off of the character's personality, Powers, and the story line.

I believe today everything including: moives, actors, music, singers, and fashion, have too many untalented people.

And to make up for this lack of talent they try to use anything they can to sell their products. That is why you rarely see a good movie, listen to an original song, and see fashions that have not been copied out of the 60's 70's and now it looks like they are returning to the 80's.

If you would separate the Adult material from the Child material in cartoons of today the cartoons would fail because they need the shock value to get kids interested because the story lines are weak. I also believe the creators profit more by attracting Adults as-well-as children.

I know many things have been remade through out the centuries but I don't think there has ever been a time period that relied so heavily on the previous decades.

Creativity and originality are very rare today.

Originally posted by Sapphire112
I like anime a lot but most of it is not suitable for children. It contains a lot of mature material. Even SailorMoon, one of my favorite animes, has material that should only be viewed by adults. Yet is probably considered one of the Anime cartoons Most geared toward children.

That's very well said, Sapphire. American networks cut and edit anime, most often hacking all the best parts out, ;) but the mature subject matter is still there.

I believe there should be more current cartoons produced with the intent of entertaining and educating (at least incidentally, LOL) young *and* school-age children. There are some great shows on PBS and even on Nick and CBS, but they haven't hit the "fad" level necessary to really be influential, and most are for younger kids. (Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat, Blue's Clues, DragonTales, Between the Lions, etc... I take that back, Blue's Clues is definitely a fad :D My nephew loves that show.)

I enjoy some of the adult/kid "crossover" programming, like Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack, but it is violent, and I don't think I'd let a kid under 8 or 9 watch it. (depending on maturity/impressionability) The hard part is that the shows intended for younger children get deep-sixed by the barrage of marketing from shows like Powerpuff Girls, Pokemon, Yu!Gi!Oh! and others. I love the cute PPG kids' clothes at Target, but I have to think about whether they're appropriate gifts for my friend's daughter-- she's two. Guess I'll ask my friend first.

I was a marketing victim as a kid, and I don't want my future family to be sucked in to quite the level I was... Star Wars was the worst :D I don't think it did me any long-term damage, other than a lasting compulsion to collect Queen Amidala portrait dolls, :rolleyes: but moderation is the key. Heh.

When I have children, they'll probably be subjected to Mom's weird old Fraggle Rock tapes all the time. I know that as a cartoon maniac and a parent, I will keep a close eye on the content of what my kids watch. They'll probably get fed up with me watching cartoons with them, but heck, I do it now, and I'm not even a mom yet. ;)

I've rambled long enough! This is a fun topic, thanks.

I think that 80s cartoons were the best. They ususally had a very good plot and story line.

Hi everyone...well, I'm hasty here...I just read the subject line and that is it. Today's cartoons are tolerable...some of them...others are to me offensive. The art is not real and there is really no moral theme to the shows. The language used is too much too vulgar. And violent, in some of them. Too violent for my tastes. Now in the 80s it was morality teaching 100%! She-Ra and He-Man and Lady Lovely Locks all had a theme, a morality...to be kind and good and to do kind things and be good, to yourself and more importantly to others. I liked that. And the art was more realistic, the stories were something creative and original, a real effort was put into the cartoons. To me, today's cartoons don't have effort. :rolleyes: :lol:

THe best cartoons of the 80's were undoubtably the transformens and GI Joe
Both has good story and charictor devlopement and plot twists that got Children to Rush home from school to see them
I do injoy modern animation more than say the "reality shows" that are the fad now
And i admit to being extreemly Anime Addicted And concider my favroates to be Outlaw Star Cowboy Bebop and Sereal Exparaments Lain i agree anime is not for kids it adress the realitys of human behavior and the the baser emotins on how people resalve problems 9some of it can Be extreemly Sad (one od the epasodes Young Jim Hauking's first love intrist is killed in spaceship combat) useing a stratagy Jim himself came up with (unknowingly killingher to save his own and the skins of his frends and partner the ever lecerus Gene Starwind But these story lines are good for adults i beleve (the art is amasing and it can be fun and extreemlt interaining)

I think the primary difference between cartoons now and cartoons in the 80s (at least) is that back in the 80s, cartoon themes and characterizations were very black and white. The good guys were always unassailably good, and the bad guys were always irredeemably bad. If you ever had a good guy with any sort of flaws (for example, Mirage from the Transformers), it was usually because the writers were setting you up for a moral trial which reinforced the character's virtues in the end. Likewise, if you had a bad guy with any praiseworthy features (another example, Storm Shadow from GI Joe), ultimately he would be "converted" to working for the good guys.

Most of it, I'm sure, was probably due to the mentality of "cartoons are for kids" that has been prevalent amongst (American) cartoon producers. However, I also think part of it is because public thinking (in the USA, anyway) was also pretty black and white. We were, after all, in a Cold War, and the sitting President rejected the notion of detente and started calling the Soviets the "Evil Empire" (and even more, he honestly believed it, too.)

Not that this means that black-and-white is a bad thing or diminishes the values of a cartoon (or any other story, for that matter). Excluding this whole black-and-white theme for a moment, the plot and character development in 80s cartoons is far more sophisticated and nuanced than previous eras (IMO anyways). And after going through this morally-muddled mess we call the 90s, I find a little bit of black-and-white somewhat refreshing.

Also, personally I think that when certain artists and writers claim to aim for themes of "moral complexity" and "shades of gray" I think they are really making a convenient excuse for taking pot shots at established institutions and social ideals, or for just being crude and vulgar in public. In a true shades-of-gray theme, while the "good" guys have major flaws, at the same time the "bad" guys also have major redeeming features. But in so-called "shades of gray" themes, what I have seen are mostly mudslinging that makes the good guys bad without highlighting the lighter shades of the bad guys. In other words, it's really just "black-and-gray" rather than shades of gray.

But that's just my opinion.

I would agree that some cartoons today are somewhat geared towards an older audience, but because of companies like Pioneer, Cloverway, and several others, the stuff that you would see in the Japanese versions of anime are not shown here in America. I do feel somewhat cheated when it comes to that, because it's true, the original is always best. However, I'm glad my niece and nephews aren't seeing some of the adult humor, because it's bad enough my oldest nephew runs around saying, "She said she has big boobies!" True story. He didn't get into too much trouble, but he wasn't able to watch tv for a while.
As far as 80's cartoons go, I remember Rainbow Bright ("You banana brain!!" :P ) and Popples (yay!) as well as He-Man and She-ra. I LOVED those cartoons, and, in fact, I still have an old Rainbow Bright tape, that STILL WORKS. Even though there are some places in the tape that are kind of messed up, it still works, so I watch it now and then, just to remember the good times... :D

Well, I do agree that on the whole, cartoons today are worse than back in the 80s. Not only are their storylines, characters and most other aspects of them lower in quality, but yes, the offense factor has gone up. In the 90s and today, cartoons have either gone down the ultra-infantile route (Barney, Teletubbies, Bear in the Big Blue House, Blue’s Clues, etc.) or the adult route (Beavis and Butt-Head, King of the Hill, South Park, etc.) with very little in between. I do enjoy cartoons of late, like the various X-Men series, Cybersix, as well as some animé, which I think is clever, not too infantile but still able to catch the interest of a child, but also still “grown-up” enough to also attract adults- in short, 80s-ish. I do really wish that they would start making shows like the ones they did in the 80s again, or at least make some kind of outlet for the shows of the time, because I know a lot of us are tired with the way animation seems to be going. Michelle

I think that Cartoons now are maturing more. I think it is for the worst. Cartoons of the 80's were mature but nothing like they are now.I think cartoons today are nothing but garbage!!!!!

There is NOTHING on tv today as far as cartoons that i like (Or much of anything else for that matter),its all trash!!

Censored Toons (http://www.toonzone.net/looney/ltcuts/)The editing that is going on with the cartoons from the 80s and before is TOTALLY DISGUSTING in every sense of the word!!!