Childhood Innocence

[Starlight_84]

I miss those days as well. I used to watch the Disney channel and Nickelodeon, etc during the late 80's, early 90's and those shows were awesome. Now, the shows aren't so good. They're more about education. Yeah, that's good for kids to learn from shows they watch, but I do miss the shows like My Little Pony and Rainbow Brite. The point of villains was never to scare children and kids during that time knew that. It was to promote the good vs. evil thing and that good empowers evil every time.

[WishBear2001]

Honestly, when I used to babysit kids, I didn't let them watch a lot of todays cartoons. I'd show them older series I grew up with, and a lotta kids actually liked them BETTER. I love DVD boxed sets so much, because you can go back and watch the actually GOOD cartoons. I'm such a cartoon junkie, I want to have most of the old series like Duck Tales n stuff on DVD.

I started to help my mom babysit local kids and they loved the older ones better, but I met one parent who did not want her kids to watch Care Bears. The kids loved them as they would get my collection down from the shelves and play with them. I had to transport the CBs to Dad's and get RB, SSC, MLP, Pink Panther, Pound Puppies, Fraggle Rock and assorted PBS movies. The kids loved watching Pink Panther as they played with Pink Panther plush and they would say what was dumb for Pink to do. They would say what is safer for him to do. The kids would watch Pound Puppies and learn that good overcomes evil.

How do I talk the parents into letting the kids watch educational, yet entertaining shows like Care Bears and Barney?

[KittyBrite]

The money made directly from a show is so miniscule compared to merchandise, that if they can make a cheaper show, without a decrease in merchandise sales, then the money saved is well worth it to them.

A good example of that is in Strawberry Shortcake's modern TV special "Rockaberry Roll", Crepes Suzette is on the stage and earlier in the same episode she said she had to go home because Eclair was homesick.

Another is in Care Bears: Adventures In Care-a-Lot episode Broken, Share's lolipop belly badge is reversed
True Heart's purse bag is missing in a scene of Oopsy the Hero.
In Heatwave when the bears are sitting down watching Grumpy before the fan turns on, there are two clearly seen Shares. One is on the stool, the other is slumped against the wall, when the fan is turned on, the Share on the stool is Cheer
And another AiCaL blooper on the DVD Tell-Tale Tummies, Best Friend Bear is sick in bed, then shown playing ball with Tenderheart.

Mistakes like that aren't anything new. Try watching the original My Little Pony cartoons. I've seen two of the same pony in a scene, the wrong pony in a scene, ponies as the wrong species. I've seen Baby Surprise (a pegasus) with a unicorn's horn.

I agree with a lot that's been said. I *HATE* the Bratz! Even the book series that are aimed at tween/teen girls are horrible. Books like Gossip Girl, Clique, A-List and It Girl. We have those books where I work and I just want to BURN them all!

I don't like Sponge Bob either. Anime was mentioned earlier in this thread. Just like any other genera there's good and there's bad. Most of the anime that's translated into English and shown on American tv isn't that great. The original Japanese versions are much better. A lot of anime is more adult oriented so it has to be toned down a lot for American tv. In Japan it's perfectly acceptable for tween boys to watch a cartoon with naked girls in it. Anime is more of an aquired taste. It's NOT kids' stuff!

Nobody's really mentioned the shows on The Disney Channel. I think they have some of the best stuff that's out there right now (except for High School Musical). I love, LOVE, *LOVE* Hannah Montana. Her songs are about self confidance and being yourself. Her show teaches kids that even if the whole school thinks you're a dork, doesn't mean you can't rock the world as a pop star. The Cheetah Girls have the girl power of the Spice Girls without dressing like sluts. Plus they're not all stick thin. Suite Life of Zach & Cody/Suite Life on Deck... they're just FUNNY! And they never do anything REALLY bad. And they always seem to learn a lesson. Camp Rock teaches kids not to fall into the "in crowd". Princess Protection Program teaches kids to get along with others, even if they're different then they are.

I think you get my point.

KittyBrite

[Tennyo]

That's because a lot of anime that is brought to the USA consist of shows with more adult themes that 4Kids edited to be kid friendly, that and they hirer horrible actors and change things around to make them more American.

Case in point, just the other day someone showed this to me actually. A sceen from an older Pokemon episode where they were all eating RICE CAKES and all the characters were calling them JELLY DONUTS.

I kid you not.

I could not face palm hard enough. I mean what was even the point of that? Why can't children learn about rice cakes now? Huh, 4Kids?

[FanChan]

That's because a lot of anime that is brought to the USA consist of shows with more adult themes that 4Kids edited to be kid friendly, that and they hirer horrible actors and change things around to make them more American.

Case in point, just the other day someone showed this to me actually. A sceen from an older Pokemon episode where they were all eating RICE CAKES and all the characters were calling them JELLY DONUTS.

I kid you not.

I could not face palm hard enough. I mean what was even the point of that? Why can't children learn about rice cakes now? Huh, 4Kids?

I actually linked to that here on the forum. It makes me giggle. It's one of the big jokes among the kids in my manga drawing class.



I was a kid when that episode aired, and I can honestly say I wouldn't have known what a riceball was and didn't know the difference when he said it was a donut. I couldn't even remember it happening when my students brought it up.

[Chibi Rachy]

That's because a lot of anime that is brought to the USA consist of shows with more adult themes that 4Kids edited to be kid friendly, that and they hirer horrible actors and change things around to make them more American.

Case in point, just the other day someone showed this to me actually. A sceen from an older Pokemon episode where they were all eating RICE CAKES and all the characters were calling them JELLY DONUTS.

I kid you not.

I could not face palm hard enough. I mean what was even the point of that? Why can't children learn about rice cakes now? Huh, 4Kids?

I actually linked to that here on the forum. It makes me giggle. It's one of the big jokes among the kids in my manga drawing class.



I was a kid when that episode aired, and I can honestly say I wouldn't have known what a riceball was and didn't know the difference when he said it was a donut. I couldn't even remember it happening when my students brought it up.

I remember watching those early eps in middle school and remember the jelly donut bit. It always confused me. I knew it wasn't a jelly donut, but I didn't know what it really was. I do remember thinking that jelly donuts didn't have that black strip around them. Can't remember when in high school I figured it out because I went from Pokemon to Digimon pretty quickly.

As for the Disney channel bit, why not add Phineas and Ferb and Wizards of Waverly Place? Wizards is gearing up for a 3rd season, which used to be rare among Disney shows. Usually it was two seasons and that was it. I dunno if that's changed in recent years. Phineas and Ferb's a pretty interesting show and it always has those catchy songs to match. It's actually the only show mom will let the daycare watch when no preschool/PBS programs are on because it's a decent cartoon.

And the Spice Girls brings back memories. I adored them Still have my books and movie, as well as all their songs (they're on my mp3 player). They released a Greatest Hits album for their 10th anniversary not long ago. All of them are still singing too, but the most successful one has been Melanie C (or Sporty). She was my favorite of the group.

[KittyBrite]

As for the Disney channel bit, why not add Phineas and Ferb and Wizards of Waverly Place? Wizards is gearing up for a 3rd season, which used to be rare among Disney shows. Usually it was two seasons and that was it. I dunno if that's changed in recent years. Phineas and Ferb's a pretty interesting show and it always has those catchy songs to match. It's actually the only show mom will let the daycare watch when no preschool/PBS programs are on because it's a decent cartoon.

Acctually, Disney Channel shows are guaranteed three years. (Unless the show totally BOMBS.) After that it's up to the actors if they want to keep doing it. Lizzie Mcquire ran for 4 seasons. That's So Raven ran for 5 seasons.

Phineas and Ferb is a good show too. I can't watch if for hours on end like I can Hannah. But it does teach kids to use their imagination. Plus I like Perry.

Wizards of Waverly Place is good too. Alex is very good at creating her own style instead of following trends.

KittyBrite

[Clinozoisite]

My issue with modern cartoons is the fact that there are very few network television series that I would deem "appropriate" to watch. Cable TV has become such a staple in our society that many of the better shows can only be found on cable channels like Nickelodeon or Disney.

As someone who got cable TV for the first time last year, I wonder what parents w/o cable do for their kids? I know that when I was little, network television had all sorts of great cartoons on Saturday morning and weekday afternoons, but what about now?

Cable TV may be "the future", but there are still millions of people who don't have it, due to finances or personal choice. What sorts of good free programming is available? Not a lot, as far as I can tell.

[FanChan]

My issue with modern cartoons is the fact that there are very few network television series that I would deem "appropriate" to watch. Cable TV has become such a staple in our society that many of the better shows can only be found on cable channels like Nickelodeon or Disney.

As someone who got cable TV for the first time last year, I wonder what parents w/o cable do for their kids? I know that when I was little, network television had all sorts of great cartoons on Saturday morning and weekday afternoons, but what about now?

Cable TV may be "the future", but there are still millions of people who don't have it, due to finances or personal choice. What sorts of good free programming is available? Not a lot, as far as I can tell.

I completey agree with that. My personal experience was that I wasn't really allowed to watch tv at all until I was eight or nine. Before that, my parents would buy or rent and record tapes of shows they felt comfortable showing me. Of course, I was also a very active and out-doors sort of kid, and watched very little television save for rainy days or when I was sick. We lived on military bases up until I was seven and eight, so I was safe to go outside and run about even when I was only four or five. The only tv shows I can remember watching as a young kid were PBS shows - Wishbone and Ghost Writer the only two I can think of at the moment.



I do think PBS still keeps up some good kids programming, but then I haven't really paid much attention to it lately since I don't want tv during the morning hours anymore.



The point, anyway, is that I think it's a good practice to only let your young kids watch things you've seen or know to be good, and the easiest way to do that - and to cut out the possibility of them seeing commercials not suited to them, which is another big disaster from television - is to rent, buy, or borrow tapes/dvds. Libraries are a perfect source for that, and generally for children's videos it's free.

[WishBear2001]

My issue with modern cartoons is the fact that there are very few network television series that I would deem "appropriate" to watch. Cable TV has become such a staple in our society that many of the better shows can only be found on cable channels like Nickelodeon or Disney.

As someone who got cable TV for the first time last year, I wonder what parents w/o cable do for their kids? I know that when I was little, network television had all sorts of great cartoons on Saturday morning and weekday afternoons, but what about now?

Cable TV may be "the future", but there are still millions of people who don't have it, due to finances or personal choice. What sorts of good free programming is available? Not a lot, as far as I can tell.

I completey agree with that. My personal experience was that I wasn't really allowed to watch tv at all until I was eight or nine. Before that, my parents would buy or rent and record tapes of shows they felt comfortable showing me. Of course, I was also a very active and out-doors sort of kid, and watched very little television save for rainy days or when I was sick. We lived on military bases up until I was seven and eight, so I was safe to go outside and run about even when I was only four or five. The only tv shows I can remember watching as a young kid were PBS shows - Wishbone and Ghost Writer the only two I can think of at the moment.



I do think PBS still keeps up some good kids programming, but then I haven't really paid much attention to it lately since I don't want tv during the morning hours anymore.



The point, anyway, is that I think it's a good practice to only let your young kids watch things you've seen or know to be good, and the easiest way to do that - and to cut out the possibility of them seeing commercials not suited to them, which is another big disaster from television - is to rent, buy, or borrow tapes/dvds. Libraries are a perfect source for that, and generally for children's videos it's free.

I love going to the library for movies I saw on youtube to show the kids in mom's babysitting group.