Messages in cartoons

[Turquesa]

I got to thinking the other day about Thomas the Tank Engine while DD was watching it. It has the utilitarian message about being a "useful engine" that makes me uncomfortable for some reason, and there was one song about how if the engines have a choice between work and play, they'll choose to work. I have no problem with teaching children to value hard work. But this cartoon is such a product of the Industrial Revolution that I keep praying for those poor engines to rise up and form a union against Sir Topham Hatt.

One of my friends hates The Land Before Time because the kid dinosaurs are constantly disobeying the adult dinosaurs and getting rewarded every time.

The whole Disney Princess scene drives my inner (and outer) feminist crazy.

Are there any cartoons whose messages bother you? If so, do you ban them from your house or use them as a means to discuss important issues with your LOs?

Also, are there any with messages that you consider positive?

Obviously, this is not a thread for the TV-free people!

[Norasmomma]

We have princess stuff in our house and my DD likes it, BUT she got a card for Valentines day that is Disney Princess and the song makes me want to puke. "Every girl can be a princess, any dream can be, close your eyes and see, a magic wand and soon you've gone from just YOU to royalty" I hate it sooooo much, like you're not good enough unless you are royal. I then felt bad because DD picked up on my hatred of it and said it was a bad card, which isn't much better of a message

I like Wonderpets and their teamwork based attitude, the show sometimes drives me nuts, but it can sure come in handy getting DD to help pick up stuff, because we are a team

I also like Backyardigans because they are imaginative role playing in their episodes.

Oh I have one more, Little Bear, we have a DVD of that where Little Bear gets various sicknesses, one from eating too many sweets. At our ILs they have the worst cake, candy fest you've ever seen. We were so sick of trying to corral DD into eating healthy we let her go free-range hog wild. She then got sick and threw up, then we said remember Little Bear's sweet tooth? It gave her something to relate to her sickness from sweets.

[Karamom]

I have a love-hate relationship with Sid the Science Kid. I hate how every show he has a question he asks his parents and his parents always say something like "Well, that's a great question for you to investigate at school." Message being: Your parents are too busy to answer your questions. The real learning happens at school. Then he gets to school and his teacher is more than willing to spend each day focused on exactly what Sid wants to know that day. (Doesn't she have a lesson plan? It's completely unrealistic. That kind of learn what you want each day really only happens at home!) Then of course there is the vaccine episode It all just seems like a load of propaganda. School is awesome! Vaccines are awesome!

But...Ds has learned a lot from that show and it has started some great conversations on sciency topics.

[WindyCityMom]

I'm with Karamom on sid the science kid!



I really love Little Bear, when DD does watch TV it's LB.

[Red Pajama]

I like Charlie and Lola. We've found the collections at the library, not sure if they're on TV anywhere.
I like them because Charlie is a doting older brother who watches out for his little sis. They don't fight. Lola can be a bit of a pest, however.

[physmom]

We're big fans of Kai Lan/Dora/Diego here. We like that DD sees bilingual kids in a very positive light and how proud they are of their culture (she's trilingual and bi-racial). We also love that we even learn things from Diego about animals and how Earth conscious he is (even if it is something as simple as picking up trash). It helps that DD even looks like a curly haired version of Dora.

Dora we've has some problems with because they do seem to focus on sweets too much (one episode they had to bring sweets to Grandma to get her to feel better=emotional eating) and another a mother bug had to bring a massive cookie to feed her babies (umm... no!). Beyond that we do like how Dora even treats the "villain" nicely and how Kai Lan teaches appropriate ways to handle conflicts with friends. Also, it's nice to see extended families there like grandpas/grandmas playing a big role. Dora/Kai Lan both explore/play quite a bit, which is something we also like to encourage. So overall, there's a lot more positives but I still don't like the emotional eating (especially since this is something DH and I struggle with and our extended family is significantly worse about that!!!). The side effects that we've seen is that DD incorporates Dora into a lot of her every day activities. She wants to draw Dora, read about her, do pretend play with her etc.

[ChristyMarie]

I like:

Dragon Tales
Wonder Pets
Backyardigans
Little Bear
Little Bill
Scooby Doo (thanks Grandma for introducing my 2 yr old to this! but it does teach him to think and solve problems and that monsters aren't real)
Tigger & Pooh

Hate:

Cailou --- teaches way too much whiny behavior
Dora/Diego --- too annoying, too fake, too just ugh.
Barney --- way too annoying

[AnalogWife]

We are such Thomas lovers around here, yes there's a fair amount of "workin' for the man" going on, but mostly I think it's about navigating relationships, communication, self-preservation, importance of punctuality, forgiveness, pride in a good day's work, all kinds of good lessons.

Hate, hate, HATE Sid the Science Kid! All that giggling, from the ADULTS, ugh.

Love Leap Frog vids, Letter Factory, Math Circus, Talking Words Factory. I also like SuperWhy, these are the shows that have taught my DS the most "academia."

My DS's fave is probably Curious George. It's so cute, he's got a speech delay so he sort of talks like him, and with his new haircut he sort of looks like CG... Cute cartoon, lots of problem-solving stuff.

[blessedwithboys]

I've been watching Phineas and Ferb with my 8yo for the last few months, and overall it's pretty entertaining (we rock out to the soundtrack in the car, I know all the words! LOL).

But...it really bugs me how they portray Candace as being to neurotic and insecure. Yes, I was just as crazy as a teenager, but why can't they show a positive version on TV, so girls can aspire to be like that? Instead, they show her being obsessive, boy-crazy, and so uncomfortable in her own skin she lives just to attract attention from Jeremy. And then, every now and then, she has a brief moment of enlightenment. Very brief.

And the mother...why the heck isn't she ever with her kids?! Always running off to get her hair done or take a class, or play Mahjong or whatever?

[COgirl19]

Originally Posted by physmom

We're big fans of Kai Lan/Dora/Diego here. We like that DD sees bilingual kids in a very positive light and how proud they are of their culture (she's trilingual and bi-racial). We also love that we even learn things from Diego about animals and how Earth conscious he is (even if it is something as simple as picking up trash). It helps that DD even looks like a curly haired version of Dora.

Dora we've has some problems with because they do seem to focus on sweets too much (one episode they had to bring sweets to Grandma to get her to feel better=emotional eating) and another a mother bug had to bring a massive cookie to feed her babies (umm... no!). Beyond that we do like how Dora even treats the "villain" nicely and how Kai Lan teaches appropriate ways to handle conflicts with friends. Also, it's nice to see extended families there like grandpas/grandmas playing a big role. Dora/Kai Lan both explore/play quite a bit, which is something we also like to encourage. So overall, there's a lot more positives but I still don't like the emotional eating (especially since this is something DH and I struggle with and our extended family is significantly worse about that!!!). The side effects that we've seen is that DD incorporates Dora into a lot of her every day activities. She wants to draw Dora, read about her, do pretend play with her etc.

DD loves these shows but I HATE how fake the environmental "concern" is on them. If the creators were really that concerned about the environment then why do they allow every conceivable cheap plastic toy/processed fluorescent junk food to be marketed with their characters branded on it? We are trying to go TV-free what 2 weeks at GMa's ruined that.

[treeoflife3]

I'm not a big fan of Dora although I'm not sure why.

I think one of my favorite shows for the kiddo is caillou. I don't really find him whiny in a bad way... he seems like a normal kid with normal emotions, but I do love how gentle his parents are and how kind and caring caillou is. I like how he usually problem solves either alone or with an adult to get a happy outcome like when he wanted to be a police officer but his friends wouldn't just immediately start playing... he figured out how to fit into THEIR game instead. I just really like how realistic it is. It also happens to be kiddo's favorite show.

I also really like imagination movers. It has no kids, but it is so much fun! Just a group of super musical and funny guys solving all sorts of silly problems. I also really like that the closest thing to a bad guy is just boring old uncle knitknots who sometimes rains on the parade, but the guys still like him and are kind, and even do things for him that HE would like, like the unparty birthday party they threw for him since he would have hated a 'normal' party. I like that even though knitknocks doesn't fit in and is dull, he is still an accepted member of their life who deserves respect Nina is kind of weird though haha.

Otherwise we just do pbs. I agree about the sid the science kid stuff but some eps are really fun and we like word world a lot. super why is fun too. Dragon tales and arthur are MY favorite kid shows simply because I've been watching them for YEARS before kiddo was even a possibility we also approve of the backyardigans as well and curious george.

I haven't seen little bear since I was little... I need to get my hands on a dvd! Thomas isn't in our house for sure though. It is DULL. I can't stand it. wonder pets is okay too but with all the other shows we like, its hard to fit them all in without sitting at the tv for HOURS haha... plus, she usually just asks for caillou.

[ticklemegreen]

I was at my parents the other day and my nephew was watching an Jetson's epiosde. I vaguely remember watching them when I was a kid, but I didn't remember how sexist it was. I know it's from a different time, but oh man. I really don't think they should put it on t.v. anymore.

The episode involved the wife wanting to get her driver's license b/c she was sick of riding the bus. And EVERY man on the show made sexist comments. Even blantantly saying "Women drivers, ugh." while rolling their eyes. And on top of that they had all of the women driving throughout the shows be BAD, ditzy, distracted drives.

[LaLaLaLa]

We used to occasionally watch Bob the Builder, but it started to drive me crazy. First is the fact that the stories are all centered on some sort of major crisis. Someone really screwed something up, and the episode is all about how to fix the problem. DD is especially sensitive to this sort of thing and finds it hard to watch characters in emotional distress. Me, too!

Second, and the thing I generally get made fun of when I point it out, is that the show is classist. The first name/last name thing started to really bother me. Bob is a first-name character, as is his partner (Wendy?), the guy who owns the lumberyard, that guy's daughter..... but the teacher character is Mrs. something. The professor is Mr. something. It's probably mostly in my mind, but I began to get irritable when everyone always called him Bob and he's respond by calling certain characters Mr. or Mrs.

We dropped Handy Manny and Curious George from our TV rotation for the first reason we dropped Bob--storylines tend to focus on the big character screwup and the resulting emotional distress. DD hated them.

[Caneel]

Originally Posted by Turquesa

I got to thinking the other day about Thomas the Tank Engine while DD was watching it. It has the utilitarian message about being a "useful engine" that makes me uncomfortable for some reason, and there was one song about how if the engines have a choice between work and play, they'll choose to work. I have no problem with teaching children to value hard work. But this cartoon is such a product of the Industrial Revolution that I keep praying for those poor engines to rise up and form a union against Sir Topham Hatt.

Ha! Too funny! DH and I will do our own voice overs in the background when DS is on the floor, playing with his trains and watching Thomas and some of the stuff DH comes up with cracks me up.

Did you ever see the Island of Sodar movie with Alex Baldwin as the conductor? He is such a total kiss @ss to Sir Topham Fatt (as we like to call him.) It is almost too easy to make fun of that movie.

Originally Posted by Norasmomma

I like Wonderpets and their teamwork based attitude, the show sometimes drives me nuts, but it can sure come in handy getting DD to help pick up stuff, because we are a team

The first time DS brought home Wonderpets (DVD) from the library, I was so confused/fasinated that I actually sat down to watch it. DH walked through the door and was like "what the heck is THAT!?!?" The opera singing and weird animation is just different.

[ChristyMarie]

Originally Posted by AnalogWife

My DS's fave is probably Curious George. It's so cute, he's got a speech delay so he sort of talks like him, and with his new haircut he sort of looks like CG... Cute cartoon, lots of problem-solving stuff.

It is cute but we always have to talk about WHY we shouldn't do whatever George just did. The stripping of the wallpaper episode still makes me shudder. It can give little monkeys very bad ideas.

[frugalmama]

We watch:

Curious George {DD loves monkeys and has actually learned a lot from the show}
Vintage Sesame Street
Reading Rainbow
Berenstein Bears
Leap Frog
Miffy - seriously the best show ever and 30 minutes of Sanity and Quiet!
Anne of Green Gables Animated
Clifford
Magic School Bus
Thomas

We don't allow:
Barney - I swear there are subliminal messages in it as DD's behavior acts up if she even sees one episode.
Sid the Science Kid - too much propaganda and pushing school = learning
Dora - just can't stand it
Wordgirl - too much violence and annoying
Bob the Builder - see Barney, same company
Angelina Ballerina - see Barney, Same company. And the new Next Steps version is just wrong and annoying

[Theoretica]

What do you guys think about Kipper?

[MusicianDad]

Well, pretty much anything from the tiny toons WB saturday cartoon pile bugs the crap out of me because... Well I'm just one of those strange individuals who don't think violence is funny.

We actually don't watch many cartoons here, I always feel uncomfortable with the heterocentric nuclear family that gets portrayed. When she was little, DD was uncomfortable with it too. She asked a few times why none of the families in the cartoons (or any other show she watched for that matter) had two dads, or even two moms. It took a while for me to come up with anything other that "I don't know". It's hard to explain to a 4 year old that most people would be up in arms over the idea of gays and lesbians *gasp* having a family!

Actually, I get pretty annoyed by the overall heterocentricism of North American mass media. But that goes a bit beyond the boundaries of this thread.