In tune with toons

Called ‘the happiest place on earth’, Disneyland is a fantasy world where one can meet popular cartoon characters, experience fantastic rides and walk through enchanting forests and magnificent castles. And now that there are talks of Bengaluru having a Disneyland, people are excited.  
 
While many people are delighted at the idea of an international attraction coming to the city, others took a short trip down memory lane to a time when Mickey and his gang ruled the roost in the toon world and cartoons were just...well, cartoons. Says Shruti Bokariya, a professional, “I am a 90s kid. I loved the cartoons shown back then and I guess I will always continue to adore them. I feel it was the golden era of cartoons. Of course, it wasn’t HD and all but still, compared to the stuff being shown in the name of children’s entertainment today, I will take Mickey and Donald anyday. Maybe it is because today’s cartoons are created for young ones who have different sensibilities and tastes than my generation.”

Shruti’s sentiments have been echoed by many others who feel that programmes being televised for children are hardly suitable for them. In many of them, there is too much of violence or too much of gore but too little laughter and happiness. “What these lack is simplicity,” says Tania Vaswani, a professional. “Cartoons still continue to be an important part of our social culture and I understand the significance of including contemporary topics to educate children. However, it is safe to say that the cartoons we grew up watching are very different from these ones and that there has been a drastic transition in the quality of cartoons.”

Tania talks about how cartoons like ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ and ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ have been criticised for causing learning problems and promoting junk food addiction among children, as snacking on pizzas and burgers is shown to be the usual occupation of the characters. And others like ‘Pokemon’ and ‘Dragonball Z’ have many scenes involving vengeance and violence. “While one may think that this is a bit too far-fetched (it is a cartoon after all, how much harm can it do?), it is a verified fact that the electric charges emitted by Pikachu in ‘Pokemon’ made the TV screens flash and blur which actually caused epileptic attacks among Japanese children. A far cry from Donald or Goofy’s silly yet risk-free antics,” she explains.

Another cartoon aficionado, Tanya Merchant says, “Like most children of my age, I remember being glued to Cartoon Network in the 90s. This was a daily ritual every morning before school. While I definitely do believe cartooning has evolved greatly over the years, I still feel that the cartoons during the 80s and 90s were in a league of their own.”

She adds, “Jetsons and Captain Planet were cartoons I could watch on repeat. I don’t see that same craze for cartoons in today’s kids. A huge factor is the evolution of technology and the easy availability of many options for today’s generation. It is no secret that they would definitely choose to play a game on Xbox over watching cartoons.”

“It is not as if Disney’s shows were free from problems,” says Shruti. “The fairytales have been derided as sexist and the female characters seem to be too weak-willed. But if there was one good thing about all those cartoons, it was that they allowed children to remain children a little bit longer.”