Cartoons Aren't Just for Kids

In today's pop culture, it would be almost impossible not to mention the dethroning of The Simpsons. Fox's favorite animated family has been replaced by the sensation that is Family Guy - that's how much of an impact such shows can have on an era. Cartoons, of course, are a medium of comedy. However, the recent abundance of genre crossing animation has made it difficult to place cartoons in a different category: some of them feature intense action, others engrossing love stories. The continuation of the surge in popularity Japanese animation has been receiving only helps bring more programs overseas. Now more than ever, the American populace are embracing anime, although it's interesting to note that some Japanese cartoons found their way to the U.S. as early as the 1960s. (Gigantooor!) Bookstores are even setting aside specific shelves for the Japanese graphic novels or manga.

Most of the MTV generation should remember that there were a few cartoons that aired on the doomed channel. Of course, the groundbreaking humor of Beavis and Butthead (oh par with Frasier), however, there also was the more notable Aeon Flux. Not only was this one of the first tastes of widely broadcast animation noir, it seemingly ushered in some adult themes with a media familiar to every child - animation. Not to say that Tom & Jerry is a bad show, it's just that with every new generation of kids, more issues that are "important" to said generation are being exposed through cartoons. Take the "Bratz" franchise and the commercial and the soon-to-be-released movie. What's more pressing nowadays for a 12 year old than her lip gloss and mobile phone? Every age group has their pivotal, well-known characters. For some, it may be Bugs Bunny, or Mickey Mouse, others Johnny Quest and Hadji, or now, Ash and Misty.

The late-night block on Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, has been instrumental in the proliferation of cartoons. Their choice of re-airing some of the off-the-air orr shows canceled on other networks is admirable. Home Movies and Futurama prove that hidden beneath the humor of every day situations (although one of them takes place 1000 years in the future) can be overwhelmingly human. An unrequited love or "creative differences" can be sources for pain or dissatisfaction, but sometimes, it really does take a cartoon to show us how unnervingly funny it can be.

The beautiful part about animation is that there is nothing too strange to be considered. Men like Walt Disney, Hayao Miyazaki, Chuck Jones, and Tex Avery could see it. Walking, talking animals only existed in fables before animators could use their imagination to draw and impress such characters into the modern era. Cartoons have proven their versatility over and over again in this respect. Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd are important characters as are Pazu and Sheeta - just in different areas in the world and for different reasons. These two sets of characters represent hilarity and redemption respectively, but all of them do it with human-like precision. Perhaps that is what draws us to cartoons - the unreasonable situations dealt with in a distinctly human manner. All of the prospective possibilities that cartoons possess will allow them to exist years and years into the future.

Regardless of what country a cartoon originated from, the very fact it aired proved that someone saw something in the program, just like any other sitcom or television show. The truth is, no matter how outlandish a cartoon is (IE giant robots, flying dragons, a post-apocalyptic world, etc., etc.) as long as the human mind can connect with something, it will have a fan, because no matter what you or anyone else says, we all want to see ourselves on television. Even if it's represented by a princess, hatted-monkey-that-hides-in-the-back-of-a-race-car, God-fearing and moustached neighbor, or just a coyote trying to get some poultry for dinner.