Sunday, September 14, 2008

Battle of the Cartoon Generations


I was watching Enchanted the other day at my sorority house. For those of you who are not aware, Enchanted is a montage of fairy tale movies about a storybook character, Giselle, who falls into New York City. At one point in the movie Giselle decides to call upon the New York animals to help tidy up. We were all freaked out when rats, mice, pigeons, and flies swarmed the room. However, words could not describe our disgust when cockroaches crawled out through the drains. As multiple people in the room asked "This movie is for children?" I suddenly remembered the generation lesson from last year.

I thought of the generation gaps and differences of how the X and Y generations were raised. So then I began to think that generation X is now in the work force and must be creating these horrific children's tales. Yes, I understand the baby boomers are also in the work force; however, the Lion King played down the disgust and perversion more than fairy tales of today. Perhaps the Lion King did sleep out "sex" in the clouds, but that was always up for debate and children watching the movie were less likely to see it. However, children's movies today such as Shrek and Enchanted are set for a more adult friendly audience, and cockroaches are not easily missed like spelling a word from clouds.

The more I thought of who was to blame, I realized that my sorority sisters are all from Generation Y. We did not grow up with these sort of fairy tales and are shocked when cockroaches crawl out from the drain. On the other hand, my brother from Generation X found this part of the movie to be the best idea and entertaining. I truly hope that in the future we will see more child friendly movies that bring cartoons back to the days of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Perhaps, Generation X can help reduce the vulgarity of cartoons.

Battle of the Cartoon Generations

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