Cartoons: Land of Imagination
... dab of golden yellow, a speck of sky blue. Within several minutes I have create my ideal woman. Blond hair, blue eyes, wearing a tight fitting black mini-skirt. Perfect in appearance and poise, and nothing but words of encouragement and love linger in her black caption. For a raging hormonal man of eighteen, this scenario is a dream come true. Cartoons, however are not just a group of characters jumping off cliffs, and getting shot out of cannons. On the contrary, cartoons often have incredible meaning. With the recent presidential elections, many cartoons have been invented representing the two current candidates: Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. Political satire, although often humorous, is meant to convey a message to the reader. The cartoonist has cleverly transposed his own thoughts, into that of his characters. Many environmental issues have been tackled as well. "Captain Planet," is an environmental superhero with supernatural powers, the combination of the Planeteer's powers magnified. Each character represents a different force of nature: earth, fire, wind, water, and heart. He also can become any one of these forces. However, if Captain Planet is exposed to pollutants: acid rain, toxic, waste, smog, etc., his powers are temporarily weakened, and he must return to Earth to "recharge". Each episode is designed to confront an environmental problem. The five characters, each equipped with a ring, bane together in times of trouble. By placing their rings next to each other, "Captain Planet" appears. Captain Planet, using the powers of the five individuals, swarms around the earth correcting problems when needed. Although, this is a far fetch from reality, there is truth to it. What this cartoon represents is, aside from the fact that we must keep out environment sound for everything living, is that it is very difficult to solve a problem alone, but with team-work often it is easy. Just as "Captain Planet" represents the evils inflicted by selfish human beings, the Jetsons explore this in a different manner. The Jetsons a futuristic cartoon, represent what life may be like. In the cartoon, families live above the stratosphere of the earth due to enormous pollution created by thousands of years of human habitation. Houses are built on long high rise poles with platforms at the top. The surface of the earth is no longer used for any practical purpose. Shopping centers, restaurants, schools, offices, etc., are left free floating in the sky. "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" starred one of the longest-running cartoon characters in TV cartoon history. What we remember are four teenagers and their trusted dog galloping across the country in their purple and green van solving mysteries of all sort ?and in the process, meeting all kinds of interesting people. The truth, however, is that they were four high-school dropouts, who with their sentient dog ride around the country in their psychedelic love machine, earning their way by selling drugs. Occasionally, they solve a mystery. Shaggy for example, is obviously a marijuana smoker. He constantly has the "munchies." Scooby, on the other hand does not smoke marijuana, but gets his "high" from Scooby-Snacks, which are in fact hash brownies. This is a small glimpse into the counter-culture of the 1960's. Another cartoon that ventures into American lifestyle is the Simpsons. The Simpsons, a modern age family live in Springfield. The Simpsons are an in de...