- Joined
- Feb 15, 2015
Yeah, deep-ender fans of any series are gonna look like aspires when they get on Tumblr and talk about "muh oppression," but parents might want to think about what their kids are watching and how it might be more than a bunch of funny moving pictures that make little Jimmy shut up for a half an hour.
Most cartoons are just that. Some are funny moving pictures that make big Jimmy shut up for half an hour.
Cartoons are for children. Citing a few isolated counterexamples is like urinating in the ocean.
There's some interesting research about why autistic kids like Thomas the Tank Engine. Some of the findings are specific to Thomas, but others seem to have a broader applicability across cartoons as a medium. In particular, I'd suggest that some of the Thomas research findings highlights particular differences between cartoons and live action shows which mean that the former will often be more appealing to children on the autistic spectrum:
Now, I'm not suggesting that:
- The calm and clear narration which exaggerates and 'signposts' changes clearly.
- The easy to follow storylines, where something usually goes wrong but it is resolved by the end of the episode.
- The still background and scenery. (Children with autism can be easily distracted by detail and small changes either in sound or movement.)
- The easily recognisable and bold colours.
- The 'friendly' faces whose expressions are exaggerated and are set for some time and so can be understood.
- The accuracy of the models.
- The predictability of the roles played by different characters.
I'm just observing that a lot of cartoons tend to attract a pretty autistic-seeming fanbase, and that the above research might offer an insight into this phenomenon.
- If you enjoy cartoons, you have autism
- Every cartoon will fit every bullet point above
- You, in particular, dear reader, are childish or autistic
Well, there's a lot of cartoons that are nominally for adults, that air in primetime or Adult Swim, but then again, they're not doing a very good job at convincing people cartoons aren't just for kids, are they?
One thing I find interesting is what cartoons have incredibly spergy fanbases - most successful action cartoons made after 1999, for example, or all these shows with progressive or "deep" themes we have today. Is there something to explain why, for example, Avatar or Teen Titans is known for its spergy fanbase, but Rocko's Modern Life or Space Ghost Coast to Coast is not (as I asked in another thread)?