Why do children like cartoons...?

Not only children. Are you forgetting Family Guy? American Dad? South Park? The Simpsons? Even the Flintstones started out as an evening comedy together with a laugh track.

Any departure from reality is welcoming.

the humor more appeals to them. Fall gags and slapstic. harmless stuff. Kinda dumb but it works.

@mr m hey, if you look hard enough, south park actually has a message. even though you have to look hard and suffer through the other stuff in it.

@Mr_M yeah ok…but you don’t get many 2–8 year old kids watching adult programmes and being interested…

Also, there’s Sesame Street and whatever other non-cartoon shows that kids watch nowadays. (In my day, it was the Electric Company, Captain Kangaroo, Land of the Lost, Mr. Rogers, and the Friendly Giant. And maybe Romper Room for the older folks.)

The better question is why do I like them?

Answer: cause they are awesome. I still like the heroes from my childhood.

Actually Looney Tunes started the whole cartoon thing in this country decades ago and it was never intended to be for children.

Children like cartoons mostly because they can basically “see” their imagination come to life. Impossible things taking place right in front of a child who has impossible ideas in his/her head. In that manner the cartoons somewhat speak to children. They can be identified with.

Oh, and the pretty colors are nice too. As well as the fact that nothing stays in one place for more than a few seconds to keep up with a child’s attention span.

That’s because adult programs contain situations and events that are simply unknown to children. Children for the most part can’t sympathize with the trials and tribulations of love, or the losing of one’s virginity, or malicious crime and punishment (I’m thinking Dexter here), etc. Cartoons cater to things children can understand, or serve to increase a child’s knowledge of certain skills, like adventuring, teamwork, the value of friends, the letters in the alphabet, etc.

@dynamicduo: Guess it’s going to depend on the cartoon itself for that to all be true.

I’ve seen kids watching certain cartoons that they understand about 5% of yet they still have to watch ‘em.

Ex: a 6 y/o watching Family Guy, He has no idea what most of the dialogue’s about but it’s funny to watch a dog and a baby talk; even if he doesn’t know what they’re talking about. It’s all about the visual stimulus.

Not to mention that even a 6 y/o likes a good old fashioned dick & fart joke.

@Sakata – nothing is true all of the time for what anyone says. I don’t feel any need to put such a disclaimer because knowing this should be a part of any rational person’s thinking process.

Very true.

I just wanted a reason to say “dick & fart joke” anyway.

Ill take cartoons over “real life” tv any day

@Sakata…I think Walt Disney might argue your Looney Tunes statement.

seriously, michael eisner just called and he sounds pissed

@laureth…lurve for reminding me of Cha-ka.

Because they’re stupid!

@Blondesjon – I think Sakata was referring to the fact that Loony Tunes started making cartoons funny for an adult sense of humor such that children wouldn’t really get the true nature of the joke.

I used to watch the opening of Bewitched just to see the cartoon, but I wanted to be an animator. I love them!

@ mangeons – Could you elaborate?

when i was 4 or 5, i looked at morning cartoons in black and white. there was no color TV unless you were rich, well off or in your prime years. i remember marveling the day my grandmother got a color TV. she was “it!”

cartoons should be “in color,” and because they are today, it fascinates children. if it’s in pixlar it’s even better! but to answer your question, it has to be engaging, and these days, cartoons are just that: engaging. gone are the days of funny cartoons.

i’ll overhear audio while my kids watch cartoons and i’ll laugh out loud, not even watching. my kids will continue watching never cracking a smile or seldom laugh out loud. they’ll ask, “dad, what’s funny?” i’ll say “guys, that was really funny.” and that’s where cartoons are today: adult overtones with sophisticated production.

cartoons appeal to the ear for adults and engages the eyes for kids.

Many people I know (including myself), had a renewed interest in cartoons when they got their first colored television set. WOW! Did they look neat or what?!!!

TV racist

@Sakata…you beat me to it…lurve

I was never a fan of cartoons when I was young. Well, I watched Spongebob and Angry Beavers, but I also liked discovery and Food network. I am 14 and I watch anything Mtv, Vh1, Tbs, Discovery, TLC, Food Network, HGTV, ETC.

A 14-yo guy who watches the Food Network? Someone’s going to be very lucky someday. :)

Yea… his husband.

Sorry, kid, couldn’t pass it up.

Oh HAHA
LAUGH OUT LOUD
ROLL ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING
Had to say it… couldn’t pass it up
You have no life.
Go watch ”Looney Toons” the start of Cartoons and do something productive with your life…the best thing you CAN do
mods he started it

@90s_kid – your 14 and your using the phrase “when I was young” already? WOW do I feel old. hehe.

Probably for the same reason that most adults get way more boring as they get older.

I’m a month shy of 25 and I still looooooooove cartoons. That said, Jeopardy has been my favorite show for as long as I can remember, and I started watching the news because I wanted to when I was about three. One of my worst childhood fears was chemical/biological warfare because of the Halabja poison gas attacks, a couple of weeks after my fourth birthday.

wow i didn’t know a cartoon debate could insight such passion!

your comments have certainly inspired me to watch more cartoons anyway… i generally love cartoon films these days – it seems that animators and production teams put a hell of a lot of work into making feature length cartoons appealing for adults and children alike, and they turn out to be genius..some of the time anyway avoiding generalisation

Because it is artifical?It is unreal fantasie..

Kids especially like cartoons that appeal to the senses, i.e., music, bright colors, animation, comedy and simple story lines that they don’t have to think about. NOT TO MENTION THE TOY COMMERCIALS! Take anime. It doesn’t have “child appeal” because, although a cartoon, tend not to have those elements.

@Bri_L
You are the umpteenth person who has said that. most popularly, Judochop

It all depends on the intended audience.
To say that cartoons are meant for children and adult vice versa is stupid

@90s_kid – yes but I am 24 days away from turning 40. I am about to be confronted with a milestone so to hear a youthful lad use the phrase really hit home at the time I read your answer.

I meant no harm by it. I hope I didn’t offend or imply your opinion was any less valid. That was not my intent.

@Bri_L
nono….it’s typical.
I gave you 4500 lurve.

@90s_kid heheh, that is very generous of you. Thank you mate.

because in cartoons, there’s no limit to your imagination. And the humor is just right… coz usually adult programs contains adult stuff…ahahah

I should be a saint ;D

I think pathfinder is actually on the right track here. Along with Mical. In cartoons, anything can happen. Magic wands, shape-shifting, flying, living under the sea, drawing a doorway into a parallel universe with a piece of chalk. All these things to stimulate a child’s imagination, all the things they’re interested in. You can’t really do any of these things with “real life” TV unless you’re willing to pay a bazillion dollars, and why would you bother for just a TV show anyway, cartoons are the way to go. So thats why kids like cartoons, because they can have all the things that appeal to them in it without the constraints of real actors and costly special affects.

I think it has a lot to do with the bright colors as much as anything else. My whole family (except me) seems to be mesmerized by cartoons. I think they are boring.