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Friday, October 09, 2009

Signs of the Times - Cartoons & Children's programming

As a result of working from home and entertaining my 2-year old daughter, I have come to watch a lot of children's Television and I have found most of it quite interesting and often a diatribe of the times and what is going on in society.


A few months ago my daughter was really into Sesame Street. My mother started her off on Sesame Street at the ripe age of 18 months so my daughter was quite familiar with characters like Zoe, Elmo, Rosita, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, and Big Bird. They have added characters to that show since my days of watching it. Zoe, the orange monster turned ballerina is new and so is Rosita, the blue furry, Hispanic monster. As times evolve, so has Sesame Street. Themes have changed too. An adult can watch Sesame Street and find just as much humor and satire a child does - of course, both will get different messages. They do spoofs on "deal or no deal", "CSI" and other popular shows and of course, there are the subtle political messages that only adults would get and appreciate.

Yesterday though, I watched Dora - lately, my daughter dislikes Sesame Street and is into DORA and DIEGO (Dora's cousin - I had no idea til I watched). Anyway, Dora is a little Hispanic girl who goes on adventures presumably at the tender age of 5, through spooky forests and the hills of her village with her pet monkey, Boots, and her love able forest friends. This is where it gets interesting. I have never been an advocate of an official second language in America. I think English should be it but alas, I think it is inevitable that Spanish is unofficially becoming the second language, which is fine. With our neighbors to the South of us and the growing latino population, it is no surprise that I saw an RTD-Denver bus the other day sporting an entire advertisement in Spanish  I could not understand it so I am assuming that I was not the target audience of that ad. 
In any case, with the growing popularity of learning Spanish, it is no surprise that I am learning plenty of it from my daughter's programming. From Sesame Street and Dora, to Diego and the Spanish channels on both TV and radio, I am actually picking up Spanish even though I took French in high school. Anyway, the point I need to make is that children's programming should show the adaptability to both cultures and languages. I think the character on Dora that was the funniest and reflected the sign of the times was the squirrel named Tiko. This squirrel is a the only character on Dora that speaks only Spanish.  So, basically, Dora and Boots, through their responses to Tiko, kinda let you know what Tiko is saying without a direct translation. It was interesting for me to watch this and watch my daughter' reaction too. She has a short attention span so she just tuned out when she could not understand Tiko, the rapido Espanol-speaking squirrel. It was obvious that they were not teaching Spanish like other shows may but I got the distinct feeling that the creators were making a point through the use of Tiko, the squirrel. It is not a message that kids would get but I sure got it. Maybe my daughter can teach me Spanish some day soon because I think very soon, English will be the second language which is fine - I just hope I can learn a new language and keep up with the times.

Another interesting show is Spongebob Square Pants. I always wondered what the Focus on the Family controversy was with this show until I watched it. I guess I can see concerned right-wing Christians taking to the streets of Colorado Springs over the one episode where Spongebob takes in a little oyster as a child with his friend, Patrick, another male. The 15-minute episode is all about the trials and tribulations of being a parent and what they go through until the oyster regains his strength and flies the coop. Spongebob and his friend, Patrick, distraught over saying goodbye to their baby, cry and wave good bye. Could this be an episode on gay marriage and the ability of gay partners to adopt and raise kids? hmmm... maybe. That is how I saw it. My 2-year old, of course, did not see it that way. As I watch this programming with my daughter and try to find some entertainment with it, I have noticed a subtle trend in children's programming to make a point - whether political, social, or otherwise and believe it or not, it keeps me wanting more and helps me kinda stay in touch with the times so, stay tuned for more reports soon!