I saw the Willoughbys with my nephews this morning. They're 6 and 8 years old and the cartoon was about a sad family where the kids were maltreated by their parents and they had to grow up by themselves. It was a really sad story but I was glad they enjoyed it.
After seeing it, I started thinking about the cartoons I saw as a kid and how the idea of death wasn't so common then as they make it common for kids now. I've noticed this on many occasions with their cartoons TV series like Teen Titans and a couple of others.
It got me wondering how they make death seem not just normal but expected. However, in this cartoon, they made it a punishment. It was rare when I was a kid to see cartoons where death was seen as punishment for bad conduct. And in the video, you'd understand that my 6-year-old nephew saw it as a punishment but didn't know how best to explain it.
Kid shows have evolved a lot over the years. I'm not ignorant to these facts and I always tend to wonder how they process them in their heads while they watch them. Do they just focus on the comedy and ignore the seriousness? Or have these shows always held hard content that I always ignored as a child?
I can't entirely know this coz, you'd see from the interview that I could barely get anything out of my nephew. He was more interested in the flying balloon with a car. Maybe next time I'll ask better questions.
Thanks for reading and watching
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