Children's cartoons

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I thought people would give their approval and disapproval. I suppose I am “liberal” with what we let our kids watch compared to other parents here. I know some don’t let the TV be on at all. Our sons don’t watch too much but here is what they watch.
  1. SpongeBob.
Pretty good. Some underwear humor in there but it isn’t to excess. I actually get a great kick out of the humor.
  1. Pokemon.
We very much approve of these. It basically is little boys battling with pocket-monsters and at the end, good sportsmanship rules. Noboby is killed. The pokemon return to their balls after all is said and done.
  1. Dexter’s Laboratory
That kid was me when I was little.

Some others very infrequently ( Jimmy Neutron, Fairly Oddparents).

Not allowed to watch:
  1. Powerpuff Girls.
Very inappropropriate imagery and suggestion of homosexuality, drug abuse, and I saw one episode where a guy was in drag, for what reason I don’t know.
  1. Ed, Ed, and Eddy.
Just too borish. It’s the Simpson’s boorish humor overdone and generally not funny.

Add your own.
 
Teletubbies…too effeminate and non gender weirdness

I’d rather a child watch Wile E Cyote try to kill Roadrunner with “Acme holes”
 
Oh, yeah, Teletubbies. Our first one watched it a little. I don’t know - that face in the sun freaked me out more than Dipsy with his purse. He’d really only watch the scenes with the other kids.

I don’t know - I’ll give it one thumbs up, one thumbs down. I won’t recommend it but I won’t dis it either. It is the only TV show aimed at very, very young viewers but I agree, it is plain weird.

Yeah, anyone has gotta love Bugs and Elmer Fudd. SpongeBob has really ressurrected marrying adult humor into children humor. You could argue the Simpson’s did, but I think the Simpsons never really was children humor and wouldn’t allow our boys to watch it.
 
Mine aren’t interested in watching the tele. Maybe it’s not interactive enough for them. I don’t know. They do enough music though.
 
I don’t watch many cartoons these days, but one thing I usually try to look for is whether or not the cartoon or show portrays the adults/parents as idiots. You can’t underestimate the subtle influence this has on the way your children regard you. Also, it’s not so much that the show is bad, but the question of what watching a mindless show might be keeping them from doing that would be more beneficial. You might be surprised how enterprising your kids can get when they are bored. Whenever we see some fantastic artwork from a bygone era, I always remind my family that people really honed their skills when they didn’t have TV to watch. Think about it.
 
Hmm, most of the cartoons listed so far on my kids’ verboten list. Besides the inanity and profanity restrictions, I also extremely dislike ugly cartoons. I would consider almost all of Cartoon Networks’ programming ugly. The people are distorted, strange and semi-human. It is important to me that my children hear and see beautiful art if possible. Recently, we downgraded to “limited cable” to get rid of Nickelodeon too. I got fed up with the commercial messages between the cartoons and also the media tie-ins of shows such as Dora the Explorer, Rugrats (snotty attitudes too), etc. We did like The Wild Thornberrys, but I think we can manage to live without them!

Strangely, in contrast to the other posters, I like the Teletubbies. Really, it is only attractive to 1-3 year olds and while this audience shouldn’t be watching TV much (if at all) an occasional half hour while you get dinner on the table (our Teletubbies airs at 5:30 pm) isn’t brain-damaging.

We still get PBS and most of the shows I approve of, although not all of them in one sitting! Sometimes Arthur irks me when the show focuses on the new age character (tarot cards, crystals and seances–O my!). We usually limit total media (TV, computer) to one hour a day.
 
MY little ones watch Clifford, Dragon Tales, Liberty’s Kids and CyberChase…all on PBS.

If you don’t have cable (as we don’t), then there’s very little to choose from. We don’t watch much tv around here!
 
Now, I’m not a parent (haha, I shouldn’t be one anyway, still in my teens 😃 ) but there is one cartoon network cartoon that I think should be added to a restricted list. Courage the Cowardly Dog is what I consider to be quite possibly the darkest program on CN. Everything about it is so hideous and deformed, and it’s all about a purple dog who gets terrified out of his mind by evil monsters…which usually end up turning “good.”

I also wouldn’t recommend watching anything that comes on cartoon network late at night either, since it mostly has all the mindless violent anime cartoons…a couple of which I admittedly liked. I used to watch Inuyasha and Cowboy Bebop, if any of you have ever heard of them, and I admit they are pretty violent and don’t usually send good messages…
 
Max said:
Now, I’m not a parent (haha, I shouldn’t be one anyway, still in my teens 😃 ) but there is one cartoon network cartoon that I think should be added to a restricted list. Courage the Cowardly Dog is what I consider to be quite possibly the darkest program on CN. Everything about it is so hideous and deformed, and it’s all about a purple dog who gets terrified out of his mind by evil monsters…which usually end up turning “good.”

I also wouldn’t recommend watching anything that comes on cartoon network late at night either, since it mostly has all the mindless violent anime cartoons…a couple of which I admittedly liked. I used to watch Inuyasha and Cowboy Bebop, if any of you have ever heard of them, and I admit they are pretty violent and don’t usually send good messages…
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I agree Max. I recently wrote a letter to our cable company and to CN about the trash they show our children. We have blocked CN, but I think of my sons friends who have parents who have no clue about what they are watching. My son has had two different friends, age 12 yrs., to spend the night in the past month and neither of the parents called to make sure they were at our house.:eek: You know if they let them stay the night without checking to make sure they are where they say they are they probably don’t know what they are watching on TV. And yes, they both have TV’s in their rooms.
What made me write to CN was a show I found my son watching at 6pm on Saturday. It’s called “Hellboy”. I was shocked to hear cursing and to see the violence (lots of blood). I am aware of adult swim that comes on at 9pm, so we had a block on the TV for that time, but I had no idea they were showing things like Hellboy.
It makes me so angry that they feel a need to show smut like that on a childrens network.
Another show that blew my mind was “Drake and Josh”, which I believe comes on Nick. Drake is on a plane and two sexy, older blondes sit on either side of him and he begins to kiss (tongue) them both!! This show is over a year old, so Drake was suppose to be only 15 years old at the time. It was a very unrealistic scene and very distrubing.
We are moving this week-end and our television viewing is going to change!
Everyone! Please spread the word to your family and friends about how bad this network really is.
 
We don’t have kids but DH and I love Spongebob. Watch it every morning when we are getting ready. Personally though, when we do have kids, I would like to be able to find the older Disney cartoons with Mickey, Donald, etc. or the older Looney Toones shows. I was also a big fan of Fraggle Rock, David the Gnome, and the Winnie the Pooh that had people dressed in the costumes on it. I would love to be able to show all of those to my kids.

Does anyone know if any of these are available on DVD. I would love to get them.

I agree that many Cartoons of today aren’t very geared towards kids. I can’t stand the Cartoon Network. I mean do they really think kids won’t catch what’s on the “adult swim” times? Anyway, most cartoons I’ve seen on Nickelodeon are usually ok, IMHO.
 
My 3 year old son watches:

Little Einsteins (definitely his favorite; seems great, educational and clean)

Handy Manny (seems okay so far, this one is new for him)

Veggie Tales (just got him his first DVD of this – of course this one is highly approved)

Mickey’s Funhouse (or something like that - seems okay)

Any feedback on these is appreciated.
 
I really hate all the commercials on Nick so I tape my kids shows with my DVR. They can then watch them commercial free. We also have Noggin at our house. Noggin in partnered with PBS and Nick. No commercials on this channel. So we choose this channel alot!
 
My kids (6 & 3) watch Playhouse Disney in the mornings, and Spongebob at night…and a few programs on Noggin as well. (My 3yo son LOVES “The Upside Down Show”)…

Other than that they watch DVD’s. The 3yo loves old Mickey Mouse toons…especially Donald & Huey, Louie & Dewey.
 
We get a channel called “Boomerang” that’s an affiliate of Cartoon Network. They show all the oldies, like Scooby Doo, Johnny Quest, Looney Tunes, Smurfs, etc that my siblings and I watched growing up. They also show some newer, old shows, like reruns of Pokemon and Dexter’s Labratory (which I don’t let them watch, BTW.)

My kids also watch:

Jimmy Neutron
Fairly Odd Parents
Arthur
Cyberchase
Maya and Miguel
Sponge Bob

And the three year old loves:

Barney
Dora the Explorer
Go Diego
Doodlebops (not a cartoon, actually)
 
What does everyone think of the representation of the Catholic Church in “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody”?

Catholig
 
If I’d allow my daughter, she’d watch Barbie movies, Disney Princess movies, and The Wizard of Oz all day long. She also likes Dora videos as well as My Little Pony and Strawbery Shortcake.

As for ones on tv, they may be on, but she really doesn’t watch.
 
I can’t stand Sponge bob. If my kids ever watch that show, it will be when I’m not around. Its pointless and tasteless. What turned me off most was their cursing episode, where he and Patrick were obviously saying a curse word the whole time and laughing about it. The show pretty much told all watching that cursing is fun and not wrong.

I want to get a hold of the shows I watched as a kid. Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, Pete and Pete, Hey Dude, Doug, maybe Rugrats. Those weren’t too bad.
 
What a great idea for a thread, I’ve often wondered what other people think of some kids’ shows. I know I’m more strict than lots of people I know. My kids have grown out of the shows for younger kids, & I miss those days. Sometimes it seems impossible to find anything decent on!

Off the top of my head, my kids watch Little House, CyberChase & ZOOM. Occassionally SpongeBob or Jimmy Neutron. They love Phil of the Future & Suite Life of Zack & Cody.

I agree with Catholig about the Suite Life. Two girls go to a Catholic School & I’ve seen them portray a nun in a silly way. I didn’t get too upset because I thought it was silly, juvenile stuff for the sake of humor, but I did discuss it with my kids. I bring up a lot of things as “teaching points” & ask them what they think. My daughter came up with the idea to write the show. She did it entirely on her own, & told them in 3rd grade logic that she didn’t like it when they make nuns seem stupid when they are not. She closed by saying she hopes they care. So far, no response, but that was fairly recently that she wrote them.

The other thing I don’t like about Suite Life is there’s a lot of focus on being rich or famous, & dating. I just point out some of these things to my kids, though. I get very annoyed that Disney has so many music videos lately. I don’t see the need for too many of them for kids, & they seem to get less & less innocent…

I don’t let them watch Josh & Drake, Hannah Montana & a few other shows that I tell them are too “teen-agery”. I don’t allow That’s So Raven because she has psychic visions, which is too wierd. It seems like way too much TV when I look at it, but they don’t see them all the time…
 
Whatever happened to:
Roadrunner & Wile E. Coyote
Foghorn Leghorn
Bugs
Daffy
Woody Woodpecker…

All of these supposed “Violent” cartoons?

At least they aren’t depictions of anatomically impossible people, that have weapons of incredible power, blowing up everything in their path…
 
Catholig said:
What does everyone think of the representation of the Catholic Church in “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody”?
Click to expand...
That show is so unfunny, I’ve never watched long enough to find out.

Thank God for my Looney Tunes and Animaniacs DVDs. I might have to get the Wacky Races ones at some point; I grew up with that show.
 
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