There must be some influence by cartoons and animation used on children. Although in evaluating that it’s necessary to be very careful to not overstate or give too much influence to these shows on the development of children’s ideas. I believe there are two different things needed to be considered in these. First, a child’s ability to pick up overt hints of racism, sexism, etc., are nowhere near the same as an adults. This is important and must be considered, when I was a child I certainly did not understand all jokes or imagery in cartoons I watched. Secondly, many animations or cartoons that do depict violence, language, or other things not suitable for children are usually directed towards adults. While 5-10 year olds probably don’t need to be watching Family Guy, or the Simpsons, it would be a great stretch to suggest these shows are to blame for a child’s actions when he becomes and adult or adolescent. This is an easy issue to handle on an individual basis though. If and when someone has children they individually can dictate what is acceptable for their child to watch. There is no value in a universal guide line in this instance, just something that has to be handled by parents themselves.

Animated Films and Children

I think that cartoons may have a slight affect on children.  There are so many cartoons and animations out there that are aimed at children, and not just the popular things.  Each one of them has their own impressions that they are trying to make on children.  "Little Bill", "Veggie Tales" the Disney Movies, "The Simpsons", "Ren and Stimpy", "Dora the Explorer", "SpongeBob" and many other programs.  If "Ren and Stimpy" affects children I would be very worried about myself because that show is not truly meant for children.  And if it was meant for children, times have changed to say that it is no longer meant for children.  In twenty years who is to say that it won't be a show meant for children again.  We are growing up in a generation of either helicopter parents, or the best friend parent and I think that controlling everything a child watches, or every video game that they play is a bad Idea and that letting them do whatever they want is a bad idea.  I think every once in a while parents should sit down with their children after watching a program and see what they think about it.  But these days parents don't do that sort of thing.  Children also need to be exposed to other ways of thinking, and perhaps these cartoons listed above, and the ones Lehman talks about, play a role in that.  Most everybody said in their blogs that they did not see the racist jokes, or see the adult humor until they went back and watched the films as adults; and that is from their favorite cartoons that they seemed to know by heart.  For the most part I think children have the ability to look past such stereotypes because to them they are just watching the film or show for the plot or for the music.  I think children look up to their parents and siblings and peers more than they look up to any film, animated or not.  Not to mention almost everything is a stereotype when in a cartoon; whether it be a president, or a "bad" kid, or a "good" kid, or "dumb" kid, the "cheap" one, the "stubborn" one... or what have you.  It is the dichotomy between stereotypes that people find amusing.
 no wonder Obama won ;)

Animated Movies and Young Children

I think that animated movies and shows do influence young children to a certain point but are not necessarily the major contribution to what shapes a young child. I grew up watching cartoons like Looney Toon's and Tom and Jerry every night with my family. I remember all of us sitting together in the living room after dinner laughing at all the simple humor. I never once thought that those shows were anything but all good and fun. Perhaps I was subconsciously influenced by certain characters or actions but I believe that most of the influences came from what my parents or older brother had to say about the cartoons. If  my parents would have pointed out the fact that many of my childhood shows were racist, maybe I would have began to see the racism. I believe I was unaware of the harsh reality of the jokes because I didn't know that racism even existed.

As a child I could not get enough of the Disney Princess movies either. I think those movies had the most influence on me because I felt like I related to the Princesses. Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin all convinced me that there was a chance that I would marry a Prince one day and we would live happily ever after. These movies influenced me as a child without even realizing it and they are definitely still influencing children today.

Impressions on Children

I think that children are very influenced by what they view and hear in certain cartoon programs and movies.  I think that nowadays a lot of the cartoon programs subtly insert racist or homosexual content into their television programs.  Many children animated movies today have sexual innuendos that many children may not understand but are subconsciously ingested into their minds.

Another argument is about violent content on cartoon programs, because children can learn and inherit these tendencies at such a young age.  Many programs on networks such as Disney Channel and Cartoon Network portray violent and prejudice content in their television shows.

I do think that a lot of the content is taken in on a subconscious level, because I only really understand the violent or racist content nowadays when I process the television programs with a full scope of understanding.

Animation's Influence on Kids

I definitely believe that animated films and shows have an effect on kids and young adults, but not as much as people like to believe. When I was a kid, I watched shows like Tom & Jerry, and Looney Tunes. It never occurred to me that these shows were racist because back then I, and many other kids I presume, couldn’t wrap my brain the concept of racial or gender stereotypes. I watched those shows solely because I thought they were hilarious.

But, as I watch some of these shows now, I definitely understand some of the racial jokes and stereotypes that are associated with different characters. We didn’t discuss this in class but I remembered a show on the Disney Channel that was very much racist, The Proud Family. I never realized how racist this show was until I watched an episode online recently and every other joke was a racial stereotype. I don’t know if anyone is familiar with this show but when I was younger, I thought it was so funny because of the funny facial expressions the characters made, the way they talked, and the way they portrayed certain characters. Having watched it now, many many years later, I actually feel bad for laughing at the jokes that were on this show. Oops.

Influence of Animation

I believe that animated films or TV shows most definitely have the power to shape the impressions of young people, but only to a certain extent.  Children are a lot smarter than people give them credit for, but to assume that kids understand the deeper meanings that a lot of these cartoons present is absurd to me.  We discussed in class how most of the shows we grew up watching as kids such as Tom and Jerry and The Looney Tunes were first produced during a time of racial segregation.  The cartoons were targeted towards adults and had several racial stereotypes mixed into the storyline as a way to entertain a mature audience that understood the deeper meaning of the jokes.

On the contrary, kids who see these cartoons are entertained by the more obvious sequences of humor.  For example, how Tom from Tom and Jerry is always getting hurt in his attempt to catch Jerry, or in The Looney Tunes, how roadrunner is always finding ways to allude Wile E's crazy contraptions. These scenes can certainly have an affect on young children because of the "monkey see, monkey do" affect.  If a kid sees violence presented in a humorous way on television, it may lead them to believe that violence is a humorous thing in real life too.  However, as far as influencing kids impressions of certain issues such as race or gender roles, I still believe that the messages, that were originally intended for adults, are too complex to shape the minds of young children.

Cartoons' Effects on Young People

It's clear that cartoons, Disney films, and other animated films play some role in shaping attitudes of the children they're directed at because of the huge controversies many of these cartoons and films  raise. For example, after Frozen came out, I read countless articles about how it was such a progressive film, challenging the notions of women's roles and relationships held by older "princess" narratives. If these films didn't influence the attitudes and mindsets of young people, so many bloggers and writers would not be compelled to point out the evolving representations of various gender, sexuality, race, etc. groups. In some ways, however, the effects these films have on children might only come to fruition when we call attention to them. Lehman spends a great deal of time talking about Tom and Jerry and the Mammy figure who appears frequently in the cartoon, but as a child who watched Tom and Jerry quite a bit, I never felt like this negative representation shaped my impression of black women simply because I was too ignorant to even understand that the cartoon was exploiting black female stereotypes in its characterizations of the maid character. Had I been aware that this was the animators' intention, I may have been more prone to adopt the mindset of believing those stereotypes to be true. Overall, I think the degree to which children are shaped by cartoons depends, to some extent, on how much they know about the issues and stereotypes present in the cartoons, but more often than not, I think young kids are going to be more concerned with whether the mouse escapes the cat's schemes or whether the evil villain is defeated and the kingdom saved.

I wish I could have found the video clip, but here's an image from Disney's Frozen that I think demonstrates changing attitudes towards under-represented or stereotyped groups in children's films. I think it also demonstrates that filmmakers are recognizing how much power they have in shaping children's attitudes. Oaken is the male shopowner in Frozen and this is his family.