CATDOLL: Parents complain about the three sins of domestic animation: violence, stupidity, and vulgarity

These days, Ms. Zhang, a parent in Zhengzhou, is a little depressed. When her 3.5-year-old son is unhappy, he shouts "I'm going to kill you" or calls people "stinky bears". It turns out that the little guy is obsessed with Boonie Bears and always likes to imitate the actions and words in it. It is this imitation that makes Ms. Zhang very worried. She doesn't know how to choose cartoons for her child.

In fact, this is not the first time that domestic animation has been complained by parents. In the first half of this year, a post by a Zhengzhou mother angrily criticizing domestic animation went viral online. She listed the "three sins" of domestic animation, which resonated with many parents on the Internet. Why can we only produce animation "feasts" that children cannot swallow? A reporter from Dahe Daily conducted an interview.

Complaints: Zhengzhou mother lists the "three sins" of domestic animation

"My son is 5 and a half years old this year. He has liked watching cartoons since he was 2 and a half years old. I have watched some of the cartoons "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf", "Boonie Bears", "Fruity Robo" with him intermittently... However, the more I watch, the angrier and more speechless I become." A mother in Zhengzhou posted a post listing the "three sins" of domestic animation:

Sin 1: Promoting violence

The "wolves" and "bears" have many kinds of "violent" behaviors, such as beating, bumping, colliding, drowning, roasting, burning, smoking, spraying, electrocuting, shooting, hanging with ropes, and crushing with cars...

Sin 2: Proclaiming the “Immortality” of Life

The wolves fell heavily from the sky, screaming "Ah", but they didn't die; the bears were shot by hunting rifles, the bullets whizzed past, but they didn't die; Bald Qiang experienced countless "inhumane" "tortures", but he never "died"...

Sin 3: Promoting “vulgar” social ethics

For example, the "Grey Wolf" was designed to be "henpecked"; the "Fruit Treasures" were beaten to the point of "fruit pulp all over the ground" and blood dripping, and then paired with socialized and vulgar "lines"...

As soon as this post was released, it attracted a lot of resonance, and many people complained about the language and violence in the cartoon, worrying that these disturbing factors would have a negative impact on children.

During the interview, the reporter found that parents' criticism of domestic animations mainly focused on "violence and vulgar language." How violent and vulgar are these animations?

Someone once counted that in "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf", Big Big Wolf was hit by a frying pan 9,544 times and was caught 1,380 times, while Pleasant Goat was boiled 839 times and was electrocuted 1,755 times.

"Boonie Bears" used swear words 21 times in ten minutes, including "devil", "stinky bear", "go to hell", "idiot" and other obscene words.

Survey: 80% of children will imitate animation language or behavior

"Parents are requested to be careful in choosing cartoons when letting their children watch them, and avoid those with violent acts." Recently, Teacher Li, the head teacher of a small class in a kindergarten in Jinshui District, Zhengzhou City, "reminded" parents in this way at a parent-teacher meeting.

Teacher Li recently discovered that the children in the class always imitated the behaviors in cartoons. For example, they pretended to hold an electric saw and shouted to other children: "I will not forgive you", and pretended to raise a sword and say "I will kill you".

It is understood that there are 32 children in Teacher Li's class. She has observed that at least 70% to 80% of the children will imitate the language and behavior in the animation. Dahe Daily reporters randomly surveyed 20 parents on the street, of which 16 said that their children often imitate the language and behavior in the animation, and 4 said that they "occasionally imitate".

"Children are born masters of imitation. They will watch and imitate whatever cartoon is popular." In an interview, a parent, Mr. Zhu, said that his 4-year-old daughter likes to watch "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" the most. One day, his daughter suddenly asked him, "Dad, is it true that people will never die no matter how hard they are beaten?" He suddenly realized the seriousness of the problem, "What if she imitates the plot in the show and something bad happens?" Mr. Zhu's concerns are not without basis. In 2013, three children in Donghai County imitated "Big Big Wolf" to roast lamb, and two of them were burned.

Due to these concerns, parent Ms. Yin directly "passed" domestic animations and usually chose foreign cartoons for her 3-year-old daughter, such as "Dora the Explorer", "Peppa Pig", "Bob the Builder", etc.

Causes: Excessive pursuit of profit leads to the vulgarization of animation

"It's not that children like to watch these cartoons, but do they have other cartoons to choose from?" Upon hearing this question, Mr. Liu, the head of an animation company, immediately asked back.

Born in the 1970s, he recalled his childhood life: "The cartoons at that time were all about the five virtues and four beauties, and they were not for selling products. All the artists involved in the production were domestic artists."

"In fact, the content of the cartoon itself is not their focus. Now that we have a market economy, they pursue economic benefits rather than social benefits." He revealed that most domestic cartoons are "born to sell products" and many film investors are real estate companies, toy companies, etc. In Mr. Liu's eyes, European, American and Japanese animations pursue a "win-win" social and economic benefits.

"I don't think it's because it can't be done well. The key is whether you want to do it," said Mr. Liu.

Voice: Domestic animation urgently needs to be “graded”

Huang Tao, the producer of "Two Rabbits' Big Dreams" and winner of the Top Ten Chinese Animation Characters, is also a father. He hopes that cartoons can bring positive values ​​to children. Children like it and parents are assured, which is the standard of excellent children's cartoons.

"But now, many channels are broadcasting cartoons such as Boonie Bears and Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf at the same time, and children have no choice but to watch these. Children have no ability to distinguish, they just think it's very lively and don't know what is good and what is bad."

"Some animations want to win with their content, but because there is no rating system for domestic animations, it is difficult to continue." Mr. Liu gave the example of an animation company. The box office of an animation they produced did not increase after the third film and it was difficult to continue.

"The animation they made is youthful and positive, targeting young people in their teens and twenties. Only people with more mature minds can understand it." When asked about the reason for the "crushing failure", Mr. Liu said that the main reason was that this cartoon was shown together with children's cartoons during the summer vacation. Not many adults watched it, and younger children simply couldn't understand it.

He said that promoting animation rating in China would help change the chaotic situation. A scientific and effective rating system often includes detailed standards for the audience's psychological acceptance and cognitive ability, which can enable audiences of all ages to choose to watch.

Suggestion: What should I show my kids?

Mr. Liu said that parents should try to choose cartoons that contain nutritious elements and value for their children. These nutritious elements include: pictures, plots, characters, stories, music, values, etc.

He said: "Young children can watch Peppa Pig and Little Blue Koala; primary school students can watch Charlie and Lola and classic Disney animated films. In addition to animated films, Pixar has produced 19 animated shorts, which are also very good."

Books like "Charlie IX", "The Adventures of the Little Tigers", "Selected Cases of Sherlock Holmes" and some exquisite picture books are also popular among children.

via: Dahe Daily