Defining Childrens and Adult Cartoons

Children’s cartoons and adult cartoons have a lot of the same conventions, but what is it that really separates these two sub genres?

To define the differences and similarities between children’s and adult cartoons, I have grouped some cartoons and their conventions to their separate groups. I have found there are some cartoons which fall between the two categories which I believe may be appropriate for both children and adults.

In the 1960's the first family orientated cartoon was created, The Flintstones. The Flintstones was one of the first cartoons to appeal to a family audience. It’s a classic situation comedy and has strong influence in mature cartoons such as Daria, Family Guy, King of the Hill and The Simpsons. Today the Flintstones is marketed more towards children but can still be watched by adults.

'After years of producing primarily cartoons for children (Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound et ala.), this really became the first cartoon show that was geared for adults, though there still is enough to keep children interested'. (Brian Washington, 2003)

The same goes for the Simpsons, the Simpsons is a family orientated mature cartoon, it is shown early evenings after children’s television has finished. The Simpsons is aimed at a family audience and is a little more inappropriate than the Flintstones. The gags in the Simpsons are cleverly made with a double coding which refers to layers of meaning in a joke, which gives a different meaning to different viewers. There are colourful slapstick gags for the younger viewers, were as for the older viewers there are more sophisticated spoken gags and intertextual references to popular culture. I would defiantly class the Simpsons as a mature cartoon.

Here is some Simpsons Slapstick.



Taking into consideration my research all these cartoon subgenres as such, have very similar conventions. The only real difference I found was in the depth of the story, the humour and how appropriate for the age group. A mature cartoon has references of sex, violence, drugs, swearing and other toilet humour. A child’s cartoon will have an easier story to follow, with more basic pun related jokes.


Online References

Wikipedia. (Continuous). Animated Cartoons. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animated_cartoon . Last accessed 24 May 2010.

Brian Washington. (2003). The Classic Hanna-Barbera Show. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053502/. Last accessed 25 May 2010.

References

Paul Wells (2002). Animation and America. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pg 89 - 91.

Bernadette Casey, Ben Calvert (2007). Television studies: The Key Concepts . Oxon & New York: Routledge .pg 21 - 23.