Cartoons: Land of ImaginationJust as Moses climbed Mount Sinai to receive the ten commands, thefollowing are the ten laws that govern my most interesting place. 1. Any bodysuspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation. 2.
Any body in motion will tend to remain in motion until solid matter intervenessuddenly. 3. Any body passing through solid matter will leave a perforationconforming to its perimeter. 4.
The time required for an object to fall twentystories is greater than or equal to the time it takes for whoever knocked it offthe ledge to spiral down twenty flights to attempt to capture it unbroken. 5. All principles of gravity are negated by fear. 6. As speed increases, objectscan be in several places at once. 7.
Certain bodies can pass through solidwalls painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot. 8. Any violentrearrangement of feline matter is impermanent. 9.
Everything falls faster thanan anvil. 10. For every vengeance there is an equal and opposite revengeance. These laws are the laws of the Cartoon Universe.
The Cartoon Universe is not a tangible substance, rather an explorationinto imagination. It is this facet that makes this universe more appealing thanour own. One is free to create and manipulate not only the physical actions ofa character, but the mental behavior as well. If my recollection serves mecorrect, aside from hypnosis, there is nowhere else that this is possible. Inthe cartoon world, “anything goes.
” There are no boundaries to which one isconfined. With a little ingenuity and imagination one can create a place orbeing that has never existed before. Scribble, scribble, squeak, squeak, the colored pencils glideeffortlessly over the white canvas. A dab of golden yellow, a speck of sky blue. Within several minutes I have create my ideal woman.
Blond hair, blue eyes,wearing a tight fitting black mini-skirt. Perfect in appearance and poise, andnothing but words of encouragement and love linger in her black caption. For araging hormonal man of eighteen, this scenario is a dream come true. Cartoons,however are not just a group of characters jumping off cliffs, and getting shotout of cannons. On the contrary, cartoons often have incredible meaning. With the recent presidential elections, many cartoons have been inventedrepresenting the two current candidates: Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.
Politicalsatire, although often humorous, is meant to convey a message to the reader. The cartoonist has cleverly transposed his own thoughts, into that of hischaracters. Many environmental issues have been tackled as well. “Captain Planet,” is an environmental superhero with supernatural powers,the combination of the Planeteer’s powers magnified.
Each character representsa different force of nature: earth, fire, wind, water, and heart. He also canbecome any one of these forces. However, if Captain Planet is exposed topollutants: acid rain, toxic, waste, smog, etc. , his powers are temporarilyweakened, and he must return to Earth to “recharge”.
Each episode is designedto confront an environmental problem. The five characters, each equipped witha ring, bane together in times of trouble. By placing their rings next to eachother, “Captain Planet” appears. Captain Planet, using the powers of the fiveindividuals, swarms around the earth correcting problems when needed. Although,this is a far fetch from reality, there is truth to it.
What this cartoonrepresents is, aside from the fact that we must keep out environment sound foreverything living, is that it is very difficult to solve a problem alone, butwith team-work often it is easy. Just as “Captain Planet” represents the evilsinflicted by selfish human beings, the Jetsons explore this in a differentmanner. The Jetsons a futuristic cartoon, represent what life may be like. Inthe cartoon, families live above the stratosphere of the earth due to enormouspollution created by thousands of years of human habitation. Houses are builton long high rise poles with platforms at the top. The surface of the earth isno longer used for any practical purpose.
Shopping centers, restaurants,schools, offices, etc. , are left free floating in the sky. “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” starred one of the longest-running cartooncharacters in TV cartoon history. What we remember are four teenagers and theirtrusted dog galloping across the country in their purple and green van solvingmysteries of all sort – and in the process, meeting all kinds of interestingpeople. The truth, however, is that they were four high-school dropouts, whowith their
