In Which I Sound Like An Old Fart

[wlotus]

I.
I will not watch Disney's A Christmas Carol. Some things are sacred, and a CGI version of that movie is, by definition, a bastardization of a classic. I will stick with my traditional, black & white version--It's been colorized, you say? Shut your blasphemous mouth!--in which Alistair Sim plays Scrooge. Bah! Humbug!

II.
All of this anime-style, martial arts focused, mystic-wannabe, and/or hyper-technological stuff posing as Saturday morning entertainment makes my flesh crawl. I long for the days of classic Looney Tunes. While T watches that drivel, I play on the computer. My brain cells thank me.

III.
I do not remember being as hard-headed as a child as the kids I encounter at the various schools' picture days. When an adult spoke to me, I immediately shut my trap, straightened my face, and listened, even if I did not agree. If they told me to keep quiet, I kept quiet, even after they stopped talking. There is something to be said for being raised in a home where there would have been a good chance I would have been picking my teeth up from off the floor, if I did not respond in that way. Today's kids don't have enough fear in them, in my opinion. Discipline goes right over their heads; they scoff at it and keep right on doing whatever they want to do. Their teachers yell, and they roll their eyes and keep right on going. It's insane.

IV.
Speaking of kids, it cannot be good for them to grow up seeing today's battle "toy" commercials. When I was a kid, war toys still looked like toys, and they were advertised with kids playing with one another. Today's war "toys" look more like real weapons, and worst of all, they are advertised with tweens and teens looking hard and tough, like they can really do something to someone with those things.

Comments

[llahearn.livejournal.com]

I, too, am an old fart, as I agree with everything you wrote!

[arkadelos.livejournal.com]

Then, what does that make me? I'm only 23, and I agree with the vast majority - if not all - of what she wrote. There is too much violence and realistic violence in the media these days.

btw, Lotus, I hope you are not disparaging all anime... take Yoroiden: Samurai Troopers, my favorite series of all time...

[warkitty.livejournal.com]

I'm just saying... I agree.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

Anime is a perfectly valid art form, though it doesn't generally appeal to me. I find the expressions and dialog stilted and unnatural. For example, the exaggerated sweating when a character is nervous or angry, the childish squeeing of all of the female characters, and the abrupt transitions between facial expressions annoy me, rather than amuse me.

My main complaint is over the disappearance of the non-anime style of drawing cartoons. It seems to have all but disappeared from Saturday mornings, and I find that very sad.

[arkadelos.livejournal.com]

Ah! Good! YST has none of that!

I see what you mean about the disappearance of non-anime-style cartoons and drawings. Once I saw a Count Chocula box, and the design had been completely redone in anime style. It is like we are losing a part of our culture.

[i-evangeline.livejournal.com]

I agree on all counts!!!

Sara

[rockbirthedme.livejournal.com]

Whenever I'm tempted to look at kids' behavior and suck my teeth and pronounce judgment, I do try to keep my perspective. For one thing, there are a lot of kids out there who look like "bad kids," who actually have autism, ADHD, bipolar, and a string of other problems. And you never know what kind of a home situation a kid is coming out of. A number of my friends are involved in very acrimonious divorce or custody cases, and the kids react negatively because their worlds are falling apart, or because they're imitating behavior they see at home. They only have so much emotional energy, and sometimes they're putting so much into surviving that there just isn't any left for interacting properly with the rest of the world.

On the flip side, I swear I'd like to put all adults through an annual class reviewing, not how to discipline, but how to discipline *effectively*. A lot of parents make it harder on themselves and their kids because they're essentially doing things backwards. Especially with younger kids, I sometimes want to take parents aside and say, "Do you realize you're actually *encouraging* your child to misbehave?"

None of which is to say that kids shouldn't be held responsible for their behavior. Of course they should -- how else will they learn how to behave properly? It's just that there are better and worse ways to do it, and I think a lot of times kids don't get the proper tools and structure to learn effectively.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

I, too, won't watch Disney's Christmas Carol. The Muppets already did a much better version, thankyouverymuch.

Wow-- I never listened to adults as a kid. I generally thought I knew better, and I was often right. I was quite the precocious little brat.