Cine Kids - Children's tv in the past
I think all of us have watched cartoons as a child, some more than others of course but I think every one of us can remember at least one cartoon from their childhood that they liked watching. I'm curious to find out which cartoon that was for you as I understand this is influenced by your age as well as part of the world you live in and maybe also by culture. If you want, please leave a comment below to share your favorite cartoon(s) in your childhood as well as (if you are comfortable with it of course) sharing your birthyear. I'd like to compare the answers and see if they are alike in any way.
I remember that I used to watch a Dutch tv show called Telekids every Saturday and Sunday morning. The show was presented by Carlo Boshard and Irene Moors, two Dutch tv show hosts that had great chemistry but weren't a couple although sometimes it seemed as if they were. I will leave a Youtube video below so you can laugh with me looking at the old school vintage looks of the show. You can see in the video that they had the biggest pop stars as their guests. Every new boyband appeared there I remember that it was the change to meet them if you lived near the studio. I lived too far from it, so I never had the chance myself.
Funny thing is that I read one of the comments, I will translate it to English for you:
"The 90's was a perfect time for children's TV. Just too early for an agenda, restrictions and obligations. No social media, no internet, no pressure. It wasn't about anything at all, and that freedom was wonderful. I really look back at this with a tear in the corner of my eye."
It's such an important point made here as the idea for this blog post came to mind when I was reminded about the differences of children's tv back then vs today. I remember it was all playful with a lot of humor and these two were probably the biggest children's tv show hosts ever and they lasted a very long time too. They were not trying to bring across a political agenda as many things are nowadays. I wish that my children could enjoy children's tv the way we did in our time.
Intensity of cartoons over the years
What I discovered after becoming a mother for the first time, is that the intensity of the cartoons had changed. With intensity I mean they used to be calm, maybe even relaxing in a way, not everyone of them but most of them were not annoying to have on in the background. And then my oldest was born and so many of these shows that were airing on tv suddenly became a nightmare to have on in the background. It was nearly impossible that my daughter would watch cartoons without becoming extremely loud and noisy herself.
The cartoons seem to be filled with incentives, but not in a good way. There were ones where they learn to speak a foreign language like Dora the explorer but I'm talking about the ones where the characters seem to scream constantly and the way they've been drawn is also emphasizing making noise and being loud if that makes sense reading. I really became to hate quite a few cartoons even in my early years as a mother. I tried avoiding my kids to watch these intense cartoons making them hyper instead of enjoying a cartoon calmly with a blanket on the sofa like I did in the past.
Consuming, hyperactivity and violence
I remember the cartoons started to look a lot like Pokemon and this style is totally different from when I was a child. I don't mind the drawing style but the facial expressions in these characters already show anger, hyperactivity, stress etc and I noticed my daughter was mostly consuming and never got inspired to create something by watching this. If I compare it to her watching Dora the explorer, where she'd pick up the Spanish language for example and at least the episodes were programming something in her brain to learn a language in a playful way. I also often try to point my youngest daughter into the direction of watching something that inspires her or teaches her something.
A few examples from my childhood
Let's see how children's television differs from back in the 80s/90s. They are in Dutch btw.
David de Kabouter
David de Kabouter after a book by Rien Poortvliet and his illustrations were quite famous if I remember correctly. This is one of these cartoons that was on tv in the late 80s/90s and part of the 90s. This is one of these examples that we used to watch and I'm 100% sure my mother was never bothered with my attitude when I was watching it.
Bassie & Adriaan
This is another fun example because even now that I'm nearing my 40s, I remember learning my first Spanish words from watching this tv show when I was a child. Bassie and Adriaan were a couple working in the Circus (Circus Bassie & Adriaan)
They had this tv show around their circus shows and in 1982 they quit the circus and moved on to another tv channel. You can find all the info on their Wikipedia page. they had a tv show where they'd visit all these European countries and while the show always involved some bandits I do remember the educational aspect of this even today. As I said, my first Spanish lessons were from Bassie & Adriaan and I know that I'm not the only one that can say this. Pretty funny right?
Sugar rush without the sugar intake
I'd love to see back these old type of formats for the younger generation, but I guess I will have to accept that times have changed and if you want your child to not get sucked into these indoctrinating cartoons that are out there, you will have to be on top of it yourself and make sure to properly review the cartoons before they get hooked and they turn into little angry monsters when they are prohibited from watching it. I can speak from experience yes, my daughter has the gift to pick exactly those shows that I know will numb her, she will watch it like a zombie for a few hours and then her attitude is all bad. We had quite some issues to break the patterns when this happened several times over the years. Not only by watching Netflix btw, as Youtube algorithms are a totally different story.
I'm always pleased when we find something to calm her mind instead of making her hyperactive like many shows do nowadays. It's almost as if she gets a sugar rush without eating the sugar when it happens, which is far from ideal. I've learned that it helps greatly to be aware of the impressions that they get from each show, some are worse than others and not every loud cartoon is going to make them hyperactive. It depends on the child as well, my daughter is very sensitive for it, so I learned.
A trip down memory lane
I'm hoping to see some comments below where you share your favorite childhood cartoon/tv show and maybe you can also tell us if you see the difference in children's tv and your thoughts about it. There are so many cartoons and shows out there that I had a hard time picking just a few, but we can continue the chats in the comments. Drop your links from Youtube so we can have a trip down memory lane together!
That's it for this week, next week we are back with another Cine Kids edition. Have a great weekend ahead! Make sure to follow our Twitter account and join our discord channel.
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