I see that some people are discussing the darkness in children's media so I wanted to jump in too. Today in television shows designed for children, we tend to see some hit or miss series. For me, some newer hits are Gravity Falls, Over the Garden Wall, Steven Universe, and Young Justice. The stories in these cartoons are very well in depth and thought out and it shows in every episode. Even the ones to make the mood lighter before the next episode, when all hell breaks loose, have a lot of detail and time put into them. I think that it is a great idea to introduce some darkness into children's shows. As we have talked about in class, kids need to see some of these darker themes. We shouldn't shelter them from everything as parents tend to do. I think parents don't realize that it is the same themes they had growing up, just in different forms. Tom and Jerry was a very dark show. It was brutal and very violent, but kids would always laugh at Tom's misfortune and it is the same with Scooby-Doo. The gang always has to face a monster before finding out that it is just a person the whole time hiding something. You would think that with every episode of these older shows being the same basic plot, parents would enjoy these newer shows more since they go more in depth than the same occurrence, just a different criminal every time. But why do parents not want their kids to watch this new type of dark element?

Kids can experience these darker themes and empathize with the characters. The darkness of shows isn't to just scare them like a horror film is meant to. These scenes are there for a reason and can be critical for the plot to advance. Kids will come into contact with many dark things in their life, but cartoons shouldn't affect them like parents probably think. I believe that some of the cartoons we have today are better for kids than the ones that were around back then. The storylines are so much better and more complex than a mouse and cat running after each other and killing one another every episode. I am not bashing on older cartoons as it may strongly sound like it, I just wish I had these shows when I was younger. But luckily I can watch them now and can still enjoy them. I know I probably didn't get a good point across, but I think we need to stop sheltering kids so much and let them have some imagination.