Part of growing up is accepting that, as an adult, you’re expected to be completely different from who you were as a kid. But why? Obviously, being more experienced (and better looking) than you were as a teenager means some things are likely to differ; mainly your behavior around others and your level of patience, but the change doesn’t stop there. Many of the things that you once enjoyed are now considered to be out of your reach, deemed too childish for adults to take part in. The shows you watch, the books you read, even the foods you eat have to fit within your age group as if simply getting older has totally transformed who you are as a person. Does becoming mature really mean you have to lose the things that make you happy?
For me, (and many others I’m sure) most of my Saturday mornings as a kid were spent watching cartoons. (Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network were basically the only channels I tuned into, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every episode of "Spongebob" at least twice). At the time, I watched them for nothing more than pure entertainment and it’s only as I’ve reflected back on watching those shows that I realized how much more they gave me. Cartoons didn’t just help me pass the time; they fueled a sense of creativity and imagination that I hadn’t yet found in school. In a way, they were the first real form of art I could appreciate. The animation was captivating, and the stories, though simplistic, were light-hearted and memorable. But above all else, these shows could make me laugh. At only eleven minutes each, a good cartoon could brighten up my mood on even the worst of days. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found few other things that could so in such a short amount of time.
So what is it about cartoons that make them so unappealing to adults? Maybe it’s the innocent nature of the humor, but even shows infamous for mature content, such as “South Park” or “Rick and Morty,” seem to be given an age cap. Perhaps it’s the simplistic nature of shows, and that their failure to provide an engaging story for the viewer to follow. While this may be true of many cartoons, there are those that make it a point to develop complex, continuous storylines that span the length of the series. Shows such as “Avatar the Last Airbender” or “Samurai Jack” have won numerous awards and garnered acclaim from fans and critics alike. Yet even for those shows that don’t attempt this feat, the idea of each episode being separate and distinct from one another gives them their own unique sense of value. Such cartoons have the freedom to express new ideas in each episode without having to stick to a storyline, allowing them to fulfill their purpose of providing simple, fast-paced entertainment more easily. Such a wide variety of cartoons exist, that nearly anyone can find something that fits their own taste. And that’s the beauty of it really. The world is full of so many things that try to bring us down every day, that it’s sometimes hard to find something that can make you feel happy, or at least give you a good laugh, in such a short amount of time. Why would we have to give that up just because somebody thinks we’re too old for it?
