My Beautiful Child,
By the time you read this letter, I hate to imagine what television for young kids your age will have turned into. I know for a fact that your cartoons and movies probably aren’t going to be teaching you any morals, life-lessons, etc. I hate that all you are watching are mindless shows that the public feels are great for young children. I hate that you will never get to experience the joys of the cartoons that I got to watch growing up. When I was growing up, television wasn’t just about every cartoon having adult jokes with subliminal messages. It was with cartoons that a child was able to learn lessons that would come up in his or her adult life. Mommy’s cartoons actually taught kids how get through life, how to make it being different, and how to accept differences. Your cartoons, I hate to say, may not be as such. It's truly heartwarming to know that my hours of watching television weren't wasted. In fact, they were cherished because we truly learned something. It is while writing this to you that my heart is dismayed at the lack of good cartoons that you will surely miss out on. Luckily for you, I was able to come up with some of the shows that your mom enjoyed watching as a kid.
1. "Powerpuff Girls"
This team of young sisters showed through teamwork that good will always prevail over evil -- all you need is sugar, spice, everything nice, and little chemical X.
2. "The Land Before Time" Series
This group of young dinosaurs defied the norm, made friends with those different from their own species, and learned the true value of friendship.
3. Anything Disney ("The Lion King," "Aladdin," "The Little Mermaid," "Mulan," etc.)
Disney made one of the biggest impacts on my life and the lives of millions of others. Without it, I doubt many of us would know many of the lessons that we know today.
4."Tom & Jerry"
Both this cat and mouse pair showed the true definition of the term "friend enemies."
5. "The Looney Tunes"
All of these wonderful characters and their adventures taught me that sometimes all you can do about a bad situation is smile and laugh it off.
6. "House of Mouse"
This was a show where all my Disney characters interacted and were normal friends that just simply watched cartoons together like everybody else.
7. "Kim Possible"
Kim was one of first characters to show true Girl Power! Saving the world one "sitch" (situation) at a time.
8. "The Proud Family"
This gave a chance for America to see the experiences of an African-American family.
9. "The Rugrats"-
Their world was one where you could see what might have been going on in your infant mind and in your toddler friends' minds and the adventures that were possible.
10. "Dexter’s Laboratory"
We saw how a boy genius was able to do the impossible: hide an entire lab from his parents in their home.
11. "Pokémon"
The journey of achieving one's goal come true and making unbreakable bonds and friendships along the way was shown in this show.
12. "The Fairy Odd Parents"
No way would I have been able to pull off having floating fairies, disguised as fish half the time, in my room without my grandmother noticing -- but Timmy Turner could, apparently.
My children, I hope that by the time that you read this you've seen or at least heard of some of these cartoons. If not, please go ask my older self to show you these and say, "Shame on you Mama, for depriving us of really good cartoons."
