Childhood Cartoons, Behind the Narrative

Every single one of us grew up in a different generation. Although apart by a few decades, years or even months, we've all grown up in a completely different way, influenced by distinct media. A type of media that captures out attention as  children are cartoons.

Cartoons are what nearly every American child grows up on, they're colorful, fast paced, and funny ; as a kid there's no reason to hate these simple joys. But have you ever stopped to look back at some of the cartoons you grew up upon? When looking back I noticed a good amount of subliminal messages and very disturbing things within cartoons and shows meant for children. 

Tom & Jerry was an old cartoon that portrayed  a cat and mouse always trying to outsmart one another, but sometimes there were moments where they would smoke, for no reason. Now these may be older cartoons and regulations on cigarettes weren't too strict, but these references to cigarrettes influenced kids nonetheless. 

Subliminal messages could go so many different directions, but one thing that stuck out to me was the way drug references were hidden behind old classic disney movies like Alice in Wonderland. Most kids would find this movie enjoyable, some scary due to what kind of mind the child has, but this movie (for being the PG movie it is) contains a great amount of subliminal messages.

This movie shows countless encounters of representations of people on different types of drugs, and involves Alice herself ingesting some substances that alter her reality. And just the mere encounters she has with talking plants and creatures has you wondering about how this could even come to be, even in a kids movie.

It wouldn't make sense on how she arrived to her "wonderland" in the first place, falling through a hold in a tree. The vibrant colors and strange world would resemble those of what could be imagined on a hallucinogenic drug trip.

This isn't the first example of there being a hidden meaning behind a movie or character involving drugs, there's also something behind one of my personal favorite childhood TV shows, Scooby Doo. 

This show has been around for decades, and still exists today. One of the main characters behind this show is named Shaggy. This individual is always represented as the same person, slow, with  a bummy (hippie-like) portrayal, who is always paranoid, hungry and talks to his dog. This isn't odd behavior in a cartoon for anything can happen, but just the small signs he gives makes you think about his character.

There are parts in the show where their vehicle, The Mystery Machine, stops and smoke pours  out. The actions of Shaggy are not that of the rest of the cast, he is also shown as dumber and disoriented, all actions of a stoned person, not to mention "the munchies" he always has, even for such a skinny guy. 

These subliminal messages have been around for a while and will continue to be around today, I can already see them in all the new cartoons that kids are growing up on now. They may not always contain messages about characters being on drugs or telling a kid to do drugs, but cartoons are pointing toward mocking religions, races, genders, sexual orientation and all kinds of topics.

Parents should seriously watch what they let their children watch, because what looks fun and harmless may just be the happy mask, but parents must look past their ignorance or care-free attitudes and not let their children soak in negative influences.