Assignment 1-4-6 Final Analysis of Cartoons

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As I have written analysis for the past five weeks on cartoons, I have realized that all types of theories we studied this course were present in the various cartoons we watch.  With the theory of popular icons, cartoon characters are idolized by children for decades.  In the theory of rituals, we have a tradition of watching cartoon holiday specials, such as Charlie Brown Christmas, even into our adulthood when we pass on this tradition to our children.  Superman and Batman are originally cartoon comic book characters that have portrayed an image of hero for many decades.  They are heroes that defend the innocent, defeat the villains, and always get the girl at the end.  Cartoons also show formulas that are repeated in each episode. The best example of this is Looney Toons characters going through the same situations of chasing each other around like Willie Coyote chasing the Road Runner every episode.

The most interesting findings from my analysis is that a picked topic, such as cartoons, can be looked at from all these theories point of views to figure out if this topic is part of the popular culture.  With learning about each theory of popular culture, I got a better understanding on how cartoons are made to attract the attention of the viewer with formulas, how cartoons are a tradition passed down from older generations to young kids, and the importance of cartoons through the decades to popular culture. 

I will think of cartoons now in the view of popular culture to help me get a better understanding of different cartoons I watch in the future.  I can also use what I have learned about popular culture to pass down to younger generations what cartoons really mean instead of a colorful television show.

Assignment 1-4-5 Formulas Analysis

Assignment 1-4-5

Formulas in Cartoons

It is hard to imaging cartoons following a formula when we watch them but there are formulas in just about any cartoon on television.  In this analysis of formulas in cartoons, I will point out some well know cartoons that display a blunt set of formulas.  This formula is called a Strictly Formula, which is the characters follow to a strict sequence of events that occur during the show every time.  They also do what is expected to do the same kind of action as done so many times in the past episodes (tvtropes.org, n.a.).

Some of Looney Toons characters that follow the strictly formula are Pepe LePew and the black female cat he chases, Willie Coyote pursuit of the Road Runner across the desert and Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs Bunny.  Each of these characters performs the same actions in every episode they are in and the outcome is always the same, being defeated at the end of their pursuit. 

Pepe LePew, that loveable French skunk, is always looking for his one true love and the petite black female cat, which is accident prone every time to have a white stripe painted down her back that runs in terror from the love stricken Pepe.  The formula here is each time the cat gets disguised as a female skunk, she tries to escape the affection of Pepe mostly because of his smell and there are also the reactions from the people that encounter Pepe as he pursues the female cat.  We know exactly what is to happen in each episode before the first scene occurs and we will laugh each time Pepe makes his love speech while holding the cat in his arms.

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Willie Coyote is an indestructible character that who knows how many attempts to catch the fast Road Runner, majority of the time never succeeds, except for twice in which both time he shares a meal with the Road Runner and lets him go just so he can continue chasing him across the desert.  Another formula seen with these two characters is the Coyote’s use of ACME products used to plot against the Road Runner.  Somehow and someway Willie Coyote use of equipment fails him and he never dies from any misfortunes, just gets back up and tries another plan to catch the Road Runner.

Retrieved from animationartgallery.com

The final sets of characters that are well known to follow a strictly formula in each episode are Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny.  This rivalry has been portrayed for many decades and some of the most classic episodes such as “What’s Opera Doc?” with the famous opera song “Kill the Wabbit” (Jones, 1957).  The strictly formula of Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs Bunny was put into an opera form but no change to the formula seen in many of their episodes.  This proves that the strictly formula can stay the same even when put into different styles of settings.

Retrieved from www.youtube.com

References:

Jones, C. (Director). (1957). What's Opera Doc? [Motion Picture]. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051189/

tvtropes.org. (n.a.). Strictly formulas. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from tvtropes.org: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StrictlyFormula

Assignment 1-3-2 Journal Article Analysis

Journal Article Analysis

Buying Me Love: 

1980s Class-Clash Teen Romances

By Timothy Shary

In Timothy Shary article, “Buying Me Love:  1980s Class-Clash Teen Romances” (2011) he points out how the economy during the eighties played a role in the movie industry showing the differences in social class in teen romance movies and how teenagers struggle to overcome these differences when falling in love with someone of different social class.  Timothy explores the meaning behind teen romance movies such as Valley Girl (1983), Reckless (1984), Tuff Turf (1985), Lucas (1986), Pretty in Pink (1986), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), and Can’t Buy Me Love (1987).  In each of these movies, there is a social class difference between boy and girl, their family and friends that creates a conflict in the relationship.  But by the end of the movie, the moral of the story is that love will overcome any conflict two teenagers come across (Shary, 2011).

The article is laid out with a understanding of the events leading up to the eighties such as changes in presidents from Carter to Reagan, the financial problems our country was experiencing, and Hollywood’s creation of teen romance movies.  A change in popular culture went from catering to adults to attracting teenagers that spend money on fashion, music and movies.  The movie industry succeeded in grabbing teenager’s attention with creating movies that portrayed their fantasies and dreams of loving someone.  Timothy showed the similarities of conflicts in certain teen romance movies such as family conflicts like parents opposing their teenager’s partner or a parent character more into the background of the movie because of their careers and the distinct appearance of class differences by their clothing, hairstyles and cars (Shary, 2011).

Another key point that is described in the article is the class differences between teenagers and how they are similar in eighties teen romance movies. There is the wealthy characters that seem to get more attention from their peers because they wear the current fashions, throw cool parties and drive fancy cars and then there is the poor class characters that must work to achieve respect and appreciation, they denounce the things wealth can buy, and this character shows they have better morals that rises them about class statuses.  By the end of the movie, both social class characters throw aside their class statuses and show a non-class attraction between them (Shary, 2011).   

I agree with Timothy Shary breakdown of eighties teen romance movies and not just because he nailed the formula of the narrative of these movies but because these movies were all classics and help to form the general view of teen movies.  Before the movie industry started teenage movies, they catered to the adults when it came to romance movies but the eighties brought on a lot of changes towards teenagers with such creations as MTV (Music Television). And as the decade came to a close, so did the teenage romance movies about being with the rich football star or the princess of the school. 

This articles was important to me because even to this day I still love to watch eighties teen romance movies and am always on the lookout for copies of the ones I don’t own.  I remember as a kid/teenager watching those movies wishing that it was me having a crush over some cute guy in my class that never noticed me.  This is why when I saw this article I knew this was the one for me.  I enjoyed reading what Timothy Shary wrote about these classic movies and look forward to picking out his viewpoints next time I watch one of these films.

References

Shary, T. (2011, June). Buying me love: 1980s class-clash teen romances. Journal of Popular Culture, 44(3), 563-582. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00849.x

Assignment 1-4-4 Written Analysis Heroes and Celebrities

Assignment 1-4-4 Written Analysis

Heroes and Celebrities

Our concept of heroes and celebrities are started at an early age when our parents planted us in front of the television to watch cartoons.  From cartoons we got our first glances at super heroes such as Batman, Superman, and Spiderman.  Who could not forget seeing Superman flying around his in red cape and how it inspired us to tie our little blankets around our necks and pretend to fly across the furniture.  As defined in Profiles of Popular Culture, a hero is “spiritually and physically” role models (Browne, 2005).  Superman and Batman have been around for centuries and many different types of cartoons have been made to display them through those generations.  But the concept of those heroes never lost its meaning and the inspiration it gives to from child to adult. 

Cartoons also have a certain celebrity status in that their popularity is part of our popular culture.  Famous celebrities are often used for voices in cartoon animation movies such as Toy Story series.   Sometime this is all the work some celebrities can find when times are tough in between movies.  Musicians can also get a boost in the celebrity status by performing all the music for animation movies such as Elton John did for “Lion King” and Bryan Adams did for “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron”.  Both artist used their talents to provide soundtracks to these cartoon animation movies and made them popular in society. 

Browne, R. B. (2005). Profiles of Popular Culture. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. Retrieved October 20, 2012

Assignment 1-4-3 Analysis #2 Rituals

This theory this week that applies to my topic of cartoons is a ritual.  There can be different concepts to the ritual of cartoons.  There is the ritual of when children come home from school; they like to watch their favorite cartoon shows every day.  Parents are also known to occupy their kids with cartoon shows to keep them from bothering the parent who might be busy cooking or cleaning house. 

There is also the ritual of certain classic cartoons that are played each year for the holidays of Halloween and Christmas.  I remember as a kid watching the Peanuts “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”, which original aired October 27, 1966, has been a holiday classic cartoon that is still played on television every Halloween.  Another set of classic holiday cartoons that is seen each year are “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1964), “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” (1970), and “Charlie Browns Christmas” (1965), which even to this day has kids get excited that Christmas is right around the corner ( Internet Movie Database , 2012).

When I was a kid, growing up out in the middle of nowhere, we only had access to three television channels from an antenna, so we were kind of limited to Saturday morning cartoons for a few hours and holiday specials such as those mentioned above.  Now a days there has to be ten channels of cartoon networks, like Disney, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, etc., that offer a wide variety of cartoons for children of all ages to watch daily. If only some of the cartoons made sense to us adults, they would be enjoyable to watch with your children and create a new ritual of watching cartoons together.  My grandfather enjoyed Looney Toons and would always make sure our Saturday chores were done in time to watch it.

Internet Movie Database . (2012). Retrieved from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com

Popular Culture Topic Written Analysis 1

Retrieved from http://www.cartooncharacters.ca/looney.html

The theory that could be applied to my popular culture topic of cartoons was the theory of them being icons.  For generations children have spent most of their childhood idolizing one cartoon character after another.  At a young age it starts with Elmo or Disney characters like Winnie the Pooh, and then gradually moves forward to Dora the Explorer or Disney Princesses, all the way until they are teenagers and their interests’ turns to more adult tone characters like Stewie from Family Guy or Bart off The Simpsons.  The reasoning behind cartoons airing at prime time is so adults can have their own cartoons to watch. 

Cartoon characters that are considered icons also contribute to the huge amount of retail sales of merchandise every year.  If you ever really sit and watch the Cartoon Network for a day and count how many toy commercials air, you would see why the toy industry is huge now days with figurines, video games, clothes, and accessories kids see each day on TV. 

The theory of cartoons being icons describes how they have evolved over the decades into a wide variety of chooses to watch and buy merchandise for the children.  What I want to know is what happened to the classic cartoons like Looney Toons, Popeye, Betty Bop, and Mickey Mouse?  At least the classic cartoons contained an understanding of morals in their story lines like would be seen on Smurfs and My Little Pony. 

The insight gained from this theory of icons in my popular culture of cartoons gives me an understanding in how cartoons change through the decades but there is still lessons that can be taught to the younger generation in cartoons they watch like Dora the Explorer teaches Spanish to kids at a young age.  But I still enjoy watching Looney Tunes every day at lunchtime because it reminds me of my childhood when my grandfather would sit and watch Saturday morning cartoons with me after chores were done.  It was the only day out of the week that cartoons were on, so it was considered a treat to be able to enjoy at least two to three hours’ worth of cartoons.  

Icon Analysis

There are so many different icons that I have seen through my years but the three that stick out most strongly with are Harley Davidson, Mount Rushmore, and teddy bears.  Anyone who has been born and raised in the United States should know each of these icons backgrounds.  Harley Davidson has been around since the beginning of the twentieth century.  A creation of Davidson brothers Arthur and Walter with friend William S. Harley, this legendary icon was started in a ten by fifteen foot wood shed in Wisconsin.  A heavy supplier of motorcycles for the United States military through both World Wars and Korean War, now a days enjoyed by millions of riders throughout the world.  Another turn of the century American symbol is the beautiful carved Mount Rushmore with four famous presidents of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt.  This monument represents the first 150 years of American’s history set in the spectacular Black Hills of South Dakota.  And finally the one childhood toys that are collected by even adults, the famous Teddy Bear, so named after an adventurous president Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt in 1903. 

Retrived from http://www.saveshenandoah.com/trip-and-traveling/fans-of-harley-davidson-rendezvous.html

I choose these three American icons, each created shortly after the turn of past century, because they represent different aspects of history.  With Harley Davidson motorcycles, the struggles this company had gone through over the past century prove that something purely made in America can strive to greatness.  Mount Rushmore is always been a symbol of America that millions of tourist go to see every summer in the Black Hills.  It is a huge reminder of the sacrifices our fore fathers gave to make the country we live in free.  And the teddy bear is a childhood toy at just about every kid had growing up.  Not many toys survive past even a few decades let along over a century.  Even adults have addictions to collecting them, which they are called “Arctophiles”. 

Taken August 14, 2012 by Desire' Barker

Each icon gives me the meaning of being free in different ways.  With a Harley Davidson motorcycles there is the long tradition of being out on the open road with the wind and smells of the outdoors hitting your face.  The few times I have been privileged to ride on one has giving me the feel of freedom from my worries.  The feel of freedom also came from our yearly visit to see Mount Rushmore each summer.  I would look up at those stone faces and think how those men helped to make our country free in their own different ways.  Even this summer, as we drove by it, I got this feel of being proud to be American.  And teddy bears have always been an obsession of mine even now as an adult I collect them.  I always felt comfortable with a faithful teddy bear wrapped in my arms and even to this day can be caught sleeping with one when I am sick.  I have a huge collection and will continue to gather my furry friends forever.

Retrieved from http://www.fanpop.com/spots/tamar20/images/28344675/title/teddy-bear-wallpaper

References:

Blue Ribbon Bears at http://www.blueribbonbears.com/history.htm

Harley Davidson at http://www.harley-riders-guide.com/harley-davidson-history.html

Mount Rushmore. (2008, April 2). New World Encyclopedia, . Retrieved 19:01, October 5, 2012 from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Mount_Rushmore&oldid=681700.