The Simpsons

By M. Belen Giamberardini and Gisela Koval

Every day in Argentina lots of children watch TV after school or during weekends and one of the favourite TV shows chosen by them is The Simpsons. Children follow Homer and his family’s adventures in Springfield day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

It is well known that The Simpsons satirizes the American life style. Incompetent authorities, irresponsible adults, little tolerance and acceptance to everything that is “different”, out- of- control children, both at home and at school, are examples of this. But this is not all. The Simpsons can also underestimate the image of what is culturally taken as good.

“¡Púdrete Flanders!”(“Screw Flanders!”) has been a well known phrase daily heard by Argentinean kids during the last fifteen years. It’s not difficult to see how Homer mistreats his neighbor and makes fun of his way of dressing, religious beliefs, values and healthy habits. All this gives as a result a distorted image of what is considered a good neighbor.

Matt Groening reflects the failures of the American educational system through the Elementary School of Springfield . Although it is known that some failures in the system may be real, the author exaggerates the figure of teachers and authorities making fun of them. In this way, an organization which should be respectable is pictured as a weak and useless institution where kids do whatever they want.

To avoid visiting Grandpa is one of The Simpsons favourite plans for the weekend. Old people are seen as a thorn in one’s eye and taking care of them is not a choice. To exemplify this, there is an episode in which Homer denies giving away one of his kindness to save his father’s life. There is another episode in which Bart makes fun of Lisa because she enjoys spending her free time visiting old people at the Retirement Home. Thus, it is underestimated something that is culturally considered as good as taking care of old people.

“Why don’t we do a family activity next Sunday?” is a phrase that we will never hear in the show because The Simpsons prefer doing activities separately. Homer prefers spending time at Moe’s drinking Duff rather that taking the family to the zoo, for example. Marge spends all day in the kitchen preparing meals to satisfy Homer’s hunger while Bart, Lisa and Maggie live adventures on their own. So that something good as a united family is again disparaged.

The Simpsons popularity is undeniable. It doesn’t matter whether you are six or sixteen years old, you will laugh watching them anyway. But its success is based on showing irresponsibility, intolerance and lack of family values as fashionable and cool, making culturally good habits look absurd.

Is The Simpsons the kind of show we want our children to watch? It’s better to be believed it is not.

Heidi, the girl of the Alps

By Renée Fredes and Patricia De La LLera

“Grandpa, tell me why I’m so happy.” Everybody who remembers this phrase can go back to childhood with a feeling of happiness. If you are very young, perhaps you don’t know the TV show Heidi where this phrase is taken from. This TV show is based on the novel Heidi, which is the most popular piece of Swiss literature for children, written by Johanna Spyri in 1879. Heidi, the girl of the Alps is the complete name of the most successful cartoon that captivated the heart of many generations in the late 70`s.

Heidi is a five-year-old orphan girl who lives with her grandpa in a small cottage near the Alps, far from the village. She is very intelligent and sensitive, and together with her friend Peter, who is a shepherd boy, she lives the most beautiful adventures where human values are highlighted.

The TV show Heidi is made up of fifty two episodes, which consist of different simple stories about an innocent world that gives Heidi a feeling of freedom and love for nature. Despite the fact that in general TV cartoons show technology and encourage children to consumerism, throughout Heidi’s story we can learn that happiness can be made up of non-material things.

Nowadays children spend a lot of time playing expensive indoor games and watching cartoons where technology is always present. They can see that the main characters are heroes using high technology as an ally to reach their objectives and their happiness.

The ideas that underlie the TV show Heidi are friendship and love for nature, which give children the best tools to build a happy life. The different episodes highlight the importance of playing outdoors, where materialism is not a problem, because children have at hand all they need to enjoy a good time outside.

An important thing to have in mind is that children don’t need so much technology to grow happy. Heidi gives us a good lesson about human values because she shows us happiness in the uncontaminated childhood that she lives. It is an example for our children and it is the key of Heidi’s cartoon popularity, which is still alive nowadays.

Phineas and Ferb fight against holidays’ boredom and win audiences

By María Silvina Rago and Angélica Santi

“Hey Ferb, I know what we’re gonna do today!” says Phineas Flynn, one of the main characters in the TV series Phineas and Ferb. This line, simple as it is, originated an achievement in children’s programming and caught the attention of 10.8 million viewers when it was first broadcast as a preview on August 17, 2007. The series deals with the adventures of two stepbrothers, Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher, who expect to get the most of their 104 days of summer vacation. Each episode depicts uncommon situations which occur in everyday contexts, performed by the intelligent yet sometimes impertinent stepbrothers. Combined with a great variety of musical rhythms, the result is a well-thought scheme, which can be the reason why this animated series has largely succeeded among children and adults. 

Every day, they start an eccentric new project, being closely watched by their teenage sister Candace. Her misadventures while trying to bust them constitute a parallel subplot in the show’s storyline. But towards the end, everything vanishes magically or ends up in destruction before their mother can find out what Phineas and Ferb have been up to.

To add even more spice to the story, the authors thought it necessary to include another subplot. In it, the boys’ pet, Perry the Platypus, has a life of its own. He’s a secret agent for an animal organization and fights against a lunatic scientist called Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, whose primary goal is to take up the tri-state area, which is the place where Phineas and Ferb live. 

Humour, as in most of cartoons, is the basic tool the series creators, Dan Povenmire and Jeff Marsh, use to make the story a success. Each episode is full of gags, jokes and repeated lines. Their intention is not to write for children exclusively. They also try to have fun themselves, and believe  that children can always have the opportunity to ask an adult when necessary[1].

One of the features that surely attract younger audiences is the visual aspect of the programme. The main brightly coloured characters are made up of geometrical shapes: Phineas’s head is a triangle, Ferb’s is a rectangle, and Candace and her friend Isabella are half circles. This has the clear purpose of facilitating the drawing of characters. 

Making it even more appealing, the episodes devote some minutes to singing and dancing as in a musical comedy. There is no defined music style but a wide variety, from 16th-century madrigals to Broadway show tunes[2] . The catchy music is a key feature that engages kids, teens and, why not, adults. 

What might have also made the show so popular among older audiences is the constant mentioning of old movies, TV shows or famous people from the past as well as endless pop cultural references – Star Wars, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Frankenstein, James Bond and SpongeBob Squarepants, among the most mentioned. All inserted in the two eleven-minute segments of each episode.

“Hey, Phineas, What'cha doin?” is one of the running gags that provide a great deal of fun. The same fun the authors had when thinking about this project [3] and the same fun Phineas and Ferb look for when developing their extravagant ideas. This combination of comedy, mystery, mischief, wittiness, simple geometric graphics and lovely tunes is simply irresistible for children and the pop cultural comments definitely make adults look forward to joining them in watching it.

[1] Marjorie. "Phineas and Ferb: Music, Mischief, And The Endless Summer Vacation". 411 News. http://www.resource411.com/411Update/Issue/Articles/Story.cfm?StoryID=1020. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
 [2] Strike, Joe. (February 1, 2008). "From Swampy & Dan Emerges Phineas and Ferb", Page 2.". Animation World Magazine. http://www.awn.com/articles/production/swampy-dan-emerges-iphineas-and-ferbi/page/2. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
[3] Strike, Joe. (February 1, 2008). "From Swampy & Dan Emerges Phineas and Ferb", Page 2.". Animation World Magazine. http://www.awn.com/articles/production/swampy-dan-emerges-iphineas-and-ferbi/page/2. Retrieved September 5, 2010.

The Simpsons: a cartoon that deals with important issues

By Núñez, Melina and Villaverde, Florencia

The Simpsons cartoon was created by Matt Groening in the ´80s and made its first appearance on television in 1987. Nowadays, it has become the most popular cartoon around the world. The main characters of this cartoon are the members of The Simpson family: Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart and Magie who live in a city called Springfield. 

Each member takes a particular role in the family. Homer is the husband/father who does not like working and enjoys drinking beer; Marge is the housewife/mother with an unexcited life; Bart is the rebel of the family; Lisa is the most intelligent of the three children; and Maggie is the baby that does not speak. However, all the characters make use of irony and parody in similar ways, dealing with topics such as religion, politics and racism. According to the Oxford Dictionary,  Irony means “the use of words that say the opposite of what you mean, often as a joke”; and parody means “ a piece a writing, acting or music that copies the style of somebody or something in order to be amusing”. Both irony and parody are not only used by Matt Groening as tools for making people laugh but as a means to convey important aspects of modern society. This is the key for the success of this cartoon. 

Religion is one of the major topics in the cartoon. The creator of The Simpsons uses parody and irony in several occasions when dealing with this topic. Some clear examples are the followings: Homer does not think that religion is important to his life but he believes in God when he is in troubles. He practises the Protestant religion although he believes that going to the church is a waste of time. Many times he confuses God with a character of a comic strip (Superman). 

Although religion is a quite delicate matter, most people do not take Homer behaviors or actions as offences. With the use of irony people take it less seriously and many times laugh at Homer jokes and also discover hidden messages in his phrases. 

As regards politics, corruption goes hand by hand with it for Groening. He shows us that politicians can be corrupt when they have money and power through the character of the Mayor. Groening uses parody to make people aware that the Mayor is like most politicians  and does not care about the citizens´ problems, but only about getting more money. 

Sometimes people find many coincidences between the Mayor in the cartoon and the politicians of real life. People take for granted that corruption appears easily in the field of politics, but instead of feeling angry about it as they would in real life, they laugh at this situation. 

Racism can be seen in many episodes of The Simpsons. Apu, an Indian shop assistant, is sometimes discriminated by the citizens of Springfield, especially by Homer. Groening uses parody when he represents Apu as those immigrants who come to America looking for new opportunities in a way that is humorous.  For example, the episode when the Springfield´citizens discover that Apu is an ilegal immigrant and start discriminating him for this cause. 

The Simpsons success lays on the ability of Groening to make people laugh at situations that appear in this cartoon and are similar to the ones of real life. The use of irony and parody contribute to this success and help Groening developing topics that are important in the modern society.   

A puff of power for girls

By Florencia Gonzalez and Karina Moreschi

In the late nineties, a new cartoon appeared on T.V. It caught the young audience from the very beginning with its well known opening:

Sugar... spice... and everything nice. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girls. But Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction...Chemical X!-- Thus the Powerpuff Girls were born! Using their ultra-superpowers, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil! 

Who dare say that the mixture of nice things together with an accidental drop of “X Chemical” would turn upside down the ideas about gender role in children cartoon.

Until 1998, superheroes used to be played by males characters and if there was a woman with superpowers, she always had his male counterpart. Let’s take Wonder Woman and She-Ra as examples. She-Ra was He-Man’s sister and Wonder Woman was the only of her gender among all the members of the League of Justice. But The Powerpuff Girls broke this pattern in which women, even the strongest, had only a supporting or passive role.

Created by Craig McCracken, The Powerpuff Girls’ cartoon was broadcast for the first time in November 1998. Its author didn’t have on purpose to cause such a shift of paradigm in children cartoon. The three little heroines, Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles, have well defined characteristics: the sweet Bubble, the irritable Buttercup, and the intelligent Blossom. With this clear opposition of sweet and spicy features, they play the role of protectors of Townsville without loosing their femininity. The novelty of The Powerpuff Girls is given by the performance of the female characters.

The Powerpuff girls don’t always have to use violence or their superpowers to defeat their enemies. They take advantage of their sex attributes becoming stronger by employing the intrinsic power which lies on them as women. An example of this is the way in which they beat the Rowdyruff Boys in the episode number twelve. Kisses were the girls’ secret weapon on that occasion. 

Not only are the three girls portrayed in a distinctive superheroe role but also the women in the supporting characters. Ms. Keane is one of them. She is the Powerpuffs Girls’ kindergarten teacher. And she provides a good example for the three little girls. The reason why, is that she is very intelligent and frequently advices her students to change the perspective from which they can attack the villains, by using methods which avoid the use of brute force. One instance of this can be found in the episode where the superheroines defied the Gangreen Gang to be their opponent in a video game competition.

The other secondary character that is worth to be mention is Ms. Bellum, the Mayor’s assistant. Sexuality is the quality which defines her. She has a voluptuous body which is her only part shown. Her face has been never revealed maybe because that is not necessary to know that she is beautiful according to the cultural-social standards of society. But that is not her only virtue. In her person, the forces of beauty and intellect merge to prove that women can be sexy and clever at the same time. In contrast with her perfection, the Mayor is a bald old man, short both in height and mind, who depends on her assistant and the Powerpuff girls to solve all the problems of the city. Returning to the example found in episode number twelve, it is Ms Bellum who helps the girls to discover the power of kissess to destroy the Rowdyruff Boys[1]. 

Perhaps, it is not easy to perceive the relevance of the effect of these changes in the characters that play the leading role in children cartoons. However, it is important to consider that this is the reflexion of a society which is evolving. And this is also, the new model of superheroes for children, a model without gender distinction. 

To summarize, the Powerpuff girls have turned weakness into opportunity and threat into strength by capitalizing femininity. As a consequence, this cartoon displays a new range of possibilities for the females in the role of superheroes.

[1] References: The Powerpuff Girls: A Society of Girl Power by Krissy Naudus. http://www.urbangeek.net/writings/academic/powerpuff.html

Teletubbies: Why are they so much questioned?

By Palazzetti Ivanna – Bustingorri Guadalupe

Teletubbies is a TV show which was specially created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for babies and little children. Its first appearance on television was in 1997. The characters of this TV show are Tinky Winky and Dipsy, whose blue and green colours respectively are proper of male characters, Laa-Laa and Po, who apparently are females, and the Sun, which is a smiling baby face. The setting is a great garden full of coloured flowers.

What is the reason why Teletubbies are so hypnotizing for children? What do these ETs have that call children's attention so much? Why are they so successful among young audiences? What is the reason why adults hate and mock on Teletubbies? We are sure that the answer to the first three questions is that this TV show makes children laugh and have fun. However, the last question seems to be harder to answer. That is why we will try to explain and justify our agreement with the social prejudice as regards the stupidity of these modern ETs.

To start with, we think Teletubbies are not based on something real. They seem to be strange aliens or something like that, and as far as we know, science has not still proved the existence of extraterrestrial subjects.

Apart from that, these four ETs show stupid movements and speak with a very basic vocabulary. In fact, these four telly-characters repeat actions and words at least two times in a row in only thirty minutes. However, the use of repetition is a great and powerful tool to get children engaged with the TV show.

We should not forget about the shiny sun. We do not understand quite well the meaning of the baby´s face which is constantly smiling. It seems to be diabolic and overexcited. Why does he laugh all the time? What is that makes him laugh? It is quite abnormal. Why does not he cry? Would not it be more normal if he would also cry as all babies do?

In addition, one of the Teletubbies called Tinky Winky can be seen playing with a pink bag. This seems to show homosexual features since it is apparently a boy using a girl’s stuff. For us, it is completely unnecessary to display situations or images to little children that can be discovered and experienced by themselves in future time. It does not mean that we are against the free election of sexuality, but the fact that Tinky Winky plays with a female handbag, looks like made on purpose for getting kids asking questions which are difficult to be answered at their ages.

As if this was not enough, during the TV show, a video is played with the objective of teaching something useful to the audience. But it is still something meaningless and out of the real world since people in it repeat actions and words like parrots, and what is funnier, they celebrate a birthday party to a teddy bear in one of the programmes. 

But all these arguments can be justified if we bear in mind that Teletubbies was made for babies or very little kids. Perhaps their parents turn the TV on and select this TV show in order to keep their children distracted for a while. Perhaps children enjoy watching such strange silly ETs moving all the time and saying things that are senseless. Maybe little kids get fun with those kinds of TV programmes and their parents find them very interesting for their children´s growing.

Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport´s creation seems to underestimate children´s capability and intelligence. It does not help neither complement the knowledge the school tries to transmit. Putting it all together, this TV show is not recommendable for children. It is prohibited for people who are looking for something interesting and at the same time entertaining on TV. We think it is obvious why Teletubbies are so questioned.

The Behaviouristic School bus

By Natalia Diquech and Ma. Florencia Dominguez

As my Aunt Minerva used to say, ‘there's nothing more marvelous than mud.’

Mr. Frizzle (The Magical School Bus, 1994)

Can you imagine a magic school bus? A bus which can take you to extraordinary didactic journeys with an adventurous, intelligent and wise teacher? Actually, it’s not far from imagination. In 1993, a clever writer called Joanna Cole, who previously had written about science and humour, decided to explore this fields by turning complex topics into simple and engaging ones. In order to achieve her ideas, she wrote a book named “The Magic School Bus.” Cole was then supported by Craig Walker, the vice-president and senior editorial director at Scholastic. According to walker, the main idea of the book was to combine science with fictional stories. Later, in 1994 the idea was taken to the TV.

The show places an elementary school teacher called Ms. Frizzle and her students as the main characters. They all travel in the magical bus which takes them to unreachable places such as the solar system, the sea, and other sceneries. Although all the characters take an important role in the show, the teacher is the one who has the knowledge. Can be possible that Ms. Frizzle is following a behaviouristic approach?

During the different episodes you can see how children are transported by a magical bus driven by the teacher to meet knowledge. Children are taken to the centre of knowledge, where they take a passive role because they only observe what the teacher shows them. For example, in one episode the teacher drove the bus, with the children in it, inside the human body in order to teach them how the body functions.

Walker once said that a teacher he had when he was a child inspired him to help Joanna Cole to create Ms. Frizzle. Considering he was born in the 60’s, we can infer his teacher may have followed a behaviouristic view. As a result, Ms. Frizzle may have behaviouristic characteristics concerning her active role in the TV programme.

But what about Joanna? She never stated she had been inspired by any of her school teachers, however, as she was born in 1944, she may have also had a behaviouristic view of education, in which the teacher is the one who posses the knowledge and transmits it to the students. This is something shown in all the episodes. Ms. Frizzle posses the knowledge and she always leads her students to it.

There is a student, called Arnold, which cannot reach learning because he feels he is not brave enough to face the different adventures. That’s why the teacher tries over and over again to teach him until he reaches the teacher’s goal. Once the child has learned the teacher fells she had succeeded. This is a clear example of how the behaviouristic view is immersed in the teacher’s active role.

This analysis understands the show as having a behavioural background in relation to the context in which it was created. As we have mentioned before, the show itself shows behavioural aspects concerning the teacher’s role, the students` role and the way in which knowledge is presented.

We need to be aware of the mixture between science and fiction used to engage children but without forgetting the hidden ground on which the TV series was built up.

A glowing future

(Review by Pilar Granda)

A Glowing Future is a short crime story written by Ruth Rendell who is a contemporary writer. She decided to use her personal feelings such as loneliness and isolation to write a story.

Her writing captures and holds the readers attention since she makes a twist and change the sequence of events in the story.

The story is about a lonely woman whose insensitive husband, after a year of being in Australia, comes back to their apartment in order to fetch his things since he was going to get married to a pretty, greedy woman. His wife who is still in love with him becomes extremely jealous. Her obsession with him grows until she seems to be emotional unstable and even out of her mind.

I highly recommend the story because it holds the readers`expectancy from the beginning till the end. It is an exciting thriller for adults.

The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories  (1843)

(Review by Karina Moreschi)

Edgar Allan Poe’s “Black Cat” is a short story which includes violence, revenge, murder and remorse. Written in first person, the narrator changes from a cat lover into a pet-killer, who his guilty concience makes him to became insane and react violently. The Black Cat plays at the boundry of real and supernatural. Highly recommended for Poe’s followers. It includes all the twist that make him be the master of horror and crime literature.

The horse whisperer

Nicholas Evans

(Review by Patricia De La Llera)

“The horse whisperer”, written by Nicholas Evans, is a novel for adolescents and adults that tells the story of a teenager called Grace Mac Klean and her horse Pilgrim. Both have a terrible accident on an icy road. This incident causes on Grace serious damages so she has to suffer a partial amputation on her right leg. Meanwhile, Pilgrim is badly hurt and its behaviour changes in an uncontrollable way so that the solution is to put Pilgrim down. Grace’s mother refuses to carry out this decision. She knows that there is a man who understands horses’ feelings. Nobody knows his secrets but he is called “the horse whisperer”. Grace and her mother go to see him. This is a wonderful story that holds the reader attention till the end where there is an unexpected final. 

“The horse whisperer” is plenty of details that help the reader to make very clear picture of the places where the story happens.

I recommend this book which is so carefully written.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Ernest Hemingway

(Review by Florencia Villaverde)

The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a novel by Ernest Hemingway that tells the story of Harry, an American writer, who develops an infection on a safari in Africa. As a consequence of his infection, he has to lie alone in a bed and wait until his death. While the main protagonist is waiting for his death, he remembers his experiences in different places of the world and regrets some of the decisions that he made during his life. In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, the author shows how reflection comes before death and how important is to leave this world without regrets.