Fiction in Cartoons: What are the Limits?

Somewhere at the back of your mind, you know when you watch a carton that it's not real: I mean that when you as a viewer see a cartoon, you do not expect its incidents to be real. But that's because you are an adult and you realize that what's on TV in a cartoon show is not supposed to reflect reality.

But what about children, who are a prime audience for most, if not all of the cartoon, shows? Let's first agree that children are no more those naive viewers who would believe anything a cartoon says or shows, but I am particularly interested in younger viewers who are still 2 or 3 years old. They are more susceptible to mixing between cartoons and reality.

Which drives us to the main question that I want to raise which is: what are the limits, if any, that should be put on the fiction in a cartoon show? Some people may laugh at these questions, because many people love cartoons mainly because they are a fiction, so they would probably say; what's the point in making cartoons real as long as we have tone of real life programs? Aren’t cartoons supposed to be a fantasy…a dream..a form of imagination?

Of course, the answer is yes to all these questions. Yes, cartoons are all that but how could you explain two of the most popular accidents that took place in Egypt, where two boys threw themselves from the balcony to imitate Batman and Mighty Mouse? Yes, these are two real incidents that took place in the 1990s in Egypt, believe it or not. When I get to think: why did the boys jump off the balcony? Did they really think they could fly like Batman? If yes, then why did they think so? Is it the cartoon that made them think they can imitate their characters?

What I want to say here is that any cartoons show should not make the child get confused between the reality and fiction in it. I mean, the cartoon should be clear from the beginning that it's either a reality or a fiction. Because the grey area, when you see a cartoon and can't really know whether it's fiction or not, here comes the real danger. Of course, cartoons are not expected to put a title like: 'Hey kids, all this show is just fiction', but I'll explain my point more.

The best example to demonstrate in this discussion is the comparison between Batman and Superman. Indeed, these 2 shows are a great example of what I mean. Superman is an imaginary character of a man from a planet called Krypton who has special, supernatural power such as eye vision (he can see through ultraviolet rays) and flying of course.

Superman's villains (or enemies) are both humans from Earth (such as Lex Luthor) and also villains and monsters from space. While the show's context is clearly fictional, because all the time you see monsters and flying creatures, this is different in Batman. Batman is just a normal guy, Bruce Wayne, who has no special powers. He's just well built, physically, and has weapons atht can make him, well, climb from one building to another.

In my opinion, the Batman show is far more dangerous than the Superman show, because when the Batman show started, it set a real context for itself from the beginning. All the villains in the show are humans, there are no special powers for Batman, so children kind of expect that the following incidents are happening (or can be happening) in real life because the show made no signs or hints that there is anything unreal going on.

Here is the danger, because knowing that Batman is an ordinary human can make the child not only like him but also try to imitate him, more than Superman. At the back of the child's mind he knows that Superman is not real, and so the chances that he will try to fly like him are there, but less than the chances of trying to imitate Batman because children can more relate to it as a human character just like them.

It's this mix or conflict, let's call it, between reality and fiction that raises the question of when to put limits on the degree to which a cartoon is fictious pr not. From my point of view, I think the cartoon should never play on the grey side. It should be honest and clear with the audience from the beginning: that's either a fiction or a real-life cartoon. Of course, as I said, this won't happen by saying it directly. Instead, I suggest the following things as determinants that should be taken into considerations, when making a cartoon show:

• Characters' appearances and origin: if you want to make it a fiction cartoon show make them aliens, or make them look different than humans so children can notice the difference and not expect to be able to do everything they do.
• Story incidents of course
• Wording is also important: indicate these are "special powers' if the show is not clearly fictional, as Batman
• Some channels as Space Toon notify kids before cartoon shows start that what they will see is mainly fictional. But I believe a better method is to make it clear INSIDE the show not BEFORE it.