Storytelling impedence mismatch
There's no accounting for taste, I suppose. Don't get me wrong--everyone is entitled to enjoy whatever kinds of TV shows and movies and such that strike their fancy, but I still reserve the right to chuckle derisively about their choices. My poor sister is saddled with an affinity for some undeniably sappy movies, for example. I don't have anything against Hugh Grant, to take one random example, but the man plays exactly the same character regardless of what movie he's in.
Then there's my father. He's a real meat-and-potatoes kind of movie fan, which is to say that he's an action-and-explosions movie fan. Again, nothing wrong with that, but it would shatter his world if he ever found out that Steven Sagal is actually three feet tall, and a woman.
Of course, sometimes my family surprises me: my father really liked Amelie, a movie with about as many explosions as a moist towel. And, to her credit, my sister really likes the movie Goonies. At least, I think she does. Well, she'd better like it.
So it's no surprise that I always saw my mother as the last bastion of artistic taste, even though she, too, likes her fair share of sappy, weepy flicks as well. At least she doesn't fall asleep if there is more than five lines of dialogue in a row. And so it was my mother who I so ernestly tried to introduce to my favorite TV show, and perhaps the finest show of all time: Futurama.
Well, my mom is always polite, but I can tell she's just not that into Futurama. I admit to being mystified, stymied, and all sorts of other words with "y" in them. We watched the first few episodes together, and while it went over slightly better with her than a moist towel, it wasn't much better. Maybe the sort-of-geeky sense of humor didn't hit mom's funny bone? I mean, the show is beautifully drawn, it has interesting and sympathetic characters, smart and funny writing, excellent voice talent, and engrossing stories.
Drawn? Voice talent? Ay, there's the rub: Futurama is a cartoon.
My first clue came not when watching Futurama, but Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law: "I can't imagine kids watching this show," my mom said. Ah, but it's not a cartoon for kids! Cartoons--or really, animated shows--aren't just for kids. I figured that much was obvious after movies like The Iron Giant, or The Incredibles, both of which have serious and adult stories and themes. Or Miyazaki's amazing My Neighbor Totoro? Surely those kinds of movies would help dispel the notion that cartoons are just for kids? Maybe not.
I think I understand why issues of Transmetropolitan result in eye rolling, or why my parents have never given The Simpsons a fair shake. And insight into why Japanese anime has had such a hard time finding a big audience in the United States. We've been ruined by Disney-ification of animated storytelling! (Well, anime may also be hampered by the fact that their stories are also often nonsensical, disturbing, indecipherable, or some combination of all three, but that's another thing entirely.)
After all, that's what animation is: just another way to tell a story. If we can get people to look past their "cartoons are for kids" mentality, if we can help them see the people in the characters, to see the substance in the stories, maybe we can help them to understand that they've been missing out on a wonderful gateway to that most human of endeavors: storytelling.
Mom, it is a moral imperative that we watch more Futurama together. Your very existential well-being is at stake! And when we watch The Luck of the Fryish or Jurassic Bark, you'll cry too.
Comments
Posted by: Mom | January 10, 2006 09:38 AM
Posted by: Jef | January 11, 2006 06:44 AM