By Arjit Sethi
We all are so busy with our over exerted and goal oriented lives that we forget what the intention behind our parents was and teachers making us watch the cartoons. Cartoon characters are like the old Chinese wise men who are always teaching us the lessons of life. These lessons are of much more value than any international business best seller. I feel great pride in enumerating a few below.
1. WOMEN CAN DO ANYTHING – POWERPUFF GIRLS
Protagonists of the 1970’s children favorite power puff girls; Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup are true inspiration for the 21st century girl, who with utter bravery and grace would fight the evils of society and be great daughters at the same time.
These girls with their super powers are always ready to safeguard the truth and fearlessly face the social enemies, a much-needed lesson for current times.
2. YOU CAN BE QUIET AND CONFIDENT – THE PINK PANTHER
The Pink Panther never said much during his animated “The Pink Panther Show.” In fact, he never said anything. Never mind the fact that he might, in any given episode, be assaulted by large-nosed neighbors, supercilious narrators, or out-of-control power tools. Nothing ever rattled The Pink One enough to make him squeal.
For the quieter lads and lasses—the children who never raised their hands in class, never were picked first for kickball, and sometimes wore mismatched socks to school—the cartoon Panther may have been an inspiration. Here was a character who always wore pink but never had his manhood questioned. Here was someone who, no matter how many times he tripped over his own tail, survived to see another Saturday morning. Here was someone who never had to say anything to be the coolest cat on the dial.
3. RESPECT YOUR ELDERS – THE SMURFS
Smurf Village is loaded with scads of colorful (i.e. blue) characters: There’s Brainy Smurf, who never met a slide rule he didn’t like. There’s Jokey Smurf, who loves to hand out firecrackers. There’s Handy Smurf and Grouchy Smurf and Poet Smurf and scads of other smurfs who represent every personality or professional trait you can imagine. Surely, if the “The Smurfs” were remade today, we’d hear about Blogger Smurf—though we’d never see him because he’d never leave his little Smurf house.
But the only one who seemed to know what he was doing most of the time was Papa Smurf, the bearded, red-hatted patriarch of the whole Smurfin clan. Whenever something would go awry—as it often did—we could count on Papa Smurf to make everything right again— sometimes through magic, but more often through a little sage wisdom.
4. DO NOT TRUST STRANGERS – SCOOBY-DOO
Zoinks! In his decade of 1990’s, Scooby and the gang solved more mysteries on “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” than CID today. Of course, once they figured out the formula, it wasn’t all that tough: They always knew the ghost would wind up being a guy in a rubber mask.
The tricky part was to figure out who wore the mask: Was it the creepy gardener who spoke in monosyllabic grunts? Or was it the kindly grandmother who cooked a big pot of stew for the crew? They—and we—were never quite sure until the credits rolled, which proved to telegraph a timely message for kids: Never trust strangers completely, even if they offer you a Scooby Snack.
5. MATERIALISM DOESN’T PAY – THE ROAD RUNNER
Warner Bros.’ “The Road Runner Show” cartoons were a staple on breakfast television time. And while the shorts are unquestionably the most violent form of entertainment this side of the “Saw” franchise, they’re among the most educational, too. Wile E. Coyote was the show’s primary professor, and he taught his young students dozens of pragmatic lessons: Don’t horse around near dizzying precipices. Don’t strap yourself to large explosive rockets. Don’t paint false train tunnels onto the faces of cliffs. But, through his boundless trust in (and inexhaustible account with) the Acme Corporation, Mr. Coyote also offered an important, if little heeded, message: You can’t catch happiness through the accumulation of “stuff,” no matter how much of it you buy. Sure, sometimes it’ll seem tantalizingly close…but it’ll always speed away again with a “beep-beep” and tongue waggle.
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