Few weeks ago we have been asked to think about the problems regarding the industry. We had to think of the different 'branches' of creative media and problems associated with them. We had to think about ethic problems, moral problems and such. For example, video games full of violence might be played by young children. Unlike adult, children would not understand that everything in video games is fiction only. Those children would think that violence is a good think. They could become more aggressive.
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Hakim and I decided to talk about the animation in the past and nowadays along with ethic problems, as it was relevant to our experiences.
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Everyone knows that cartoons like Donald Duck were not as subtle as today - right now they decide to avoid misunderstandings and situations that can offend someone.
It was different in the past, as back then people were not so considerate about other people.
Disney has created some episodes of Donald Duck that are considered offensive to some people.
For example in one episode Donald Duck confuses children with cannibals. Cannibals were obviously black and presented as some monkey-like creatures. Cannibals could not talk but made weird sounds instead.
Because of things like that (presenting black people as aggressive, not intelligent people) I have believed as a child, that it is true and imagined all black pleople in a similar manner.
The thing is, Disney did not want this episode to be offensive. They just wanted cannibals to create a joke and they did not know any other way to create one. However, that applies only to old animations. They were racist only because of misunderstandings but animations right now are offensive simply in order to be offensive. They are made in other to create controversy and there is no other reason.
Boondocs is not a new show as it has some years already but not enough to be considered old. Most of the characters are black. Practically all of them are racist and aggressive. Many of them are criminals. Video above shows one of those characters.
Another example of offensive animation is Keijo. Unlike Donald Duck and Boondocs I shall not include any image or video because I consider them extremely sexist. Basically it is a show where women fight in some tournament using their... busts. In order to make their attacks... more powerful (?) they grope breasts...
In short; this show presents women as things you can play with, toys that will entertain you. They weirdest thing is that this show is accessible for everyone (not just for adults) - you can watch it even on Youtube for some reason.
In the end I wanted to repeat myself once more. Old animations were misunderstood, or their authors misunderstood something thus creating episodes that can offend someone. Some of new animations are created in order to offend others in order to be popular.