Hope the following answers most of Huma’s queries.
NTM was one of the earlier pioneers in terms of bringing quality cartoons to the country. PTV, the state owned broadcaster, presented plays and puppet shows and children’s programs in Urdu, but retained a low profile as far as the imported English cartoons were concerned. NTM eventually began to dub the cartoons in Urdu, and this proved to be ridiculous, mostly because of the poor quality of the dubbing. I distinctly recall Michelangelo from the Turtles commenting about his Pistachio in Urdu, while he actually was referring to Pepperoni in the original.
Over time, NTM is now no more, and the current scenario sees a huge influx of Pakistani channels doing the rounds. Most of these new channels try to cater to the youth through music and plays, and very few children’s programs abound. Very few of the cartoons that these channels now show are dubbed in Urdu, but the game shows and other assorted programs, naturally are. Recently, Cartoon Network Pakistan has been launched, and thanks to Cable and DVDs, the viewers here have access to any and all American and British shows.
Now what I was pointing towards in the previous post, was using Cartoons as an educational medium. It’s all well and good watching Thunder Cats beat everyone else up, but really what did we learn from it? What needs to be put in place is a balance between entertainment and education for children. Something I’d like to call Informed Entertainment. For that to happen, the media has to realize how important it is to present children with quality facts along with their entertainment, whether it be in Urdu or English. Before that, they have to start considering the importance of children as their potential viewers.
It’s all about being responsible and taking ownership, and the media has to start doing that.
finally i decided to leave a comment! considering u talk abt me so much (yes i went thru ur entire blog n ur a sweetheart but u already know that?)khair like we were discussing earlier abt cartoons being a gr8 source of enlightened entertainment- ud b glad to know one of my friends at indus did his thesis on urdu cartoons with meaning-sum of which had career oriented and “a day in the life of a famous personality” episodes to give children insights on who they aspire to be like-another 1 did a revival of our old traditional street games like kho kho, pitthu barf pani ,chor pakram sathee etc-amazing stuff – with such ideas we have hope yet-;)
I have officially fallen off the face of the earth. But I’m back!
I think the basic point of Thundercats, and the like, were to teach kids morals. I don’t know if you remember, but in the instance of the Thundercats, there was always a sappy “moral of the story” at the end, disguised as a joke. In the cartoon show Silverhawks, which was created by the same folks who did Thundercats, each episode ended with the Copper Kid learning various new facts about the solar system. And let’s not forget Captain Planet! He’s our hero! Gonna take pollution down to zero! I’m sure there were many other cartoons like that. Tom and Jerry, and the like, well…. they’re just banking on the fact that 80% of human laughter is generated by the suffering and misfortune of others
I remember being very disappointed when cartoons were dubbed in Urdu. I found it really hard to follow the Urdu words – not because I didn’t know Urdu – but because my mind was just not trained to watch those things in Urdu. I either couldn’t follow it, or perhaps, couldn’t bear it, to hear Michelangelo say “YaaaRR” instead of “DUUUUUDE.” What the heck did he say for “Cowabunga” anyway? Let me know if you remember!
As always, love your blog, Mairy. Hugs and more hugs!
I must strongly disagree on this! The balance between education and entertainment. The author has obviously not seen much of cartoons like Captain Planet or Thundercats or paid much attention to the theme.
It is exactly doing that: each episode giving children a lesson while making the plot of the episode interestign & enjoyable hence balance of education
Each episode in Thundercats has a theme or lesson to teach people. For example a big game ‘hunter’ went across the galixy hunting species and people for fun. After he preyed the Thundercats for his sports ‘hunting’ he was defeated & disarmed. This got him scared, in the end it turned out this buly was just a coward.
Another episode titled Good & ugly had Lion-O getting into a fight with a mechanical creature simply becaus ehe looked firghtening it only turned out he was a good creature. The theme was that you should never judge one as your friend or enemy based on their appearence, but by their actions.
I encourage the author to watch Captain Planet (which is about protecting the enviornemtn of the Earth) and Thundercats, He-Man etc. before pre-judging them. They are everything a child needs to learn about morality through fun and through charectr’s they grow to love, like I did.
CORRECTION:
I must disagree on this. The balance between education and entertainment. The author has obviously not seen much of cartoons like Captain Planet or Thundercats or paid much attention to the theme.
It is exactly doing that: each episode giving children a lesson while making the plot of the episode interesting & enjoyable hence balance of education & entertainment.
Each episode in Thundercats has a theme or lesson to teach people. For example a big game ‘hunter’ went across the galixy hunting species and people for fun. After he preyed the Thundercats for his sports ‘hunting’ he was defeated & disarmed. This got him scared, in the end it turned out this bully was just a coward who attacked those weaker than himself.
Another episode titled Good & Ugly had Lion-O getting into a fight with a mechanical creature simply becaus ehe looked firghtening it only turned out he was a good creature. The theme was that you should never judge one as your friend or enemy based on their appearence, but by their actions.
I encourage the author to watch Captain Planet (which is about protecting the enviornemtn of the Earth) and Thundercats, He-Man etc. before pre-judging them. Even the makers had their cartoons tested by psychologists to see if it was suitable for children and added that they wanted such themes of morality.
They are everything a child needs to learn about morality through fun and through character’s they grow to love, like I did!