Worst moral message in a kids cartoon

True, but most of it was tournament-style fighting that ends when one of the combatants is knocked out. The movie had them fighting to the death. So it was'nt quite a broken moral.

Honsetly, though, much as I like it, Pokemon could probably qualify for this due to the way it depicts catching monsters and having them fight each other as a natural, social-even kind of thing. It's more questionable than outright outrageous, but still...

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I've never had a problem with Power Puff Girls violence, mainly because.... well, it was justified violence. What exactly do people want superheroes to do when the world's about to blow up?

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Bee Movie had sort of a conformist message, although I don't think we were supposed to take anything in that movie seriously.
 
And then they lose their memories and go back to fighting... (really, the Nostalgia Critic's take on this all says it better than either of us could)

I heard from someone that in Japanese the message was actually an pseudoreligious anti-cloning argument, but 4Kids figured that was too controversial for a kids' film and thus replaced it with the nonsense we saw.
 
Isn't that what you do with Pokemon cards? Pokemon in the games? Pokemon merchandise? And how is a cage any less comftorble than a 3-inch plastic ball? Plus collescting Pokemon would be nicer to the Pokemon than having them battle their heads off. Thay moral may be English specific like the "pokemon aren't ment to fight" moral of the first film.
 
Much as I enjoy Batman: The Brave and The Bold in general, I didn't care for the end of Journey to the Center of the Bat!. The general message seems to be that calmly thinking through your problems is for pansies and that real men charge in without knowing what they're doing.

EDIT: Unsuprisingly TV Tropes has a page dedicated to to this very concept, The Family Unfriendly Aesop.
 
I've mentioned this one way too many times, but I don't care:

"Homecoming Upset" (Kim Possible)

With the help of a third-string character, Bonnie has the election for Homecoming Queen rigged so that she wins it, not Kim. Later in the episode, a series of unfortunate events occurs: a) Bonnie kisses Ron and Kim sees it, leading to b) Kim biting Ron's head off, because, come on, of course Ron would instigate a kiss between himself and the girl who calls him 'loser' all the time. Kim confronts the girl and c) Bonnie breaks down in tears (crocodile; don't deny it), guilting Kim and Ron into finding her a new boyfriend. d) Bonnie finds one in Senor Senior Junior.

Really, that's a hell of a message to send to the target audience of impressionable children: no matter how much of a (insert your own unpostable insult) you are to people (especially those you insult on a regular basis and, as such, have every imaginable right not to help you), not only will you never be punished for it, but you'll even be rewarded for it.

Words fail me.
 
No offense but it is a cartoon/story about war which is why it's called Star Wars. Displaying pacifism during a war between two groups that have warriors who use The Force is not a good idea.



Some people lose faith in the human race after seeing things such as war, prejudice and lack of respect to the Earth.



This is one of the things I like about Toon Zone. The people here are as geeky about cartoons as I am. And occasionally they'll experience something that I have before or recently. Recently I've been watching The Powerpuff Girls on Boomerang and their violent ways make me feel uncomfortable. Like how they beat up Mojo for some candy or how they beat up that Clown even though it was the bleach that made him evil. It's weird, just a few yeas ago I would not have had a problem with it.



I don't think PPG was ever about empowering girls. I think it was just a fun cartoon.



Well anti-cloning isn't something that kids (should) care about. If I'd known that when I went to go see Pokemon in the theaters I would've gotten the message but I probably would've thought it was because clones turn bad and not that clong itself is bad.



I think you're confusing a situation with a moral. The movie teaches us to listen to our parents no matter how strict they may be. I think.
 
I got one; you remember that Simpsons episode where it was revealed that Patty was gay? At the end, when the woman she was about to marry reveales herself to have been a man in disguise, Patty denounces him ("Hell no! I like Girls!") and everybody claps, and Groening seems to be playing it for an actual feel-good moment. Isn't the lynchpin of the pro-gay argument (well, one of the lynchpins) "love before gender"? It bothered me, even when I was a kid.
 
True, but that message in question is lost in translation, as the saying goes. It's understandable if someone gets the impression the movie is "it's okay to disobey your parents and trust strangers, you'll get the guy in the end", since if you take the movie at face value, that's the message you get.
 
You say this as if kids are going to be encountering demons in real life. If anything, those episodes suggest that no one is born evil, which is a very good message.
 
I like to think that the moral behind The Little Mermaid is that a person must be allowed to choose his own way of life, and even if that way might be troublesome and dangerous, it's still better to follow your sincere wishes than to just settle with a life you are not happy with.
 
Wait, you were a kid when that episode first aired? (checks profile...)

Huh, i guess you were. Damn, the notion that more and more people can consider what i still refer to as new Simpsons episodes as part of their childhood makes me feel really, really old...
 
I kind of found it funny how Heathcliff used to almost PROMOTE violence and theft, and yet no parent groups or anything complained. I mean, i like the show, and i know he was that way in the comic strip, but still,,. I also saw a super friends health tips segment where a kid was being chased by a bear. Superman saved him and then the following exchange happened:
Kid: Thanks Superman, i can usually outrun a bear
Superman:Thats because you didnt eat breakfast

So a kid is regularly racing bears, and superman is more concerned about this kid having breakfast? Talk about misplaced priorities.
 
What a topic, so many things come to mind, so little time.

I will start with the basics, the Care Bears. First of all, their whole conformaty thing, but let me add the idea of being sad is wrong. I remember one episode from the DIC series (one of the differences between the DIC and Nelvana series besides the animation and the villains, is the DIC series had the CBs help a kid of the week most of the time. Nelvana only once in a while) a kid was sad about something, and the Care Bears told the kid it is not okay to sad, so please smile . That is a great message, it is perfectly healthy to bottle up all negative feelings and put up a fake smile.

The Simpsons had the opposite message in season 1 when Marge told Lisa, if you want to be sad be sad. Amen to that.

Also in the Nelvana series in one episode the Care Bears help a girl (the one in the wheel chair in case you don't remember, BTW voiced by a young Tara Strong) make some gifts to give to her classmates, so they will be her friend. So basicly, they enable a kid to buy friends. What a great message.

Last but not least, even though there was no kid of the week involved, thankful they wouldn't want to see this and learn a nothing messed up lesson. The Care Bear Olympic episode, that jerk Braveheart DQs Beastly because he had a hunch he was cheating, even though he had to evidvence. It is okay to just character assinate somebody and take away what they earned without any type of trial. Granted Beastly did cheat, but still the Care Bears didn't have any proof.

When you look back, the Care Bears were terrible role models. They are just as wrong as the villains. Professor Coldheart and No Heart wanted to rid the world off all possitive feelings and have the world turn to darkness. If the Care Bears had their way, the world would be rid of all negative feelings, like sadness and anger, in other words rid the world of darkness. The world would be unbalanced if that happened, the lightness needs the darkness. A world of nothing but happy perky people, who are never sad or angry, that world is just as messed up as a world of depressed angry people that Coldheart and No Heart desire.
 
Sometimes, there is no message or moral. Sometimes, a show is just there to be watched and entertain you. I don't really think Powerpuff Girls or Transformers were any kind of message shows overall, though obviously there was an anvilicious episode here and there (like TF's "Golden Lagoon"). The question is, how many of these messages are intended by the creator, and how many are people just reading too much into it?

Now, the eco-freak toons, yeah. Those are anvils.
 
If you think that deserves mentioning, please mention it and explain the episode and your problem with it, because I haven't seen it and I'm sure a lot of other people haven't
 
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