Cartoon Families

Cartoons have families too. 
It's true, if your a viewer of various cartoon shows you'll notice that most shows feature the scenario of a family. One of the earliest popular cartoon families, The Addams Family, arose in 1935. Since then, countless shows such as The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, and others have hopped onto the screen portraying the common family element. Also, another similar element within this common theme is the qualities and quantities of the family itself. For example, usually the cartoon family will consist of a father, the mother, 2-3 children, and a pet. In most cases, the father figure is either fat, stupid, lazy, or all three. The mother, is the foundation of the family, and since she is often times unappreciated, she is looked upon as being too good for the man she's with. The children characters also have supportive roles in these cartoon families, in some cases, the episode will directly revolve around their side of the story.  Lastly whether it be a dog, cat, fish, or dinosaur, their will always be a family pet. In some cases, most cartoon families can actually communicate with the family pet.  It's safe to say that the "family theme" is yet again another popular theme apparent in cartoons.

Cartoons create satires of pop culture

Family Guy video clip
South Park video clip


It is evident that many cartoons exhibit the common trait of creating satires of pop culture. Many popular cartoons seen today display this common element such as Family Guy, American Dad, South Park, etc. One that exemplifies this theme very well is Family Guy. Family Guy, like many of the cartoon shows that are geared mainly towards a mature audience, consistently pushes the envelope when it comes to poking fun at pop culture. The Family Guy video clip above shows proof of this attribute through showcasing various scenes in which the characters spoof the recognizable pop culture of today. This video focuses on spoofing reality shows like American Idol and Jackass. South Park is another popular cartoon show that constantly picks on society. South Park is a humorous cartoon show that is known to constantly impersonate celebrities. This South Park video clip demonstrates 10 different celebrity spoofs. These different spoofs take on celebrities by exaggerating their personality qualities and creating humorous variations of them. Even though cartoons are fictional characters that exist for pure entertainment, they are dependent on reality, as they mimic situations and personalities found in the real world.

Cats: Significant animal character

Cat, Gato, Neko, Chat...no matter how it's portrayed, the cat is a common element consistently seen in cartoons. There are many characteristics of a cats appearance and behavior that lend inspiration to the creation of a character. Common cat qualities that are exhibited throughout many cartoon characters include: devious, vicious, curious, agile, and intelligence. One of the earliest cartoon cat characters to gain popularity  and is now recognized as an icon from the 1920s, is a cat named Felix. Since then, the cartoon world has become saturated with many variations of cat characters. Although they all display different appearance characteristics, they all share similar personality qualities. For example, a common personality trait that is demonstrated throughout these characters is that they are sneaky and they always seem to be after something. Tom ( Tom and Jerry) and Sylvester (Looney Tunes) are two cats in which exhibit this theme well. In Sylvester's case, his deviance is always getting him in trouble because of his infatuation with capturing Tweety, a yellow canary. Another deviant, Tom, is much like Sylvester because he also continuously tries to obtain his prey, a mouse character named Jerry. This cat burglar theme is also illustrated by notorious comic book villain, Cat Woman. Cat Women is an intelligent and agile burglar which involves herself in high stakes theft. The list goes on as there are endless cat characters in the world of cartoons. The cat has and always will be a fundamental character in cartoons and animation.