At 03:49 PM 9/6/01 -0400, Shannon Marie Smith wrote:

>I guess that's why
>I can sit down and watch an episode of "Sponge Bob Square Pants" where
>everything is so surreal you might as well be in a Dali painting or Andre
>Breton work.

I agree!  Also, Spongebob is ingenious precisely because its "population"
of characters are all aquatic.  Squids are smarter than invertebrates
(starfishes and sponges), crabs are about as smart as squids, etc., the
creatures who live in the deep trench are WAAAY different than those living
in Bikini Bottom; there is even a scuba-diving squirrel (from Texas!) who
is the smartest character in the story.

It is a relatively non-violent cartoon, with so little credible violence
that even my three-year-old daughter doesn't take it seriously.  It manages
to be stupidly funny, and even pokes fun at many human prejudices, without
resorting to racially-based humor. For example, an entire episode revolved
around whether sea creatures or land creatures were "better".  In the end,
they all discover that they are simply different; each better at some
things than the others.

By contrast, I find "Animaniacs" so violent that I won't allow my 3 year
old to watch it.

Well, this is WAY too much analysis for a cartoon.  Can you tell I have a
pre-schooler?   :-)


Steve





----------------------------------------
Dr. Steven Bird
Director of Orchestras
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga