Today’s kids are spoiled. They can have cartoons 24-7, on demand, no questions asked. Here at Howefitz Blog, I’d like to start  a tradition of making Saturday morning an event again. Cartoons belong on Saturday morning!

While surfing the worldwide web last night, I came across a review of Muppet King Arthur published by BOOM! Kids Comics. The review was on School Library Journal and was written by Katherine Dacey. I have not read this comic yet, so for those of you that don’t like to read reviews, don’t worry. This is not a review, it is commentary on what was said in a review.

Last night, when I read the review, there was one bit in particular that stood out more than the rest:

I’m a little puzzled that Muppet King Arthur is part of the BOOM! Kids line — not because the jokes are raunchy or inappropriate, but because so many of them depend on knowledge of politics and current events that it’s hard to imagine many eight-year-olds guffawing about the merits of democracy versus monarchy. There are certainly gags that grade schoolers can appreciate, but young kids who might be excited about a Kermit-and-Miss-Piggy comic will find the script hard to parse. Muppet King Arthur works better for tweens and teens with a sophisticated sense of humor — if yours are quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail, they’re good candidates — or adults who want to indulge their nostalgia for the original show.

Of course, that was the paragraph that I felt like I really needed to comment on:

March 19, 2010
In response to: Review: Muppet King Arthur, No. 1
Howefitz commented:
I just came across this post. I haven’t read the comic yet, but felt compelled to comment on your assessment of the humor. Jim Henson never intended The Muppets to be for kids. That was their magic. They were able to capture the imagination, no matter what your age was. Adults can and do enjoy Muppets as much, if not more, than the kids.
So if the writing is as you say, it’s spot on and I can’t wait to read it to my kids.

It still amazes me that most folks view animation and puppetry as kid’s stuff. While in America, these things are generally kept in a kid-friendly vein, in many other cultures, these media are one more creative outlet intended for expression. Would an American take a child to a Punch and Judy show?

…or to a showing of ‘Akira’?

For many Americans, these two examples may make you blush, or wonder why someone would ever create puppets so horrifying or a cartoon so violent (Trust me, there are far worse examples out there in the world of Anime…).

The thing is, puppetry and animation lets us explore our imaginations in ways that are nearly impossible to capture on film. What about CGI (Computer Generated Imaging)? That’s just another form of animation, which hasn’t gotten the rep of being ‘kids’ stuff’ like it’s traditional cousin. That is surprising, considering the first photo-realistic CGI characters to appear on the silver screen were Stuart Little and Jar-Jar Binks.

So, back to Muppet King Arthur: in her review, Ms. Dacey states that the comic is full of jokes about labor unions and stimulus packages, which she claims will go right over an 8-year old’s head. That may be the case, but for the adult who’s reading the book to the child, said adult isn’t getting bored to tears like with the normal kid stuff. Which is perfectly in line with the Muppet tradition. Sesame Street recently celebrated it’s 40th anniversary, and NPR marked the occasion with the story, ‘On Sesame Street, “C” Is For Controversy‘. The story covers much of the more adult humor contained within Sesame Street, which was the predecessor of The Muppet Show.

Jim Henson set the tone with Sesame Street in 1969, and some of that tone still resonates in the newly-produced Muppet clips that can be found at Disney.com today.

If you look at the body of work that Jim Henson created outside the Muppets, he was consistently pushing the envelope of what kind of story could be told with puppets, and wouldn’t necessarily be classified as ‘kids’ stuff’. Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, and what I consider a crowning achievement: The Storyteller…

While considered cult hits today, these films and television series were flops in America when they first appeared, though they were wildly popular in Europe (home to Punch and Judy) and Japan (home to many a violent ‘cartoon’).

From a children’s literature standpoint, have you read the original ‘Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland‘? (If not, you can download it at the link provided.) It’s full of political satire that probably goes over a modern adult’s head. Is it any less beloved as a children’s story? Nope. ‘Gulliver’s Travels‘? Yep, political satire…

So, as I said in my comment of Ms. Dacey’s review, if the comic is written as she said, I can’t wait to read it to my kids. It takes true talent to write something to children, and not down to them. Something that many of the children’s authors I’ve run across recently have forgotten, and Jim Henson fully understood. In this information age of the television always on and kids on computers, they probably know more than you realize. Why not embrace that and foster a curiosity in your children for the world outside themselves?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Jim Henson’s Fantastic World! On View at the National Heritage Museum, Lexington, MA, April 3 through June 27, 2010 (prweb.com)
• The Muppets celebrate Steve Jobs with Jim Henson honor (cultofmac.com)
• Jim Henson Company Confirms ‘Dark Crystal’ And ‘Labyrinth’ Comics Following ‘Fraggle Rock’ (splashpage.mtv.com)