Cartoons for Your Viewing Pleasure

Of late, the kids have been smitten with a couple of “new to them” cartoon series. The first is Avatar: The Last Airbender and the other is Jackie Chan Adventures. Both are, I think, good cartoons for their age with simple-to-grasp plots, plenty of action, and a good amount of magic thrown in to boot.

Avatar, in particular, has been a good series for them to watch. It is a Tolkienesque story set in its own world but with much familiarity to it. The main story arc is about Ang, who is quickly revealed to be the last of the Airbenders and the Avatar- a chosen individual with great power. In addition to air bending, there is also fire bending, earth bending and water bending. While there are practitioners of each of these disciplines individually, the Avatar is the only one who can accomplish all 4. Fire benders have waged war on the world and are poised to establish rule over all the lands, thus throwing the world “out of balance.” It is Ang’s job to restore and maintain balance in the world, thus he must stop the fire benders from succeeding in their conquest. As the all-powerful Avatar, one would think it a trivial task. But there’s a catch: Ang disappeared for 100 years as a child and never learned how to bend earth, fire or water. The story follows his journey to learn enough to win the day, as well as the adventures of the friends he meets along the way.

There’s lots to like about Avatar. First, the cartoons are 30 minute episodes, just he right length for the kid’s attention spans. Plus, the main characters throughout the story are children, and recognizable as such so the kids seem take to the characters and their plight quicker. All of the stories have nice life lessons about friendship, making choices, handling conflict, confronting fears and doubts and so forth. The series itself is long (about 63 episodes) so the kids can’t possibly sit and watch it in a sitting, so it becomes an exercise in patience. There’s plenty to tickle their imagination as well. In addition to the various bending techniques, there’s fantastic creatures, forests, cities and cultures introduced throughout the tale.

All things considered, as good a cartoon as one could hope for the kids.

Jackie Chan Adventures shares many similarities with Avatar, lacking the strong overall story arc. None the less, I’d say it’s still a cartoon not to be shunned because it has enough imaginative characters and devices in addition to a well defined sense of good and bad. This cartoon sticks much more closely to “traditional” plot lines where the good guys win-out in each episode. There’s plenty of humor and action (it is Jackie Chan, after all) along the way to keep the kid’s interest. Most of the lessons are offered by Jackie’s nephew sidekick, Jade, whom is closer to the kids’ age than not. She’s a constant antagonist, getting herself into trouble that “Uncle Jackie” gets her out of eventually. Mainly, the show is about hunting magical talismans. Jackie wants them to keep the bad guys from getting them; the bad guys want them to rule the world. Doesn’t get much simpler than that.

The lass tolerates Jackie Chan Adventures, but the boy loves it because of “all the karate.” They both like Avatar; the lass because she thinks it’s funny, the boy because it’s “awesome.” So there you go.