Children of a younger age have been the demographic for cartoons because of how cartoons are animated or how they approach difficulties. But nowadays, children don’t necessarily watch cartoons on Nickelodeon or Disney because we have YouTube or Netflix to watch shows on. Is there a correct demographic for cartoon watchers?
Most of us could agree that when growing up, we spent a lot of our time watching cartoons like “The Rugrats”, “Mickey Mouse” and “Dora the Explorer”. These older cartoons that originated from the 90s or early 2000s were extremely popular among children, but are they popular amongst teens? If you rewatch a much older cartoon, such as “Tom and Jerry”, released in 1940, you could see that the fights between Tom and Jerry correlate to real life. Within a lot of cartoons, they have hidden meanings that are meant to appeal to teens.
Life lessons are seen within “Tom and Jerry” because of their deeper meaning in episodes. One in particular, called “Blue Cat Blues,” is widely seen as a ‘dark life lesson’ that people can learn from. In this episode, Tom sees this beautiful white cat who initially seems to like Tom for who he is. But later on with time, the white cat goes on with another cat named Butch because he has a better life than what Tom does.
Within this episode, Tom stands on the trail tracks attempting to take his life away because of the actions that the white cat did. Together as usual, Jerry also joins Tom on the tracks because of his unfaithful girlfriend, who also left him heartbroken. Tough topics like depression are partially directed towards people of older age, as someone who is six years old won’t necessarily understand these types of problems.
“Tom and Jerry” is a great cartoon that shows conflicts between friendships. Even though Jerry may make Tom angry a lot of the time, they still bounce back from the tough times and show kindness towards each other. Especially since Tom and Jerry is a popular cartoon for barely having words spoken. This tells the watcher to focus more on their actions and not their words. Cartoons that hold anger and kindness at the same time offer valuable lessons to the viewers.
While cartoons have traditionally been seen as entertainment for young children, their deeper messages, emotional power, and more mature themes often correlate more with older audiences. As platforms like Netflix and YouTube expand access to a wide range of content, viewers of all ages are rediscovering and reinterpreting classic cartoons through a more mature perspective. Shows like “Tom and Jerry” prove that underneath humor lie valuable life lessons about friendship, heartbreak and more.
