Sep17
As I mentioned in last week’s post, Fluffy Gardens characters come with grey areas – they, like real people, aren’t just black and white and don’t always lend themselves to clear messages or absolutes. One character who posed a problem was Scoopy the Pink Rabbit. I set Scoopy up as a character who constantly asks questions. Every answer followed instantly by yet another question, often an inappropriate one.
We all know children like that, right?
But what’s the lesson? That a child shouldn’t ask questions? But then isn’t the best way of learning about things asking questions? We should be encouraging children to ask questions. Well that’s a lesson any parent with a three year-old on their 167th ‘why’ of the day would likely take issue with.
So Scoopy the Pink Rabbit’s episode ended up with multiple messages to children: asking questions can lead to useful knowledge, but ask the right questions and don’t hurt anyone’s feelings. And, in a way, it had a message to adults too: your child asking questions can be a very good thing.
The result?
The episode is messy. It has some fun in it, no doubt, and children seem to really enjoy it (I suppose that’s the important thing) but across the whole series I feel it is one of the weaker episodes.
Life has its grey areas and sometimes there isn’t just one right answer but, man, that doesn’t half make it hard to write a good show about them. This is where I think co-viewing comes into play. It is a really good idea for parents to watch shows with their children and talk about them. That way, parents can expand on the ideas in the show or answer any questions the show brings up in a way that suits them right then and there.
Because poor ol’ children’s television can’t cover everything.
Tags: animation, Children, Fluffy Gardens, Messages, Monster Animation
