Penciled Past

January 23-- Week 3

My relationship with cartoons as a young one.

I started at a young age obsessed with Fievel Goes West, a Spielberg produced film chronicling a story of my two favorite things, cowboys and Jewish mice. Really though, as a cowboy freak and a child smack in the middle of the Fievel trilogy's demographic, I've seen the film over 100 times, maybe 200; even to this day I doubt I've seen any piece of media more than I've seen that one. I sometimes believe that I based a lot of my developmental social feelings and skills off of those animated situations, I still remember the characters, their mannerisms, and the punchlines, the slapstick humor and overarching theme basing an integral part of being human on a longing for home and love.

I used to read batman and Sonic the Hedgehog comic books (Really, what WAS a Sega Genesis if it wasn't a Cartoon play-along machine?), but have long dismissed cartoons in most forms. The content has stayed stale and dormant (Not including the outrageously good "Spirited Aways" and a "Princess Mononoke" or two), and I really hate to say this for fear of pissing off the nerd peanut gallery that is Media Arts, but I hate cartoons, they're below my psychological stimulation level.

Family Guy is shamefully teenage, Adult Swim is for drug abusing high schoolers and I couldn't be less interested in a comic book.

Around here we all are, if nothing else unifies us, art snobs, right?