I often help watch my nephew. He is a two year old, and he is the coolest person that I know. Recently, I was looking for a cartoon to watch with him, and I came across something we hadn’t seen before. A short, animated show called, The Gruffalo. It looked like a cute cartoon, so I put it on the television.
The superficial side…
It’s a very pretty cartoon. I really like the style of the characters, and it is easy to watch. Sometimes cartoons give me a headache, or they’re just not very good, but I really liked this one. It made me feel like I was sitting there, reading an actual picture book, which was kind of nice.
A little bit about the story…
The Gruffalo tells two stories. The overarching story is about a family of squirrels, and how the mother protects her children from predators, and outsmarts the larger animals. The second story, one that she tells to her children, makes up most of the episode. It follows a mouse who goes for a walk in the woods, as he deceives his predators. It was quite an interesting story, and it is enjoyable to watch, however, at the end of it I was wondering whether or not we were supposed to align, morally, with the mouse.
The morality of a liar…
While this is a intriguing story of a intelligent character, it is also a story of a deceitful character. Right up until the end, the mouse survives by lying to literally everyone. At first I thought it was a simple topic. The mouse lied in order to survive. Hypothetically that’s not as much of a moral issue, right? He just tricked the bad guys. Well, then I realized that it wasn’t that simple. I realized that the mouse’s walk through the woods was completely unnecessary. He didn’t accomplish anything of value by going through the woods, and his only motivations were selfish. It would be more accurate to say that the result of him lying, throughout the entire short, is that he ends up back where he started, and with more pride than he started with.
I thought it was a little bit strange.
I realize now that the issue is that the cartoon was not made to be dissected for a lesson in morality. It is just a short story about a clever mouse, and the overarching story about the squirrels is just supposed to be heartwarming. The truth is that it’s just a story, and there’s not anything inherently wrong with it.
Overall…
The cartoon is well made. The story is entertaining, and I enjoyed watching it. I did feel like it presented some questions, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I think that kids do need to face moral topics, and they need to experience feeling conflict with other perspectives. That’s how we refine our beliefs, after all.
Thank you!
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I would recommend watching the cartoon, and seeing what you think of it for yourself. Share your thoughts in the comments!