Religious Cartoons and Power Rangers

YJA Board on May 2007

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Religious cartoons for kids are becoming all the more popular. My dad’s side of the family comes from a Hindu background and their children are always watching some new cartoon about Krishna or Hanuman. Not just in India, but also here in the states.

The videos are great productions. The sound, animation and story lines are always stellar. And I know the kids are enjoying them because they are constantly dragging their DVDs every where they go.

As impressive as they are, I also feel that they are spiritually weak. The “bad guys” are always clearly bad. They are always portrayed as demons. The gods or saints always have some special power and are hardly ever shown experiencing any significant human challenges. Everything is black and white - there is no grey room at all.

All the action makes for great entertainment, but I’m wondering if the kids are really learning much. In fact I think they are just left with a more romanticized version of who “bhagwan” is rather than what he/she stood for.

The Jain and Buddhist cartoons I’ve seen are a little bit better. Better as in they aren’t as void of spirituality. And, yes I know these videos are for kids. But I’m thinking, is there any real difference between these videos and turning on Power Rangers? All I’m saying is just because they are tagged “religious” videos doesn’t automatically make them a good thing.

I would say though, if a mother is planning turning on the TV for her child I’d much rather have her pop in one of these videos than the Disney Channel. Although my greatest preference would be to turn the TV off and encourage the kid to play. Same thing goes for the mother. It might do her well to turn off those Indian serials.

With the growth of technology and more individuals getting into animation I’m predicting we’ll see better quality videos coming out soon. Heck, maybe I’ll take on a project myself.

Here’s an example of a Jain cartoon I pulled from youtube.