CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 1.1       Background of the Study

Cartoons have been a part of cinema history from the time the first motion pictures were made in the late 1800s. A cartoon is a movie made by using animation instead of live actors, especially a humorous film intended for children (Thompson, 2010). Cartoons can also be described as the making of movies by filming a sequence of slightly varying drawings or models so that they appear to move and change when the sequence is shown. These are the elements that keep viewers, (mostly children) glued to their seats. Cartoons were initially so short because people would be watching these shorts in the movie theatres before their feature film. When cartoonists could put their shows on TV, they began to get longer, creating the half hour block shows that are on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and the Disney Channel today. Also, the cartoons had to become more “family friendly” so that more people would watch their show (Kapelian, 2009).

Television shows and animated films, for over 80 years, have been entertaining the kids. Felix the Cat the first ever cartoon icon, which started its journey in 1920s. In the next 10 years, Donald duck, Mickey Mouse and Pluto was the cartoon character which are being introduce by Disney Brother’ s Cartoon Studios (Box Office Mojo, 2004). Now a day, children’s physical activities are limited by excessive watching of television. As cartoon watching is the most favorite hobby of children in their leisure time, so they like to watch the cartoons on television rather than to do any physical activity. Cartoon watching affects the attitude and behavior of kids i.e. their liking and disliking, way of talking, and behaving with other children. It also has a strong affect on their language and the way of their dressing and eating.