little kids and animation

Listening to Toon In's podcast with Jim Capobianco

He talked about animation for little children, not Carebear or My Little Pony, but instead really good quality for little kids, like Mary Poppins, Totorro, Winnie the Pooh. When you look at those 3 movies, non of them have people shooting or violence, not even in a comical way, everything is played for entertainment and there's a lightness to them and humor, there might even be gravity like Totorro with the mother being in the hospital, but there's a sense of wonder and magic and gentleness that appeals to a little child.

reminds me of a quote from Miyazaki (about 3 minutes into the 2nd video)

I have many friends who are creators of anime, I don't like it. Because it flaunts despair. They're shallow and display no compassion to fellow humans. And they take an extremely mechanical view of life. You follow?
They're made cheap. They're ugly. Not just in animation but also in computer games, children are sacrificed to the interests of business. I believe that animation robs children of real experience.
The worlds of TV and computer games are limited, to the senses of sight and sound. But when children encounter reality, they use all five senses, of sound, sight, smell, touch and taste. That's how they learn about their world. A 3 year old child simply can't distinguish the difference between images from reality and images on the television set. When children become absorbed in manufactured images instead of reality, they confuse the world on TV with the real world.

Miyazaki's latest (Ponyo by the Sea I thin) I've heard is aimed at the little set as well. He also talks of wonder and magic and the joy of the world when animating for children.

Amusingly, I love Totorro and I think Mary Poppins is pretty fun (c'mon Dick Van Dyke, classic) I think there should be more movies like this, they're engrossing, they keep your attention and keep you entertained, and there's no intentional ugliness in them. Also funny, I don't think little kids should be watching TV at all, like Miyazaki said they can't distinguish from reality and screen fiction, so they shouldn't be polluted with the screen fiction until they are mature enough to not be influenced by it. (trust me, my psychology studies we talked about how adults are influenced by the screen fiction, so children are definetly not immune)