Animated cartoons are one of the most appealing types of entertainment media for kids of all time. The rising demand for animated cartoons in recent years and the enormous profit of this industry attract both big and small scale studios to create and distribute their cartoon projects. This article will show you a clearer picture of animated cartoons for kids and their potential in the future.
Why are children attracted to animated cartoons?
There are a lot of entertainment activities for children to spend their free time. Among that, watching animated cartoons is the most appealing. Many studies showed that children usually spend most of their time watching cartoons: in the morning before going to school, coming home from school, or all the weekend. They prefer watching animated cartoons to news, long TV series, or some educational programs. So, what are the reasons?
The kid's brain is always looking for new experiences.
From an early age, children are like white papers. They easily copy the actions of any person or anything they admire that seems interesting. That is why the cartoon scene uses delightful characters, bright color, eye-catching visuals, and funny songs to attract aspirations to watch animated cartoons. These are also essential factors for a child to be trapped in a cartoon character and their brains automatically imitate their actions or emotions.
Cartoon content is more appealing than traditional learning methods.
It is undeniable that messages conveyed through animated cartoons are more attractive than those in traditional ways. The most significant thing that a textbook, a lesson, or other educational and entertainment media can teach children is how to apply knowledge to real-life situations. Animated cartoons do exactly that, but better. The scenes, audio, visual effects, and colors woven in animated cartoons can deliver a large amount of information than teachers do in the classroom.
Effects of animated cartoon series on children
Cartoon content and cartoon characters affect children's lifestyles and behavior
Animated cartoons indeed have a positive social impact on children. According to some research, animated cartoons are an efficient tool of communication because of their ability to impact the viewpoints of children. The way kids talk to parents, friends, wear clothes, and their lifestyles are also influenced by what they see in animated cartoons. For example, many animated cartoons are designed to encourage children to eat more fruits and vegetables. For example, the US White House Task Force and IOM (2006) suggested using animated cartoons characters to encourage children to follow a healthier diet.
Cartoons as socialization and educational tool
A licensed animated cartoon can help children broaden their knowledge of the world in which they live, patriotism, and the diverse culture of different countries. After the lockdown, many American kids speak with British accents because of the British cartoon "Peppa Pig".
Some cartoonish situations teach children some survival skills to realize the dangers of electricity, fire, water, and other accidents. There is a learning process children can learn through watching cartoons.
Using cartoons to enhance the quality of STEM learning
Up to this point, animated cartoons series and concept cartoons are now applied effectively in the education system. Teachers set up classes as role-playing games to draw students’ attention to math and science, give them practical hands-on activities to learn science vocabulary.
Children are the target audience of marketing campaigns
Children see advertisements while watching cartoons and want those products. In other circumstances, they have a desire for products that have images of their favorite cartoon characters. For instance, the Bunty brand targeted teens and partnered with the ‘Ben10’ series. They ran a campaign to give teens a Free Ben 10 sticker with every Bunty Chocolate. Many youngsters who are fans of Ben 10 animated cartoon want to buy Bunty chocolate.
The potential of animated cartoons for children
Streaming giants investing heavily in animated cartoons can cause even more young viewers to migrate away from ad-supported environments to some ad-free platforms. That leverages the development of cartoons production in many ways.
Disney+:
In 2020, Disney officially launched its streaming service Disney+ with over 28.6 million paid subscribers after one quarter. They boast a wide range of kids’ content, ranging from classic movies to new series. Despite entering the market later, Disney+ put more effort into network development and product quality optimization, mainly for animated cartoons to compete with other competitors, the biggest being Netflix.
Netflix:
Coming off of two Oscars nominations for its animated films, Netflix is investing even more in the content for kids. Netflix has signed licensing or co-production deals with DreamWorks and its rival Disney, and recently with famous Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli and Nickelodeon to create more animated cartoons. Read more about Netflix’s plan on animated movies for kids.
The rising demand for animated cartoons on ad-free platforms like Netflix or Disney+ reflects more opportunities for animation production houses, both big scale or small limited-access ones.
DeeDee Animation Studio’s outstanding animated projects for children
DeeDee Animation Studio is a winning-award and fast-growing animation production house in Vietnam. Our animation production service consists of various genres from long animated series, animated music videos, animated TVCs, and more. Among that, animated projects for kids make up a large portion of the total. Some of our best-animated projects for children include “Fun with Traffic - Bi Bo Ben” - an animated program used by Vietnam Television Broadcasting Company and the Ministry of Education and Training as educational materials for traffic safety, “The Legend of Hai Moc Nhi” and “Vim Super Heros”. Check out our portfolio here.
If you have an idea for an animation project for kids, contact us to get more information.
References:
Spinningclock.com, The present and future of animation
Researchgate.net, Effects of cartoons on children
Businessinsider.com, Netflix is investing even more in kids-focused content after coming off of two Oscar nominations for animated films