I always valued children's Bible story books such as those by B A Ramsbottom that have life like illustrations with no depictions of Jesus. I also always avoided cartoon style illustrations in any books with my children, whether they were specific retellings of the Bible, general books or even fiction. The first of these principles is easy to understand from the second commandment. What is wrong with cartoons though? For a long while, although uneasy with them, I never thought it out. Something shocking that happened this weekend made me go over things again and try to think out properly why. Often there is not time to think out this sort of thing when you are up to your neck just doing home education!
The word cartoon comes from an Italian word for strong heavy paper which was used for full-scale preparatory drawings for frescoes, oil paintings or tapestries. This preparatory drawing is what we mean when we talk about the Raphael Cartoons. This is not what we are discussing here. Today the word means a “simple drawing showing the features of its subjects in a humorously exaggerated way” (Oxford Languages via Google) and especially the animated film version of this art form. I think it is the exaggeration that I find disturbing in general cartoons especially those produced for children's book illustrations. Other styles of illustration always have (or strive to have) something beautiful about them. Cartoons work by distortion rather than beauty. Peter Rabbit is beautiful. Bugs Bunny is not. As for cartoon human characters, they seem like a twisting of the image of God that is in human beings. When it comes to children's Bible story books the humour element of a carton presentation is definitely not appropriate. Of course, we want our children to be happy but the message of the Bible is not a laughing matter. There is a time for laughter – and there is a time for seriousness too, for children just as for adults. The cartoon also reduces and distorts. The aim of any Bible presentation for children must be to enable them to understand what the Bible says. A cartoon lion is not a picture that is worth a thousand words when explaining about Daniel in the lions' den. I am still reeling from a shocking exposure last week to an animated cartoon that depicted Christ riding into Jerusalem. In fact, a few frames were enough, for the rest I confess I shut my eyes. My Saviour reduced to a distorted comic image was more than I could bear but those around me thought it was just the thing for the children. To see Him distorted and laughable was horrific. To present Him in this form to children was worse. Children have long memories and this impression will stay with them. The Welsh hymn-writer Anne Griffiths wrote of Christ something that is roughly this in English: Two natures in one Person Joined indivisibly, True, pure and unconfounded, Perfect in unity. Christ is truly divine and truly human – not a cartoon.
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