My wife tends to play with our daughter more using Cabbage Patch Kids (including her original one and the four we’ve bought brand new) than other toys. Or at least the toy companies are aware that reproducing a toy we loved is a great way to sell pieces of plastic. Why? Because we want our kids to experience childhood as we did. Cabbage Patch Kids and Transformers are big again. Every 20-25 years, we see the same products come back. I have a theory about children’s toys and television shows. Children crave human interaction, and the show’s catchy melodies and bright colors are simply a catalyst. While we watch, we dance, we sing, and I talk to her about what’s going on. She does like it, however, because I like it. Once, after reading that children like bright colors, nice music, and high contrast, I sat her down in front of Mega Man 2. My daughter doesn’t like it for the video game overtones - she barely knows what a video game is. Video game mechanics have applications beyond games, as I explored in my article about Dora, and now video game art and aesthetics have also crossed over to children’s television shows. It’s yet another example of video games bleeding into all aspects of our culture and media, including our children’s programming. How could it exist now? It has old school hip-hop, the aforementioned Biz Markie and Devo, and an art and sound aesthetic inspired by the Nintendo Entertainment System. The show is clearly a product developed by the children of the ’80s.
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