It is generally believed that children like cartoons because they have rich and peculiar imagination, wonderful and bold exaggeration and fast-paced dynamics. However, rich and peculiar imagination, wonderful and bold exaggeration techniques can be seen everywhere in other literary works, and fast-paced movements are common in general movies and television. Why do children only like cartoons? In fact, children like cartoons, so we should look for the reasons from the aspects of children's understanding of the world, children's cognitive style, and the expression of cartoons.
Children's understanding of cartoons is actually their understanding and view of the world. Here, the famous British children writer and theorist J? Tolkien's "second world" theory is worth learning. Tolkien believes that fantasy is a natural activity of human beings, and the material resources of fantasy can take us to another world invisible to reality for extraordinary travel. There, all human dreams are not difficult to realize, and the impossible things in real life can be experienced as facts in the second world. The second world created according to infinite images and rich expressions is more accurate and real than the first world we live in, and we can see the depths of life better. This theory reveals a truth to us: in children's eyes, there is actually a second world different from the real world (in fact, there is one in adults' hearts, but it is hidden deeper). In this world, all changes are possible, and all exaggerations are just a normal state: when a car runs over the body, the body should become as thin as a piece of paper; When a person comes out of a square tube, his head and body will definitely become square. This is a world full of possibilities, and it is also a world that can be changed according to each child's imagination and requirements. Children are still in the period of mutual infiltration between subject and object, so for them, the first world and the second world can often be integrated, they can talk to flowers and plants, and they can feel the pain after the desks and chairs are damaged. The world they understand and feel is a world where reality and fantasy blend. Because of the combination of reality and fantasy, many things that adults think impossible are possible to children, so adults think it is a strange and rich expression of imagination. In fact, for children, this is not a question of whether the imagination is rich, but whether the whole world can show it. Comics are imaginative, bold and strange, which is only the view of adults, but for children, this should be the true face of the world. It is precisely because the world that children understand and feel is a world where reality and fantasy blend, so the combination of reality and fantasy to express their literary works will be welcomed by children. Among all literary works, comics have become children's favorite literary form because of their technical advantages, which enables them to fully show the world that children understand.
Animation is to use light and shadow technology to express things and tell stories through moving pictures. This is more in line with children's acceptance characteristics in the stage of thinking in images. Movable and continuous pictures tell a story, and the activity of that picture itself can attract children's attention for a long time, which is also an important reason why children can watch cartoons for a long time. At the same time, due to the general picture of cartoons, important parts are often shown in detail, and the handling of secondary parts is simplified. When children watch cartoons, they will not be distracted by the variety of background parts. In addition, the form of pictures can make everything people think vivid and intuitive, so it naturally becomes the best form to show children's second world.
Children's cognition is based on body-action, while cartoons mainly tell stories by action, which conforms to children's cognitive characteristics in expression form. Through the intuition of pictures and the activity of movies and television, the second world of children's hearts is vividly, intuitively and dynamically displayed, so that the existing world of children can be experienced and reproduced in the real world. In this way, it is not surprising that children love watching cartoons.
After understanding the reasons why children love watching cartoons, we can guide them to watch cartoons in a targeted way.
First of all, many parents and teachers often worry that they can't pull their children out of cartoons. In fact, parents and teachers do not have to worry. Because everyone, especially curious children, is eager to know the world, we don't have to make a fuss at all. If children are too addicted to this fantasy world, parents and teachers can use other literary forms that also express the fantasy world, such as picture storybooks and storytelling, to appropriately distract children's attention from comics, so that children can experience and observe the fantasy world from other literary forms, thus reducing their obsession with comics. In the process of children's growth, when their knowledge and understanding of the world is more objective, they will naturally walk out of the fantasy world constructed by cartoons.
Secondly, many parents and teachers are eager to let their children answer some questions or retell stories after watching cartoons. When children can't say it, they are very anxious. In fact, this is unnecessary. There are different types of cartoons, some of which directly express children's emotional experience in the second world, such as Disney's Tom and Jerry. Fighting is very lively, and children can get emotional relaxation and pleasure; Others are used to describe the tortuous and bizarre stories that happened in the second world. We might as well call the former lyrical and the latter narrative. For young children, these two kinds of cartoons have different functions.
When teachers or parents guide children to watch lyric cartoons, they only need to let them get some kind of emotional experience, without asking them to explore further from the narrative point of view. For example, in Tom and Jerry, children can quickly experience the pleasure of rapid anxiety (the mouse is chased by a vicious cat with nowhere to escape) and rapid anxiety release (the mouse suddenly turns a corner, the cat hits the wall and turns into a piece, and the mouse successfully escapes) in the anxiety-release acceptance mode, so as to obtain a relaxed and happy emotional experience. Because this kind of cartoon itself is mainly for entertainment, it is difficult for children to retell the process of plot change. We can let children express some details in cartoons with excitement and happiness, and further strengthen this happy mood, so that it is easy to get better results and help children's emotional development.
When guiding children to watch narrative cartoons, teachers or parents should focus on asking children to retell the whole story in an orderly and complete way, so as to train children's integrity and rigor of thinking. This kind of cartoon has a complete narrative structure and strong story, and its content is very close to children's daily life. This kind of cartoon shows children's second world in a complete form, and the plot development is often tortuous and vivid, and the plot structure is very complete. Children will have a desire to communicate with others after reading it to prove their feelings. At this time, if adults can guide, children will be happy to accept. If children want to explain the plot changes clearly, they must think through their own arrangement. In this process, they can naturally play a role in training the integrity and rigor of thinking.
Third, for the same cartoon, children of different ages will understand and express it differently. Take Tom and Jerry as an example. Children in small classes can feel a lively atmosphere, mobilize their emotions and feel happy after enjoying it. Because abstract thinking has been developed, children in large classes can use words and body language to express their feelings or continue to compile various cat-and-mouse fighting methods after reading it. In this way, children can not only get emotional pleasure, but also cultivate their imagination and expression ability appropriately to achieve multiple goals.