Tom & Jerry – Beware They (May) Bite!

This article was originally written on ZoAw.info, which is now NOT online as Tom and Jerry values. More articles from Zo Aw blog will be post on Vaphual.net in the future. Hope you enjoy them!  This article is written by Carey Suante more than 2 years ago.


photo credit: Kecko
Tom & Jerry is a favourite cartoon video of my kid, Muang (M). She is almost 2.5 years old and loves cartoon like any other kid of her age. So last year I bought her some cartoon videos, one being Tom & Jerry Collection video, from Music World, Vasant Lok.

All was well at first – she loves it and we, the parents, love that she loves it – or so we thought!

However just a couple of days ago while watching it again (for the umpteenth time) with her we came to a part where she became frightened and would cover her eyes with her tiny hands. Initially we did not even notice that – we just thought she was into one of her antics! She would turn around and bury her face into my chest with her eyes closed with fright. Then she would turn around again to get a peek at the TV screen between her fingers and quickly bury herself in my embrace. What was she doing!

On carefully watching the cartoon I dawned on me that M was scared as Jerry was invisible! Jerry was holding a hammer to strike at Tom in one of their never-ending tit-for-tat games. M sensed that it was Jerry holding the hammer but couldn’t see him and that must have scared her. A child is taught to know what she sees – not what she can’t see! That invisibility as concept is beyond her understanding and comprehension became clear to me. So we skipped over those scenes and watched where both Tom and Jerry are visible.

That episode made me think about cartoons and their impact on kids in general and more specifically their impact on Christians. I learnt a few things from that.

I always thought that cartoons are harmless – how wrong can one be! I made the mistake of clubbing all cartoons into one single group and thought they were just entertainment. I didn’t know they could prove quite harmful to your child’s mental and spiritual development. There are cartoons and then there are cartoons. What I mean to say is that most cartoons are meant for children but there are some meant for adults as well.

The visual contents and story line of animation movies (and any movie for that matter) must first be verified before buying one for a kid. These days we also have cartoons which are gory and even sexual. You might unknowingly be exposing your vulnerable kids to violence and sensual images. Images of killing and fighting debase human life and a sense of acceptance of such behaviour as normal is instilled in the child’s inquisitive and gullible psyche.

From a Christian perspective, even Tom & Jerry cartoons are contrary to the teachings of the Bible. The Bible teaches us to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:38 – 45) and not only that we are to forgive and love (Luke 23:34) our enemies while Tom & Jerry propagates tit-for-tat value, an eye for an eye. Such twisted values are innocuously packaged and marketed that it is hard to draw the line between the good and the bad. Such are the tools in the hands of our enemy.

That was like a wake-up call for me as a parent trying to train up a child in the way he/she should go (Prov. 22:6) in this big bad world.