Blog 5: A Distasteful Animation

       The other day, my roommate shared with me an animation called Happy Tree Friends, which drove me crazy. How I wish I had never watched that animation!

       In the episode my roommate and I watched together, there were three animals: a red rabbit, a blue cat and a green little dragon. Each of them was depicted very simple with a numb smiling face. At first, they rode in a cart running on rails. As the cart headed forward, horrible things came one after another. The first animal was crashed by a large robot hand beside the rails, blood splashing around. Then the second animal was cut in half from the top of head to the heels by a huge unknown machine, leaving its skeleton exposing to the air. The last animal was no luckier than the former two, who was burned to death in the red boiled liquid pouring down from above the cart.

       I was shocked as I watched it. But out of curiosity, I watched two more episodes, both of whom, as I expected, were filled with violence, adversity, blood and death. Some of the scenes were so distasteful that I hope not to recall them the rest of my life.

I wonder how the creators of this animation survived through these ideas. What is more, animations are generally intended for children. Did they ever think about how this kind of work would affect kids? I feel so lucky because I am neither one of the irresponsible creators nor a child watching such animation in childhood.