Skip to main content

Dora

I think most of you already know that there are kids constantly running around my house, so I have a halfway decent idea of what toddlers and young kids are interested in these days.  Cartoons are always popular, it's just a matter of which cartoon is popular at the moment.  Lately, that's been Dora the Explorer.  Boys, girls, barely walking, preschool age, it doesn't matter; they all seem to derive some enjoyment from Dora.

Now, if you didn't bother to click on the link, Dora is brown.  She speaks Spanish, and the show randomly throws in words in Spanish that little kids can learn.  Since I live in a state where Spanish is fairly common, most parents approve of their kids learning at least a few words.  It's a little surprising to me how popular the show is, but the kids that come here are from all kinds of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and they all seem to like the show.

Now, from a revenue-generating stand point, everyone wants to cash in on this idea.  People often say that there are no original ideas left in Hollywood, and apparently the same is true for children's programming.  Someone came up with a good idea, so the network tries to copy the idea to produce another winner.  Of course, you can't just flat out copy Dora (even little kids would notice), so instead, you get:
  • Go Diego Go.  Someone must have figured that if one brown kid teaching random Spanish words was good, then TWO of them was better.  I also suspect they were trying to corner more of the "males under 4" market, because Diego is all about trekking through jungles and what not to rescue animals.  None of this pansy "exploring" for him, it's all about defending the weak for him.
  • Ni Hao, Kai Lan.  Well, now that you've got the brown people covered, it's time to move on to the next minority: Asian people.  She has a animal side kick, just like Dora.  I've actually never watched much of this one, but I think they throw in random words/phrases in Mandarin, as well.

    (side story: Kai Lan actually sounds a lot like the name of a Chinese vegetable.  Because of this, things having to do with this show have been nicknamed "broccoli" at my house.  So when one of the kids asked for "Kai Lan music," we joked about "broccoli music.")
  • Maraka the Explorer.  Let's just say that this one isn't quite aimed at kids.
Given the pattern, I wouldn't be surprised if the next version that came out was about an Asian boy that traveled the world correcting the wrongs he came across.  Maybe he'd be some sort of environmentalist, teaching everyone the joys of recycling.

Really, it's just a matter of time before the networks come up with various different versions.  Sadly, I think that means that this lady wasn't actually racist, but slightly ahead of her time.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pink

Way back in high school, there was a male teacher that all the girls thought was attractive. It was an open secret that a bunch of them had crushes on him. In fact, the school newspaper even did an article about him that quoted some girl saying, "he's so cute, he even makes pink look good." Yes, he had worn a pink shirt to school one day, and it had apparently been a big hit. I was reminded of this story when my sister-in-law suggested that she would choose pink as the color for her wedding and bridal party. I don't think I've ever made a color look good before, but I remember thinking, "well, I know it's possible to not look stupid in pink as a straight guy, I guess I can try." And I think that's almost exactly what I told her. I also happened to own a gray suit, so I figured the combination would look all right. However, I was pretty much the only one willing to play along. My sister-in-law's brothers wanted absolutely no part of th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dreams

Normally, I don't eat very many sweets. I tend to eat pretty generous portions, but I generally prefer savory food over sweet. In fact, I usually prefer things half as sweet when possible. My preference doesn't have anything to do with health reasons, it's just one of those things that I've always liked better. That said, I do inevitably eat dessert, particularly if I'm out with other people. My stance towards dessert is roughly equivalent to those who are social drinkers . If other people want to munch on something for dessert, I'm not about to cross my arms and refuse. That'd be just a tad gauche. So, I do eat some dessert. I even have a few standby favorites that I'll usually order when presented with them (brownies, creme brulee, and apple pie). But left to my own devices, I'm not about to go hunting for dessert. Apparently, this means that the sugar can really mess with my system under the right circumstances. As I've discovered, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

New York City Trip (Day 1)

After my crappy flight , I was now in Newark, New Jersey at 7AM on a Friday morning. I had done a little bit of reading up, so I knew which bus I needed to take and where I was going to get off. All in all, getting into the city was surprisingly easy. I suppose speaking the language does make things simpler. Through no real planning of mine (a theme of the trip, at least on my part), I picked one of the later bus stops at which to get off, Grand Central. I actually just figured that getting off at Grand Central would give me options, and heck, it's called Grand Central. That just screamed "decent place to disembark that might be close to some stuff" to me, so that's where I got off. However, it also meant that we drove down 42 nd St to get to my bus stop. That just happens to be a big street, and it gave me a glimpse of Times Square as we drove by. My bus stop choice had accidentally given me a rough layout of the city. Go me. I had about 6 hours to kill...
1 comment
Read more