My friend that knows about animation told me that the "death" in cartoons can't be taken seriously. Why?

Question

I watched a lot of old cartoons and sometimes I saw how a character shots himself at the end of the short, or in some shorts I saw characters floating up to heaven and holding up a sign that reads "Sad ending isn't it?. I'd like to know why the "death" in cartoons can't be taken seriously. Please, help me!!!
Nicolás
[e-mail]

Answer 1

What do you mean by "seriously"? Do you mean feeling sad for cartoon characters that die? Or just feeling sad because they're depicting death? You need to be clearer about what you're asking. In essence, media is used to inform and elicit a response. Cartoons, because of the very nature of their reality-bending abilities, can use the same actions for different responses. A character dying could be funny, sad, stupid, etc. It depends on the context it's done in.

Also, because of the proliferation of cartoons from other cultures (like Japanese anime), they could also depict death differently. Death is viewed in different ways and with different connotations in different cultures and countries. In North America, we're taught that death is a hideous crime that should be avoided at all costs and lamented and feared if it can't be.

In Japan, because of the apocalyptic trauma of the Atomic bombs dropped on them to end World War II, they have a very different view of death and the end of the world (since they've lived through it, so to speak). Anime tends to try and bring more reality into its shows, which makes the fantasy more real, believe it or not. Watching Bugs Bunny get flattened will not have the same effect as watching a human-looking character in a more-or-less realistic environment get flattened. Bugs is very "cartoony", while the anime character is more "realistic".

In cartoons, character death can also be reversed, which is something American cartoons use badly, like soap operas do, and anime uses with more intention and better positioning in the story (most of the time).

Hope I was clear enough.

Answer 2

To add to what the above people have already said, in comic books, especially american style comics, bad guys often seem to die when their doomsday device fails, or when their hidden lair blows up. But as every super hero knows, "If you don't see the body, you can't be sure they're dead." All too many heroes have gasped "Nobody coul dhave survived that...!" only to have the bad guy come back, badder than ever before, after things have become quiet and the good guys suspect nothing.

As far as the heroes go, many, many superheroes have died and come back. In some cases, it was not just in hiding, but they were actually dead. Some heroes are born immortal (the automatically reincarnate) some become that way through supernatural means and some become that way through suerscientif means. There have been very few heroes who were killed and did not come back in some way shape or form.

26 SEPT 07, 2244 hrs, GMT.

Answer 3

In Who Framed Roger Rabbit? they said toons could only die by using a chemical called dip. They could be referencing that. However I've seen a cartoon wear Bugs Bunny floated up to heaven but they still make cartoons with him.