The Simpsons (Media) - Does Matt Groening succeed in making his cartoon appeal to such a wide audience?
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Introduction
The Simpsons (Media) Does Matt Groening succeed in making his cartoon appeal to such a wide audience? Matt Groening succeed in making his animated cartoon, 'The Simpsons' appeal to such a wide audience as it is a highly sophisticated and expensive operation with a multi million-dollar budget. It is successful worldwide as many people enjoy watching the show. The show uses a 36-piece orchestra for background music, a committee of fifteen scriptwriters who writes the scripts and it uses between 20 and 30 thousand drawings for each episode. The Simpson's began as a short cartoon slots for the Tracy Ullman Show. But it became so successful that in December 1989, Fox Network decided to produce 30minute version, which is now in it's 14th season. Matt Groening based the characters on his own family. Each member of the Simpsons family is different: Homer is a working class father, a safety inspector in the nuclear power plant. ...read more.
Middle
In a regular programme the writers wouldn't be able to do that. The funny and entertaining comedy, 'The Simpsons' is as complex as any 'real' family. The Simpsons family are caricatures of the typical stereotypes of a troublesome American family. The show uses sarcasm and irony to ridicule many aspects of society and its values. The violence in some of the scenes can be enjoyed by the less sophisticated while seen by more sophisticated viewers as a satire on the electric chair, capital punishment, is the American belief in the power of family therapy and other American values. It uses political themes, humorous themes and to do with being a young person in society. This is what makes the show interesting to both adults and children. The episode we studied was 'There's no disgrace like home' which explores modern issues. The relationship between the Simpsons family is full of problems. They argue frequently and have no time for each other. ...read more.
Conclusion
During the therapy session, Dr Monroe uses his standard approaches but when this proves hopeless in civilising the family, he resorts to shock therapy. In this scene it uses satire to show Matt Groening's disapproval of the use of the electric chairs as a death penalty. It is a remake of 'A Clockwork Orange' (1971) where the Simpsons family are seated in a stark white laboratory, wired to electrodes, fronted by a bank of buttons giving them the ability to send electrical shocks to one another. The family continually keep sending electrical shocks; the doctor resigns to fact that the Simpsons are incurable. He sends the Simpsons home with double their money back, so with $500 now, Homer then takes the happy family to buy a new television. This episode was mainly about the differences and problems within a family. Their relationship as a family was not very good, they didn't understand or respect one another and ridiculed each other's views. Even so, this makes the programme addictive to so many people, which is how Matt Groening succeeded in making his cartoon appeal to such a wide audience. Coursework - 1 - ...read more.
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