We Bare Bears Appreciation

I have something to confess: I never outgrew cartoons. Cartoon Network and Disney Junior are pretty much my favorite channels. Courage The Cowardly Dog, Doc Mc Stuffins, Adventure Time, The Regular Show, Clarence, and Sofia The First are just some of the programs I avidly watch.

It may be because I’m over-saturated with negativity in real life that my psyche sought solace in the safety and child-like innocence offered by cartoons. The daily news too is replete with death and dirty politics that it has gotten rather mundane. Also, I don’t watch soap operas especially the ones in my country because it depicts life in a two-dimensional manner where everything is either black or white with no grey area in between. It doesn’t reflect reality nor does it have at least some artistic merit for art has long since been dead in the Philippines- but that’s another story.

In the recent months wherein there was a dearth of books for me to read, I decided to give television another try. As to be expected I couldn’t last through a minute of local made Telenovelas that I had to flip through the channels. Over there on Cartoon Network they were advertising a new show called “We Bear Bears.” The thing that caught my attention the most was the manner with which they travelled; they stood on all fours on top of one another with Ice Bear below, Panda in the middle, and Grizz on top. Not to mention the fact that these bears are tech-savvy too.

On the instances that I could not be able to watch “We Bare Bears” on its regular time slot at CN, I had YouTube to fill me in. The episodes when they were baby bears and up for adoption are beyond adorable. Since then I have faithfully watched the show and hope that there will be more episodes to come.

Cartoons, I believe, are not just for children. As adults we all need a safety net in whatever form; in my case it is the notion of going back to the halcyon days of my childhood where everything is calm and relatively safe. Television programs like “We Bare Bears” are a breath of fresh air in the visual entertainment field that is polluted with too much Hedonism.

We live in a world that glorifies the lust of the flesh. Sex is pushed on young girls and drugs are promoted as hip. Children grow up too early- their innocence gone by the age of twelve with the proliferation of sexual themes on everyday entertainment.

If they’re anything like me- that is, tired of the same stinking shit the media likes to pass off as “art,” they’d go back to basics and watch something that isn’t one layer thin from being pornographic, something like “We Bare Bears.” I agree we shouldn’t over-protect our children for even biology dictates it that we need some “bad” bacteria in our bodies to be able to develop immunity from diseases, but too much of anything, especially negativity, is obviously detrimental to anyone’s well-being.

This summer, nothing beats a typical afternoon in an air-conditioned room with snacks and a drink, all while watching a nice run of a clean and comedic cartoon. My choice this afternoon? “We Bare Bears!”