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saturday oct 23 2004 23 economist suh simtribune diversions ertas cartoon characters used to hawk merchandise to children nothingnew by lisa queen staff writer hrista maguires grade 4 class at deer park public school adores cartoons the children love the characters humour graphics and special effects the action and adventure but the keswick students also have complaints about the dozens of animated programs and movies they watch wyatt halladay for example doesnt like the aggressive behav iour his twoyearold brother and a friends twoyearold nephew display after watching cartoons but mostly the students are torn about being the target of marketers who constantly peddle cartoon merchandise to them and their friends r while they cant seem to resist the fastfood kids meals games backpacks collector cards and clothes bearing their favourite animated characters they also suspect they are being manipu lated to buy these products i dont like cartoons that say stay tuned and theyhave 20 minutes of commercials and only five minutes for the cartoon said grace middlebrook a fan of spongebob squarepahts and woody woodpecker in the shows it says buy something and ifs not as fun as it looks on tv usually its popu lar cartoons they advertise like spongebob sometimes they advertise spongebob games and clothes and they say if you buy them youll look cool grace has been disappointed more than once by products fail ing to live up to their advertising hype spongebob bandaids they say they glow in the dark and staff photosjoerd witteveen they dont my mom keeps buy ing them she said it feels like they advertisers are always lying to you kenny bolton is upset the spe cial effects on his yugioh cards based on a popular japanese cartoon and game are nothing like the hype pitched in commercials using cartoon characters to hawkspinoff merchandise to children is nothing new what child in the past 40 years hasnt pestered his or her parents for a trip to disney world and a grace middlebrook a grade 4 student at deer park public school in keswick does her best impersonation of daffy duck above pair of mickey mouse ears after all but like some animated mon ster experts agree the trend has taken on outlandish proportions since the 1990s and is only get ting worse the whole thing has grown out of all proportion said thornhills david reilly an ani mation writer and cocreator of the cartoon farzzles world which premiered last month on treehousetv see children page 24 anne brodie on movies church history more exciting than you think luther starring joseph fiennes sir peter ustinov and alfred molina directed by eric till now playing in select theatres ric till who toiled as company manager for the national ballet of canada and directed feature and tv films here last harvested red greens debut feature duct tape forever well its a bit of a stretch from red green and the boys of possum dodge to martin luthers middle ages but he did it till wisely got british actor and one of people magazines 100 most beautiful people joseph fiennes to play martin luther the rebel 16th century priest who founded the lutheran church lets face it fiennes can put people in seats and with material that sounds dry it was the right thing to do alfred molina spidermans nemesis doc ock plays a corrupt and money- grubbing priest but aside from a few familiar faces tills cast is mostly superb eastern european actors unknown to us peter ustinov puts in a mature and worldweary portrayal of prince frederick the wise who in the 1530s collected religious relics the way people collect passion of the christ nails today and that was the problem luther had with the roman catholic church after years in a monastery luther took a look outside and was horrified by what he saw he walked from wittenberg to rome and found rampant amorality soulsucking poverty even see luther page 24- up p marklim theatre jbmasg fimwm f fffju w l call for noice r f today 9053055how749 box office hours mon to sat 1 1 am 6 pm re for performing arti 17 1 7on cintre 3lvj morkham cntaiio oct 27 2004 t i vniicus nov 5 2004 pitre nov 172004 v ttaefts- renues fu prtsgrtjt hi 3 sffftir ifs nov 18 202004