Cartoons: the modern day fairytale

I have always enjoyed cartoons. I am sure as a kid it was the bright colors and cool sound effects that drew me in, not to mention fight sequences in say TMNT. Around twelve or thirteen, my brother got a huge book of the tales of the Brothers Grimm. My brother's library was really just an extension of my own, and so I read and read and read the fairy tales that I largely knew only by reputation. I found that these stories often ended with a few sentences explaining the moral of the story. I would mentally think back on the events and see how the story had been carefully crafted to make that one moral point. I really enjoyed the fairytales and have also purchased a book of fairy tales from Asbjørnsen and Moe, written in Norwegian of course. Since then I have been on the lookout for fairy tales in other forms and found them in cartoons. Okay so not all cartoons have moral messages beyond the old good versus evil stuff. However, there is one cartoon at least that digs a little deeper: Teen Titans. Ah, even the name is cool, plus it gets bonus points for alliteration. Seriously though, the show has a lot of good messages. Take Raven for instance, she makes a very concentrated effort to control her emotions. Juxtaposed with Raven's dark and somber character is Starfire, who is extremely emotional and bubbly. There is an episode called "Switched" in which their souls are swapped and they have to learn how to become the other person. At first glance, cartoons may not seem to offer much in the way of ethics or problem solving skills. Keep looking though and you'll see that some of them deal with real problems.