A Few Catchy Toons Despite TV Promotion

FoxKids.com

https://www.foxkids.com

FoxKids.com’s visual presentation resembles a comic book on overdrive, but that’s no surprise given the brands it promotes, including Digimon, Spider-man, Power Rangers, X-Men and NASCAR Racers. Though FoxKids.com functions as an advertisement for FoxKids TV shows, it also manages to provide a sufficient number of games, activities and contests.

There are 40 action, adventure, sports and “brain” games available on the site, including Bionic Bertha, Power Rangers Mega Memory and Digimon: Quest to Save the Net.

Quest to Save the Net puts players in a huge tunnel where they shoot e-mails to knock out nasty critters. As a brand, Digimon is popular enough to have its own showcase on FoxKids.com. Fans can revel in the latest news, plus have access to an episode guide, games, movie info and more.

CartoonNetwork.com

https://www.cartoonnetwork.com

Although CartoonNetwork.com promotes its TV shows, it is also a terrific online resource for any child interested in animation, past and present. The site keeps flagrant product promotion at a controlled level while infusing a generous amount of enjoyable content aimed at celebrating all things toon.

In the Department of Toons, visitors access archives of famous cartoons, including clips, featured episodes, storyboards, backgrounds and model sheets.

The Web Premiere Toons section showcases new cartoon shorts produced just for the Web. There’s even a section on the site that allows kids to make their own online animations. You have to dig a little to find it: Go to the Sylvester and Tweety page and click on the button labeled “Aniluxe.”

*

Karen Jones is a freelance writer specializing in children’s interactive media.