Poster of Wreck-It Ralph [Image: Filmofilia]
The best cartoons appeal to both kids and adults, because the makers realize it's the parent who pays the price of admission or chooses the DVD.
So, while the recent Disney animation Wreck-It Ralph was just another visual feast of buzzy cartoon characters and digital explosions to my 5-year-old, for me, it was a knowing romp through the history of video games.
It also occurred to me that, like the titular character in Wreck-It Ralph, video games appear to have past their prime and are going through a bit of a midlife crisis.
For instance, my childhood friend PONG turned 40 on Thursday. A two-dimensional table tennis game doesn't sound that exciting, but it was Atari's first big hit.
The company installed a prototype in a bar, and people lined up to play the game. This is how the entertainment revolution was born.
PONG wasn't the first electronic game - it was based on 1962's Spacewar! - but it was the first massively popular one.
Previously, my stepfather had what I think was an early PDP-1 into which we fed strips of paper tape with punched holes that programmed simple games.
This science project turned into a four-decade flirtation with electronica.
Space Invaders arcade machines followed, Sega Rally Championship, FIFA Football, Halo, first-person shooters, Doom (1993), Counter-Strike, Grand Theft Auto, and many more.
I'm all grown up and still playing (like many others), but the big difference now is video gaming is the "most lucrative entertainment product in the world".
This is how Edward Smith describes the industry in an International Business Times article, adding Call of Duty's life-to-date sales figures beat out The Lord of the Rings', Star Wars' and Harry Potter's.
Meanwhile, DFC Intelligence forecasts the market for video games globally will expand from $67 billion in 2012 to $82 billion in five years.
This sounds propitious, but, actually, the market is flat as console sales diminish and other platforms to play games take over. My own feeling is that video gaming is going through another shakeout, similar to the 1985 industry crash.
Part of the reason for this is a lot of gamers like me are starting to tune out as the same old hits are once again repackaged. It's a bit like rock 'n' roll, as all the new bands sound like the old ones, just not as good.
Call of Duty is for me just another Quake III Arena remix. Its Black Ops II, the biggest entertainment launch in history with $500 million in 24 hours, is just another shooter. The last game to really wow me was Wii and the real action is online or mobile.
So, I'm left with the Fix-it Felix Jr. app on my tablet computer from the Disney movie Wreck-It Ralph. Playing it transports me back to the arcades of 30 years ago, which sums up the gaming industry: looking back rather than forward to something new.
You can call it retro if you like, but it looks old. I've been more impressed by a reading app for my kid, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Its graphics are smooth, and the plot is more nuanced than typical gamer fare, wham, bam, thank-you mam!
Gaming will go on, of course, it's elemental. But I look forward to the point where it offers more food for thought. It needs to act its age and show a little maturity.
We have the technology.
What I would expect is that games will become the new books or movies and have a little more art and - yes, why not - depth and characterization.