Tomorrow's Pioneers

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Tomorrow's Pioneers

No, this is not Mickey Mouse.

Genre:	"Educational" Propaganda "Children's television series" Antisemitism
Running Time:	60 minutes
Country:	Palestine
Release Date:	April 13, 2007 – October 16, 2009
Created by:	Hazim Al-Sha'arawi
Distributed by:	Al-Aqsa TV
Starring:	Saraa Barhoum Samir Abu Muhssen Mohammad Ramadan Hazim Al-Sha'arawi Farfour Nahoul Assoud Nassur
Seasons:	4
Episodes:	17

Tomorrow's Pioneers (رواد الغد Arabic romanization: Ruwād al-Ghad; also known as The Pioneers of Tomorrow) is a Palestinian "children's program" that aired from April 13, 2007 to October 16, 2009 on the Palestinian Hamas-affiliated television station, Al-Aqsa TV (مرئية الأقصى قناة الأقصى). The show features young host Saraa Barhoum and her co-host, a large costumed animal as they perform skits (or "scenes") and discuss life in Palestine in a talk show fashion with call-ins from children (typically of ages 9–13, with some as young as 3). Presented in a children's educational format similar to such shows as Sesame Street or Barney and Friends, Tomorrow's Pioneers has become highly controversial as it contains antisemitism, anti-Americanism and other anti-Western themes.

Why It Sucks

It portrays Americans, Jews & other Western people, in an incredibly xenophobic and racist way, similar to Al Jazeera.
It's very wrong in its teachings. Since the Hamas funded this "kids show" (if it really is one), it obviously teaches terrorism to children.
It promotes child soldiers, terrorism, suicide bombers, etc.
It's basically just a series of recruitment videos for Hamas.
The show features rip-off versions of well-known cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse (Farfour), Maya the Bee (Nahool; although he is male), Bugs Bunny/Roger Rabbit (Assoud) and Winnie the Pooh/Yogi Bear (Nassur).
- Irony:They used "Mickey Mouse", "Bugs Bunny/Roger Rabbit" and "Yogi Bear", Who are American cartoon characters, despite Palestines' dislike for America.
The costumed characters being, Farfour, Nahoul, Assoud and Nassur are all unlikable, racist, annoying, heartless/souless and very manipulative characters to children in the audience to the point where they should really be in prison.
The first episode has Farfour getting punished - not because he was rooting for the Israelis, but because he spoke English. In that particular episode, Saraa and Hazim keep saying that it is "terrorist talk" even though some people speak English in Palestine.
The "nursery rhymes" are actually propaganda songs that praise Hamas.
The show has repetitive plots. In every episode, they glorify terrorism.
The costumes used for the characters including Farfour look absolutely horrendous and unintentionally creepy.
For some reason, the costumed characters have family members that are not even of the species the costumed character is, which shows laziness from the creators of the show.
- In the Season 1 finale (which is the episode in which Farfour dies), Farfour's grandpa (who dies of natural causes in the same episode) appears, but the grandpa is actually a human actor, instead of a mouse like Farfour. Familiar much?
- The same thing happens in the Season 2 finale, where Assoud is informed that Nahool has died, leading to a lame plot twist where it is revealed that Assoud was Nahool's brother, which is ridiculous due to it being impossible that a bee and a rabbit can be siblings in real life.
- Another example occurs in episode 202, when Nahool takes Farfour's place as co-host of the show. However, it is revealed that Farfour was actually Nahool's (and Assoud's) cousin.
There are tons of infamous and controversial scenes in the show.
1. There's an infamous and horrifying scene in episode 105 (the Season 1 finale) where an actor dressed as an Israeli government official beats Farfour to death (in a "kid's show" by the way) after the latter calls him a "terrorist". This scene can be both shocking and disturbing to both Mickey Mouse fans and little kids.
  - Even worse:Saraa showed literally no emotions when Farfour was being beaten up to death on TV in front of her.
2. Farfour isn't actually the only character that dies; every other character on the show that is not named Saraa, Uncle Hazim and Nassur, dies in a horrifying or shocking way at the finale of every season.
  - Nahool dies after becoming seriously ill and the Israeli authorities refuse to allow his family to take him to an Egyptian hospital for treatment.
  - Assoud dies in the hospital after the Israeli Air Force attacks his town during the Gaza War.
3. Apart from the death scenes and the Hamas propaganda, there is a controversial scene in which Nahool is seen entering a Palestinian zoo where he proceeds to swing cats by their tails and throw rocks at lions. Despite the scene being made for kids to teach them that injuring animals is bad, it is still a bad influence on kids and that is something Eric Cartman from South Park would do.
4. In both Seasons 3 and 4, Assoud and Nassur have demanded that every single Jew must be killed. This is something on the levels of which Adolf Hitler would have demanded.
5. Farfour and a child sing a song about a poem about the joy of shooting an AK-47. How much could this show manipulate children!?
6. In one scene, Farfour cheated at his test "because the Jews destroyed his home and he left his books and notes there", which teaches children to blame Jews for everything. Hell, even Hazim and Saraa don't praise Farfour, saying that's not an excuse for failing a test.
The voice acting for Farfour is plain awful. It sounds like as if a sick, elderly man took the role.
1. Nahool's voice is even worse, as if the actor playing him was purposely trying to make him sound ear piercing. Thankfully, Assoud's and Nassur's voices were a lot more tolerable to listen to.
In response to Diane Disney-Miller’s message about the show, she got a letter from Fathi Hamad, the director of Tomorrow's Pioneers, saying that Hazim Al-Sha'arawi denied that the show was teaching evil and demanded that the network not pull the show off the air, showing that even the show’s creators can't take criticism.
It was so dreadful that, after the show was cancelled, it got banned in many countries.
Even its country of origin, Palestine, criticized the show for the aforementioned reasons.

Redeeming Qualities

Like mentioned before, Assoud's and Nassur's voices wers more tolerable to listen to, and were also an improvement over Nahool, and Farfour's voices.
As mentioned in WIS #15, following the show's cancellation, the show was immediately banned from other countries, not to mention, it's largely forgotten about.

Reception and Criticism

Although there is no official reception of Tomorrow's Pioneers from sites like IMDb, the show was universally panned by critics and audiences alike, and many have considered this show to be one of the, if not the, worst children's shows of all time. Criticisms concerning the content and methods employed in the broadcast of Tomorrow's Pioneers have come from a variety of sources. Israeli officials and critics from the Anti-Defamation League have denounced the program as incendiary and outrageous in content. Watchdog groups, Palestinian Media Watch and MEMRI have described the show as "anti-Israeli", and PMW has commented on the show's "champion[ing of] violence, promot[ion of] hatred of Israel and preach[ing] about world Islamic supremacy." Within the Arabic community, critics have suggested that the show has potential to introduce bias in children at an age when they are unable to properly differentiate between political viewpoints. Walt Disney's last surviving child, Diane Disney-Miller, hated this show and described it as pure evil, as it teaches children to be evil and it goes against every grain of humanity.

Comments

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TheAnimeLover

7 months ago

Score 6

Possibly Farfour's grandpa is the adoptive father of Farfour's parents.

Tomorrow's Pioneers

Why It Sucks

Redeeming Qualities

Reception and Criticism

Comments

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