Cro
A Woolly Mammoth Teaches Science Lessons for the Ages
In the world of cartoons, what goes up will not necessarily come down, and that which does will usually take a moment to hover in midair before flattening its victim like a pancake. But while most cartoons are quick to bend the laws of physics, Cro was one animated adventure that wouldn’t bend anything without first investigating its elastic properties. From 1993 to 1994, Cro delivered lessons in science and technology through a few unusual sources: an 11-year-old Cro-Magnon boy, a talking woolly mammoth, and a handful of bumbling Neanderthals.
The action begins when 20th century scientist Dr. C. and her assistant Mike travel to the Arctic Circle and discover a woolly mammoth that has been frozen in ice for thousands of years. After defrosting the animal, they discover that it can speak – and that it actually has quite a few stories to tell. The mammoth, named Phil, tells Mike and Dr. C. about life in the Ice Ages through a series of flashbacks. These flashbacks feature mammoth’s pal Cro, an 11-year-old Cro-Magnon boy with a knack for figuring out how things work.
As the Neanderthals argue with the mammoths about everything from telling the time to deciding who is hairiest, both sides call on Cro to help them find solutions. Cro’s problem solving teaches Phil’s contemporary friends about basic science and technology principles. The episodes shift back and forth between the Ice Age and the present age, demonstrating the consistency of physical laws through simple mechanics.
Cro had three major goals in approaching science education:
- To stimulate children’s interest in basic scientific and technological principles
- To introduce children to the workings of familiar machines, gadgets, and simple tools
- To show children that science can be fun
Striking this balance between entertainment and education posed an interesting problem for Film Roman, Inc. and Sesame Workshop (then Children’s Television Workshop), especially because the series was animated. While most cartoons will falsely portray darkness by showing a pair of white glowing eyes moving against a black screen, Cro left its characters completely in the dark in order to teach properties of light and reflection.
Executive producer Jeffrey Nelson explained the difficulty of reconciling the conventions of cartoon animation with scientific reality.
“Most cartoon characters would have no problem pulling back a tree to use as a giant ‘slingshot,’ but in Cro we have to be more conscious of physical laws,” Nelson says. “In our show about elasticity, for example, our science staff estimated the force it would take to bend a specific tree and how far back it would go. The result is a scene that involves a typical cartoon situation executed with an atypical regard to detail and accuracy.”
Ice Age or present age, mammoth or molecule, one thing is for certain—Cro put the “science” in “science education.”
Trivia
Cro was partially funded by the National Science Foundation
Related Projects
Two interactive 16-page comic books, an eight-panel activity poster and a 12-page activity book in 3-2-1 Contact magazine
Three home videos including trading cards and a “Cro-traption” building kit
Number of Seasons
Two (1993-1994)
Number of Episodes
21
Episode Runtime
30 minutes
Format
Animation
Producers
Children’s Television Workshop
Film Roman, Inc.
Broadcasters
ABC
Target Audience Age
6-11
