Though it’s no “Duck Amuck”, the opening sequence of the 1990s Nickelodeon cartoon Doug offers children an introductory lesson on the wonders of surrealism and meta-narrative. A pen draws a horizon line, which becomes a curtain, which becomes a heart, which becomes a balloon, which becomes a hole in the ground, which becomes a rope. By song’s end the captive young audience’s minds are glowing with the possibilities of self-referential narrative subjectivity. They will have no choice but to enroll in film school.