American serving soft food and ginger up in cartoon (5,3)

'cartoon' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'american serving soft food and ginger up' is the wordplay.
'american serving' becomes 'gi' (GI is a term for a US soldier).
'soft food' becomes 'pap' (I've seen this in another clue).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'ginger' becomes 'pep' (synonyms).
'up' says the letters should be written backwards (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'gi'+'pap'+'pep'='gipappep'
'gipappep' reversed gives 'PEPPA PIG'.

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?