Poll: Is it just me, or were cartoons better when I was a kid?

[Haloperidol]

I grew up on the original Batman the Animated Series. The dark, violent, psychological, intelligent, and awesome cartoon. Now we have Sponge Bob, the light, happy, slapstick, brain dead, annoyance...

you forgot the word gay

Remember parents, Sponge Bob will turn your kids gay!

(THERE WAS A PARENT'S GROUP WHO ACTUALLY BELIEVED THIS!)

i think my parents were part of that group lol

 

[Hazy]

the psychotic tendencies are as about as subtle as being hit upside the head.

See: Sarcasm.

What are you talking about? Have you ever SEEN an episode of flapjack? The paedophilic vibes from that show are disturbing, as is the rest of the show.
Cartoons now are really, really good. Avatar: the last airbender, Flapjack, Chowder, The Venture Brothers, South Park, The simpsons.
The problem is the new trend of live action shows on entities such as the disney channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon(!?) Network, as well as the prevalence of anime being translated and used in place of good, old fashioned american cartoons.

1. No, I haven't.
2.South Park began in '97, The Simpsons in '89. The latter of which has severely dropped in quality.
Cannot argue with South Park, though, it's still one of my favorite shows on television.

 

[Custard_Angel]

On the one hand I really did enjoy Invader Zim and Spongebob, but Looney Toons was bloody amazing... You can't get anything close to Bugs Bunny hitting someone with an oversized mallet.

And lets face it, anime is just a cartoon (shut up), and its also bloody ridiculous.

Looney Toons used oversized weapons, men who look like women (Bugs wore dresses ALOT) and ridiculous premises too, but they did it as a gag. In anime its all done completely straight faced.

So... Old cartoons win by a landslide.

 

[what.twitch]

Being a 90s baby, I can't really tell you if shows were better in your time, but I will say that I like watching the older cartoons better than the new ones now. I mean, there are a few that I enjoy (Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles re-make, Avatar, Fairly Oddparents), but most of my cartoon options nowadays are either anime, or hunting up stuff like X-Men and/or the Steven Spielburg cartoons.

 

[AWDMANOUT]

Sigh.

There was a thread like this a while back. And here was my answer:

They aren't all bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23oH1Gie11I

 

[Gabanuka]

Phineas and Ferb is a bloody good cartoon and Avatar: The last airbender was good enough to keep me going till the last episode. But yeah all the others around now are shit.

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

I think cartoons took far more risks when we were kids, as such, adults were able to relate with them as well.

Not even just cartoons. The reason The Muppet Show was so wildly popular, because it was secretly more raunchy, satirical, and political than many children realize. I remember this quote from the last muppet movie(Muppets in Space) in a conversation between Rizzo and Gonzo.

Gonzo: "I had that dream again..."

Rizzo: "You mean the one with the goat, the dwarf, and the jar of peanut butter?"

Now... This was in 1996. I wonder how parents would react to that today...

 

[mokes310]

Wow, you kids are young! I came in thinking that you were going to be talking about shows like Wacky Races/Johnn Quest and the like, yet you're talking about all of those. In any case, they were far better when I was growing up. Your cartoons smack of political correctness

 

[RathWolf]

Wow, you kids are young! I came in thinking that you were going to be talking about shows like Wacky Races/Johnn Quest and the like, yet you're talking about all of those. In any case, they were far better when I was growing up. Your cartoons smack of political correctness

Wacky Races was pretty awesome.

 

[D0WNT0WN]

Spoiler

Spot the reference and win a prize!

"I'll get you next time Freeman, next time."
*Cat Noise*

 

[Darth_Dude]

Am I the only one here who loves Flapjack? I mean come on, its just so...crazy!

 

[KimberlyGoreHound]

Earlier. Spongebob is the newest cartoon I'll watch (and gets extra points for having a prison rape joke in the show: in the episode where he's trying to bathe Gary, they hunt for a 'treasure chest' in the house. Spongebob pulls out some soap and says 'look, dubloons!' then, a line no kid would catch: 'don't drop 'em!')

 

[cptawesome]

when you think about it, most of the shows (most, not all) were from Cartoon Network, and although there were some REALLY FREAKY ASS CRAP (which is still awesome, Courage the Cowardly Dog) they did have the distinct honor of being entertaining and being, you know, actual cartoons. Nowadays, Cartoon Network is "The CN" and they have "CN Real" which is a bunch of reality shows for kids. Although, there is a good show involving trivia and a rollercoaster.

For the record, does anyone remember the Angry Beavers, CatDog, and Rugrats?

 

[D0WNT0WN]

Am I the only one here who loves Flapjack? I mean come on, its just so...crazy!

I quite like it, it is basicly as close as we are going to get to the wackyness of 90's cartoons. I still really miss Megas XLR, the into got me pumped, shame it only ran for 2 seasons. Oh and Bruce Campbell did the voice of Magnanimous

These always got me exited.

Megas XLR Intro [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNu6_dxWbNo]
New Adventures Of Johnny Quest [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_uYJySWlco&feature=related]
Dragon Ball Z Goes Without Saying [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqEYuzD5RcE&feature=related]

 

[cryogeist]

I think cartoons took far more risks when we were kids, as such, adults were able to relate with them as well.

I think that, now that we've grown, we're able to appreciate the subtle references to more adult-oriented themes that most shows (namely, the 90's) had used so wildly, to a much greater extent.
Case in point:
You could never show this today. The mixture of pedophilia/psychotic tendencies, as subtle as they may be, would make parents break out in a cold sweat.

actually i saw that today

pics or it didn't happen
Though, this intrigues me: What time?

Yes. What time. If courage is still on the air, I want to know when.

i dont know i didnt look at the clock but it was noonish

 

[D0WNT0WN]

I think cartoons took far more risks when we were kids, as such, adults were able to relate with them as well.

I think that, now that we've grown, we're able to appreciate the subtle references to more adult-oriented themes that most shows (namely, the 90's) had used so wildly, to a much greater extent.
Case in point:
You could never show this today. The mixture of pedophilia/psychotic tendencies, as subtle as they may be, would make parents break out in a cold sweat.

actually i saw that today

pics or it didn't happen
Though, this intrigues me: What time?

Yes. What time. If courage is still on the air, I want to know when.

i dont know i didnt look at the clock but it was noonish

It is on Cartoon Network Too (UK) around 6:30.

 

[Phase_9]

TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!

 

[Amund]

I think cartoons took far more risks when we were kids, as such, adults were able to relate with them as well.

I think that, now that we've grown, we're able to appreciate the subtle references to more adult-oriented themes that most shows (namely, the 90's) had used so wildly, to a much greater extent.
Case in point:
You could never show this today. The mixture of pedophilia/psychotic tendencies, as subtle as they may be, would make parents break out in a cold sweat.

I got the psychotic tendincies, but not the pedophilia, want to explain please?

 

[Hazy]

I think cartoons took far more risks when we were kids, as such, adults were able to relate with them as well.

I think that, now that we've grown, we're able to appreciate the subtle references to more adult-oriented themes that most shows (namely, the 90's) had used so wildly, to a much greater extent.
Case in point:
You could never show this today. The mixture of pedophilia/psychotic tendencies, as subtle as they may be, would make parents break out in a cold sweat.

I got the psychotic tendincies, but not the pedophilia, want to explain please?

That was interpretation on my part.

I felt they went out of their way to establish a petite innocence in Fred's 'lover,' to symbolize the purity of a child.

Or maybe I'm over analyzing.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

In the 90's after the success of Roger Rabbit, for a short time, cartoons were respected and people became nostalgic of the 40 and 50's cartoons. Animation became something that can be for both children and adults, and doesn't have to look down on children like the last 30 years had been moving towards. However, that age quickly died with three things. Anime started to come over to America in large amounts, Pokemon, Digemon, what-ever-emon. They were getting as high, or higher ratings then locally made cartoons and were far cheaper to redub. Cartoons for adults also came about with the success of the Simspons, meaning that having sexual innuednos or other adult entertainment hidden in cartoons like Animaniacs was unneeded. Finally, the big boy of television animation, Warner Brothers, shut down most of the animation studio since their finical flop of the 90 animated films (4 out of the 5 animated Warner brothers films didn't even make money, and I think the filth was Space Jam). With all adult audiences going to other shows, and all the kids going to anime, Western animation did the only thing it could do to survive, cut-back budgets, copy anime, and lose all quality.

Anime itself lost quality, I mean the drawings are excelent but all seems pretty much the same, a misfit hero or heroin with a very twisted past goes on save a world in a paralel and very illogical reality, with his/her superpowers. And seems all are full of cliches that are not even fun. And half of it are like a pokemon/yu-gi-oh/digimon spin offs but with much much worse quality. I know there are many anime funs here but I gave up on it like 10 years ago.

And by the way, simpsons were not the first adult oriented cartoon, the flinstones were and as if not more successful. The innuendos were just very very very subtile, after all, it was the 60's. Later you had the jetsons, with a bit more risky innuendos but it still was the late 60's and 70's. So dont think the simpsons were the cause to live the adult innuendos. Actually Simpsons are from 1989 and many of the strongest innuendo series, like cow and chicken (1997), are from 94-98.

What I meant by adult cartoon is cartoons aimed for adults that didn't have to hide behind innuedos and injokes only adults would get, but out right swore and went on about adult themes and situations. Innuendos have been with animations forever, Looney Tunes even had a bunch, but in the 90's, the Simpsons showed one didn't have to hide behind innuendos and could out right do stuff for adults. The need for Hello Nurse and such disappeared when characters could beat each other with pipe wrench and have blood come out uncensored. Admittably a lot of "adult" cartoons are just as immature as their child aimed cousins, often even less so when compared to Batman: TAS, but that is simply how it is.