Poll: Is it just me, or were cartoons better when I was a kid?
- Thread starter Blindswordmaster
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I accidentally voted "now", sorry about that. Also; Tacos FTW? Sure, but what's that got to do with anything?
I'm dealing with a slightly different time-frame. When I was a kid, there were recyclings of the old Warner Bros. cartoons (awesome) and a lot of Hanna-Barbera (most of it absolute dreck.) There were cartoons based on arcade games (95% extremely strained dreck), and GI Joe brought lasers onto the battlefield and then never did anything but disarm people.
And then there were the first stirrings of anime in the west... Which was in turns bizzare and awesome. When cable first came to my city, for a time there was an extremely local cartoon channel which used to show Harmony Gold movies late at night. And I remember thinking: people made animations out of this? Little Women? Dracula? Not watered down after-school special versions, but serious (if sometimes fumbling) attempts to do the original works justice?
I think there's some nostalgia involved and some truth. There were definitely some awesome cartoons in the 90s, but there was also more than a little crap. Just as there are some decent shows now (Boondocks? Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends? and some shows that make me want to gouge out my eardrums with a cocktail fork (Ed, Edd, n Eddy.)
It's become far cheaper than it used to be to produce animation. Good, bad and indifferent, if there's one thing we can look forward to (or dread), it's more volume.
And then there were the first stirrings of anime in the west... Which was in turns bizzare and awesome. When cable first came to my city, for a time there was an extremely local cartoon channel which used to show Harmony Gold movies late at night. And I remember thinking: people made animations out of this? Little Women? Dracula? Not watered down after-school special versions, but serious (if sometimes fumbling) attempts to do the original works justice?
I think there's some nostalgia involved and some truth. There were definitely some awesome cartoons in the 90s, but there was also more than a little crap. Just as there are some decent shows now (Boondocks? Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends? and some shows that make me want to gouge out my eardrums with a cocktail fork (Ed, Edd, n Eddy.)
It's become far cheaper than it used to be to produce animation. Good, bad and indifferent, if there's one thing we can look forward to (or dread), it's more volume.
Oh God, this episode...Hazy said:Did this bastard give you the creeps?Cheery Lunatic said:
"RETURN THE SLAAABBBB, OR SUFFER MY CUUURRRSEEEE!"
Tell me I'm not the only one :l
This was the first episode of Courage I Ever saw. I think I was 10 or so. It scared me enough that the show earned my respect instantly. Honestly some episodes of that show were rediculously eerie.
Yeah, Phineas & Ferb is pretty awesome, it has some great jokes. But to me it suffers a bit from repetition. Every single episode is marked out, and if you've seen one you've seen pretty much all of them. (I appreciate that you could say that about The Simpsons and Family Guy too, but I realy think P&F takes the cake when it comes to repetition). And there is a song and dance routine in EVERY F***ING episode. I hate musicals, so it doesn't really do it for me.crudus said:
I consider musicals to be the bee's knees and the cat's pajamas, and I don't like the musical numbers either. Though to be honest, I'm not that interested in P&F at all.Phenom828 said:
I think a lot of it is nostalgia. I will agree that cartoons from when I was a kid seem better than the cartoons now. What I have noticed though is that many cartoons in the 90's treated kids in a more mature and intelligent senses than they do now. Animaniacs had many innuendos in the show.
When the kids of today are grown up in the next ten to fifteen years they might say that their cartoons were better than the future ones.
When the kids of today are grown up in the next ten to fifteen years they might say that their cartoons were better than the future ones.
0_o Oh god... *hides under desk* He was so scary, I actually remeber seeing more of him, y'know like his face and stuff. Still effin scary! he became a prominent feature in my nightmares for a couple of months after I saw that episode. And Katz, I f***king hate Katz! he's cool and all, but he's such a psychopath! *changes to Youtube to see some "Katz" episodes*GnomeThief said:Hazy said:Did this bastard give you the creeps?Cheery Lunatic said:
"RETURN THE SLAAABBBB, OR SUFFER MY CUUURRRSEEEE!"
Tell me I'm not the only one :l
God yes! He used to scare me so much!
I really miss Courage. I loved all the villains like Katz and Le Quack, and all the weird characters like Dr. Vindaloo. Why did it all have to end?
Lots of the 80's toy commercial cartoons were like that, particularily the ones done for Hasbro by Sunbow entertainment.RathWolf said:
BSM: You're right. Older toons were indeed far better. Now, let's get back to work 
(this is a topic that's been popping up on repeat pretty much since the dawn of the internet... it's nostalgia in action, and also a side effect of not being exposed to as many now you're older. Still, I voted "earlier" because I have the same feelings... just from some years earlier)
More seriously, seeing a wider time-spread of things, I'd say your youth was passed at a time where there WAS something of a turning point in kids animation... I think probably it was when 2D & 3D animation packages became good enough quality and affordable enough that every Mr J Q Random and his hamster was able to make a cartoon. And so, as it's easy to make something that at a surface level appeals to kiddywinks, doesn't necessarily require the most complex plotting or expensive voice actors, and always has a ready market, a lot of folks lined up for Easy Money. Though stuff like Samurai Jack, PPG (& Reboot? Never saw it unfortunately!) shows that it's not the production method itself that's at fault, it certainly facilitated an awful lot of crap, presumably getting to air as it was that which had the lowest licensing cost.
However, don't lose faith. These things do tend to come and go, and there are still strong storytellers and skilled animators (in any medium) out there. If you have any free-to-access Video on Demand services available from your local broadcasters, check out their children's section, you may be pleasantly surprised. Yes, there IS a lot of rubbish there, it's not like the 80s and 90s where most things were solid gold (and had to be, in order to compete in a smaller channel complement, higher production cost environment) and had a lot of genuine effort expended in their production because that's the only way they could be made - but there are still a lot of well made, enjoyable programs. For every Animalia, Waybuloo or Chuggington, there's a Shaun the Sheep/Timmy Time, Little Howard or Tronji.
The strangest gap is that there don't seem to be many decent adventure / superhero type productions about right now. But a lot of those have gone semi-liveaction with a lot of CG. The cartoon ones all seem to follow the "EXTREEEEM!" kind of formula.
(Well, except for Avatar: TLAB of course.)
Could be worse, though, you realise. You could be living in the mid 70s, where Hanna Barbera & the Pink Panther were considered the height of quality *shudder*, and if you're exceedingly lucky there might have been a few (ORIGINAL) Tom & Jerry or Loony Tunes/Merrie Melodies thrown in the mix. Scooby Doo and the like is good for a quick laugh, but it's not exactly top class entertainment with high production values.
What I would like to see is a kids channel that casts its net quite wide, across what is now at least 70 years of very variable quality, from around the whole world, and cherry picks the very best of it all. I think I could easily fill up a week's 24 hour schedule with nothing but awesomeness, including some things made in the last 10 years. Big flashy stuff for the tweens and teens around morning and evening pre/post school time, with the occasional more thoughtful thing dropped in like a culture-bomb. Lots of light froth throughout the day to keep the toddlers quiet (including all the absolute classics - fill their little brains up with goodness, and pop culture references that are half a century out of date), and the grittier, turn of the 90s kind of fare through the late night slots for nostalgic adults or those with the ability to set a VCR/PVR.
This may already exist, I hope it does (may explain the patchy state of free-to-air broadcast schedules, if it's snarfed all the licenses)... but unfortunately if so, it must be a satellite / premium cable one, which I'm too poor/stingy to afford
(this is a topic that's been popping up on repeat pretty much since the dawn of the internet... it's nostalgia in action, and also a side effect of not being exposed to as many now you're older. Still, I voted "earlier" because I have the same feelings... just from some years earlier)
More seriously, seeing a wider time-spread of things, I'd say your youth was passed at a time where there WAS something of a turning point in kids animation... I think probably it was when 2D & 3D animation packages became good enough quality and affordable enough that every Mr J Q Random and his hamster was able to make a cartoon. And so, as it's easy to make something that at a surface level appeals to kiddywinks, doesn't necessarily require the most complex plotting or expensive voice actors, and always has a ready market, a lot of folks lined up for Easy Money. Though stuff like Samurai Jack, PPG (& Reboot? Never saw it unfortunately!) shows that it's not the production method itself that's at fault, it certainly facilitated an awful lot of crap, presumably getting to air as it was that which had the lowest licensing cost.
However, don't lose faith. These things do tend to come and go, and there are still strong storytellers and skilled animators (in any medium) out there. If you have any free-to-access Video on Demand services available from your local broadcasters, check out their children's section, you may be pleasantly surprised. Yes, there IS a lot of rubbish there, it's not like the 80s and 90s where most things were solid gold (and had to be, in order to compete in a smaller channel complement, higher production cost environment) and had a lot of genuine effort expended in their production because that's the only way they could be made - but there are still a lot of well made, enjoyable programs. For every Animalia, Waybuloo or Chuggington, there's a Shaun the Sheep/Timmy Time, Little Howard or Tronji.
The strangest gap is that there don't seem to be many decent adventure / superhero type productions about right now. But a lot of those have gone semi-liveaction with a lot of CG. The cartoon ones all seem to follow the "EXTREEEEM!" kind of formula.
(Well, except for Avatar: TLAB of course.)
Could be worse, though, you realise. You could be living in the mid 70s, where Hanna Barbera & the Pink Panther were considered the height of quality *shudder*, and if you're exceedingly lucky there might have been a few (ORIGINAL) Tom & Jerry or Loony Tunes/Merrie Melodies thrown in the mix. Scooby Doo and the like is good for a quick laugh, but it's not exactly top class entertainment with high production values.
What I would like to see is a kids channel that casts its net quite wide, across what is now at least 70 years of very variable quality, from around the whole world, and cherry picks the very best of it all. I think I could easily fill up a week's 24 hour schedule with nothing but awesomeness, including some things made in the last 10 years. Big flashy stuff for the tweens and teens around morning and evening pre/post school time, with the occasional more thoughtful thing dropped in like a culture-bomb. Lots of light froth throughout the day to keep the toddlers quiet (including all the absolute classics - fill their little brains up with goodness, and pop culture references that are half a century out of date), and the grittier, turn of the 90s kind of fare through the late night slots for nostalgic adults or those with the ability to set a VCR/PVR.
This may already exist, I hope it does (may explain the patchy state of free-to-air broadcast schedules, if it's snarfed all the licenses)... but unfortunately if so, it must be a satellite / premium cable one, which I'm too poor/stingy to afford
Dude, those old cartoons were great, they weren't the bottom of the barrel no talent BS people try to pass off as original or worthwhile nowadays. Aah! real monsters got left off the list tho
I seriously can't watch a show now on nickelodeon or cartoon network without asking myself WHY THE F&%K DO PEOPLE WATCH THIS SH#T.
I seriously can't watch a show now on nickelodeon or cartoon network without asking myself WHY THE F&%K DO PEOPLE WATCH THIS SH#T.
I was so scraed when i saw him.Also the earlier cartoons were better.Hazy said:Did this bastard give you the creeps?Cheery Lunatic said:
"RETURN THE SLAAABBBB, OR SUFFER MY CUUURRRSEEEE!"
Tell me I'm not the only one :l
I was actually thinking about this the other day. I bought Volume 2 of Animaniacs and caught so many more levels of humor than I remember as a kid. Same goes for Freakazoid!.
Honestly, my favorite moment from Animaniacs is when Yakko is singing about all of the planets and at the end, Wakko pops up and says "You forgot Uranus." "Good night, everybody."
This has inspired me to use the phrase "Good night, everybody" in place of the (now) overused "That's what she said."
Honestly, my favorite moment from Animaniacs is when Yakko is singing about all of the planets and at the end, Wakko pops up and says "You forgot Uranus." "Good night, everybody."
This has inspired me to use the phrase "Good night, everybody" in place of the (now) overused "That's what she said."
No no no your perfectly right cartoons nowadays are complete and utter piles of shit. What happened to things like Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, Cow and Chicken, Courage, Johnny Bravo, Dexter and so many others that seem to have disappeared and just are put on as reruns. Come on this shit can't even hold a damn sparkler to Tom and Jerry, Wacky Races, Catch the Pidgeon and all the WB cartoons.Blindswordmaster said:
Actually they started broadcasting that show again. AND IT IS GLORIOUS!!Hazy said:
...Still no forgiveness over the cancellation of MEGAS XLR.