HELLO NURSE!!!
Now that I have your attention, I wish to draw you into an argument concerning one of the best animated series of all time: "Animaniacs".
As I already demonstrated in this other poll of mine http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.278601-Poll-Heeeellllllllllloooo-Nurse-aka-I-Love-Animaniacs#10868510 , I'm a huge fan of "Animaniacs" and 1990's cartoons in general.
I used to consider those shows better than the current generation's by default... I still believe that, but the reasons for such a preference - as I think I tackled down - can be discovered in other motives aside from the obvious nostalgic factor (which is what basically drives the whole 1980's action figures-based animated series' Nostalgia).
You see, it's no shocker to realize that cartoons from the '90 were the finest example of genuine televised anarchy, what with the pop-cultural showcases and socially satyrical post-"Simpsons" new waves of programming that provided a significant revolution in our perspection of the media... but shows like "The Simpsons" and "Beavis & Butthead" were cartoons solely oriented for the adult audience, while shows like "Animaniacs" were supposedly meant for "kids"... so we got a "kids' show" filled with adult-oriented humour and old-school pop-cultural references no regular kid would be able to understand... but that's ok, I mean, as a kid I couldn't understand half of the jokes but I still enjoyed it because it was an AWESOME cartoon with AWESOME characters that were meant as both a prodigy and homage to classic golden era of Hollywood cartoons' time period!
Yet, that course of action, that seemingly absence of a "balance" (and I use the word loosely) between adult-oriented humour and "child friendlyness" ended up being the ultimate downfall of series such as this, because the audience they were originally meant for would be slowly out-numbered by a diverse demographic (nerdy adults, for the most part), thus pushing the show to embrace MORE the appeal of that particular demographic, eventually losing contact with the younger audience and the patience of the faceless producers... I call this: the "Freakazoid" Paradox!
You might think I'm exaggerating a bit, "Animaniacs" is after all one of those great shows that can be enjoyed by anyone... and it was not THAT adult-oriented, right? It's no "Family Guy", right? Well, even with all the peculiar "Goodnight Everybody" segments, I used to think that our kids of today would go just great if they could be exposed at such an intelligent cartoon variety... until I saw this particular episode of Slappy Squirrel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwYacTjyD3U and thus, my mind exploded!
You see, in this episode, a little newly born birdie mistakes good old Slappy for his mother and constantly tries to place himself under the rodent's behind when she sits... and around 3:18 minutes I was exposed to the single dirtiest joke ever made in any animated series I've ever watched (with the sole exception of "South Park")! And so, I finally realized what was the big deal with 1990's cartoon shows... they were the direct and most immediate result of the cultural revolution brought on one side by the advent of "The Simpsons" (and their wave of pop-cultural-based humour specifically designed to appeal mature audiences) and the appropriately named "Cartoon Renaissance" promoted by Steven Spielberg's pet project "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", which made us all remember how old-school Hollywood cartoons were SO much better and anarchist than anything ever made for the television up until that point... thusly, the old-fashioned idea of a cartoon show exclusevely meant "for kids" came crushing down before the newly (ri)discovered possibilities of the genre.
To put it in other, less pretentious words, the 1990's - this bizarrely awesome, mentally disturbed and sexually confused decade filled with experimentations and revivals with several materials, a chaotic and ultimately unclear period of time born in the aftertaste of the Berlin's Wall, in which an animated squirrel "enjoying" having a bird up her butt passed for an actual TV show for children - served as the cultural bridge between the 1980's and the 2000's, where cartoons, idealistically, became more "balanced".
In the 2000's, we officially enter the "Spongebob Squarepants" era, in which cartoons "meant for kids" can be equally enjoyed by adults WITHOUT too much risk... The "Spongebob" formula works because the show manages, on one hand, to give less emphasys on the whole "pop-cultural junkyard and dirty jokes that can't be possibly understood by children" path that defined part of the "Animaniacs" appeal, and on the other hand, to provide a strong characters and locations-based humour that makes you familiarized with the show's setting... (which is a formula that TV animators have been carefully crafting and perfecting since the Hanna & Barbera's Golden Age).
So, to summarize, I don't think modern day cartoons are better than last decade's... but they ARE the end result of said period's experimentations - a more "balanced" version of the "unbalanced" products of the '90s, if you will. So, if they (Spielberg and co.) are EVER going to bring back a show like "Animaniacs", they'll also have to realize that THAT kind of humour wouldn't fit with a modern perspection of popular "kids' shows"... therefore, they'll have to finally drop the facade and making it a full-fledged Adult-oriented cartoon, with definetely MORE jokes about Minerva Mink getting mentally undressed by over-the-top drooling dogs and the Warner Brothers making fun of things like Spongebob and Pokemon.... that would be great!
Sorry for the rant... let us make us more comfortable, now.
What was YOUR favourite "Goodnight Everybody" segment?
Now that I have your attention, I wish to draw you into an argument concerning one of the best animated series of all time: "Animaniacs".
As I already demonstrated in this other poll of mine http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.278601-Poll-Heeeellllllllllloooo-Nurse-aka-I-Love-Animaniacs#10868510 , I'm a huge fan of "Animaniacs" and 1990's cartoons in general.
I used to consider those shows better than the current generation's by default... I still believe that, but the reasons for such a preference - as I think I tackled down - can be discovered in other motives aside from the obvious nostalgic factor (which is what basically drives the whole 1980's action figures-based animated series' Nostalgia).
You see, it's no shocker to realize that cartoons from the '90 were the finest example of genuine televised anarchy, what with the pop-cultural showcases and socially satyrical post-"Simpsons" new waves of programming that provided a significant revolution in our perspection of the media... but shows like "The Simpsons" and "Beavis & Butthead" were cartoons solely oriented for the adult audience, while shows like "Animaniacs" were supposedly meant for "kids"... so we got a "kids' show" filled with adult-oriented humour and old-school pop-cultural references no regular kid would be able to understand... but that's ok, I mean, as a kid I couldn't understand half of the jokes but I still enjoyed it because it was an AWESOME cartoon with AWESOME characters that were meant as both a prodigy and homage to classic golden era of Hollywood cartoons' time period!
Yet, that course of action, that seemingly absence of a "balance" (and I use the word loosely) between adult-oriented humour and "child friendlyness" ended up being the ultimate downfall of series such as this, because the audience they were originally meant for would be slowly out-numbered by a diverse demographic (nerdy adults, for the most part), thus pushing the show to embrace MORE the appeal of that particular demographic, eventually losing contact with the younger audience and the patience of the faceless producers... I call this: the "Freakazoid" Paradox!
You might think I'm exaggerating a bit, "Animaniacs" is after all one of those great shows that can be enjoyed by anyone... and it was not THAT adult-oriented, right? It's no "Family Guy", right? Well, even with all the peculiar "Goodnight Everybody" segments, I used to think that our kids of today would go just great if they could be exposed at such an intelligent cartoon variety... until I saw this particular episode of Slappy Squirrel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwYacTjyD3U and thus, my mind exploded!
You see, in this episode, a little newly born birdie mistakes good old Slappy for his mother and constantly tries to place himself under the rodent's behind when she sits... and around 3:18 minutes I was exposed to the single dirtiest joke ever made in any animated series I've ever watched (with the sole exception of "South Park")! And so, I finally realized what was the big deal with 1990's cartoon shows... they were the direct and most immediate result of the cultural revolution brought on one side by the advent of "The Simpsons" (and their wave of pop-cultural-based humour specifically designed to appeal mature audiences) and the appropriately named "Cartoon Renaissance" promoted by Steven Spielberg's pet project "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", which made us all remember how old-school Hollywood cartoons were SO much better and anarchist than anything ever made for the television up until that point... thusly, the old-fashioned idea of a cartoon show exclusevely meant "for kids" came crushing down before the newly (ri)discovered possibilities of the genre.
To put it in other, less pretentious words, the 1990's - this bizarrely awesome, mentally disturbed and sexually confused decade filled with experimentations and revivals with several materials, a chaotic and ultimately unclear period of time born in the aftertaste of the Berlin's Wall, in which an animated squirrel "enjoying" having a bird up her butt passed for an actual TV show for children - served as the cultural bridge between the 1980's and the 2000's, where cartoons, idealistically, became more "balanced".
In the 2000's, we officially enter the "Spongebob Squarepants" era, in which cartoons "meant for kids" can be equally enjoyed by adults WITHOUT too much risk... The "Spongebob" formula works because the show manages, on one hand, to give less emphasys on the whole "pop-cultural junkyard and dirty jokes that can't be possibly understood by children" path that defined part of the "Animaniacs" appeal, and on the other hand, to provide a strong characters and locations-based humour that makes you familiarized with the show's setting... (which is a formula that TV animators have been carefully crafting and perfecting since the Hanna & Barbera's Golden Age).
So, to summarize, I don't think modern day cartoons are better than last decade's... but they ARE the end result of said period's experimentations - a more "balanced" version of the "unbalanced" products of the '90s, if you will. So, if they (Spielberg and co.) are EVER going to bring back a show like "Animaniacs", they'll also have to realize that THAT kind of humour wouldn't fit with a modern perspection of popular "kids' shows"... therefore, they'll have to finally drop the facade and making it a full-fledged Adult-oriented cartoon, with definetely MORE jokes about Minerva Mink getting mentally undressed by over-the-top drooling dogs and the Warner Brothers making fun of things like Spongebob and Pokemon.... that would be great!
Sorry for the rant... let us make us more comfortable, now.
What was YOUR favourite "Goodnight Everybody" segment?
