When you complain about kid's shows these days not being as good as they used to be

[Taekro]

I have a little sister, and she watches a lot of cartoons. Probably it's the anime fan in me, or the kid in me, or both, but I just can't take my eyes off her TV if she's watching something. Some aren't all that bad. Hell, I love "Code Lyoko" and I'm almost 19.

Still, NOTHING beats Looney Tunes or basically any of the old Cartoon Network cartoons (Courage, the Cowardly Dog, Johnny Bravo, Dexter, SAMURAI JACK!!!!). I remember with much joy how I learned to speak English just from watching CN, especially "Cow and Chicken".

 

[minimacker]

It just seems that they are plain worse. They have zero novelty and the "true crude randomness" that happened. Great examples I could think of was Ed, Edd & Eddy and (less crude, but fast nonetheless) Samurai Jack, both my favourite shows of all time.

The art style was crude and "dirty" in Ed, Edd & Eddy, but the speed and flow of the animations were fantastic.

I got ninja'd, but some of the shows I can think of that truly lives up to that sort of speed is Megas XLR and possibly Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Those shows were from 2002, though. So they aren't that new.

 

[Mallefunction]

My issue is more what they show. High School is overly portrayed now in many children shows...generally way more fluffy and nice than any real HS. Most kids shows seem to want to turn 10 year olds right into 16 year olds, and thats my real issue.

This, a thousand times this. I mean, sure back in the 90s there were a few shows where the protagonist was in middle school like Pepper Ann and Lizzie Mcguire...but now it's pretty much every show...and it's HS now. XD

 

[Right Hook]

What you must remember is that you liked them because you were young, and the shows were aimed at kids of you and your age.

Your tastes change, and the shows are still aimed at young kids, while you have grown older.

So why complain about a show that isn't even aimed at your age?

You make a good point, except my little brother (who is still young enough to appreciate todays cartoons) likes the older cartoons I've introduced him to a lot more than the current ones but my little brother isn't a little dumb-ass either so maybe it isn't fair to use him as an example.

 

[Saulkar]

Well it is because a lot (but I can safely say not all) cartoons today possess piss poor writing teams and a horrendous production quality. While it is also safe to say this was the same back in the day, there are notably more cartoons with a poor production quality vs good ones today. The exact figures are beyond me but there are indeed many cartoons that are still good but they are often overshadowed by cheap to produce bad ones. I remember several years ago I could go through an entire day of cartoon network, ytv, or teletoons and enjoy myself all the way through. Now I am lucky if I have two good modern shows back to back. Either that or I do not watch cable enough. I do not let nostalgia goggles get in the way of anything except all nighters.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Cartoons really did get terrible from about 2006 to 2008 or 2009. The stuff before and after that period is significantly better than the stuff that came out in between. Prior to 2006 we had had two decades of solid cartoons -- the majority of which still hold up today, and are even more entertaining for adults, since a lot of the humor was meant to go over kids heads. After 2008, we started getting stuff like Phineas and Ferb, Adventure Time, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and The Secret Saturdays, all of which are excellent shows. If you look at the period in between, the main shows were things like Total Drama Island, 6teen, Johnny Test (ongoing but originally from the period I'm talking about), My Gym Partner is a Monkey, and Camp Lazlo. About the only bright points in the period were Avatar and the later seasons of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, but they were major outliers.

TL;DR: Nostalgia plays a part, but cartoons really were terrible there for a while. It ebbs and flows -- the period from the late 50's to the early 80's isn't called the dark age of animation for nothing, nor were the 30's to the mid 50's called the golden age for no reason. Is it really so hard to believe that the quality has fluctuated in the last few decades?