Im not referring to the good old days like the 40′s or 50′s, but the 80′s and 90′s when those of my generation were learning about the world and it’s many twisting and turnings. Specifically, our cartoons.
One of my favorite cartoons of all time was Animaniacs. That and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I mean, todays cartoons are rather a let down when it comes to the styles of animation that are used in their production, but more than that the “message” that todays cartoons deliver seems to be a somewhat less meaningful and very watered down version of the messages from these 2, in my opinion, staples of my generations cartoons.
For instance, when Shredder was thwarted (yet again) but the cowabunga band of mutated amphibians, there was always some meaningful bit of wisdom that was gained be it “never put all your super weapons in one Technodrome”, or something about good hearted teams will always triumph over evil individuals.
From Animaniacs, though, the best message you could hope for was from Mr. Skullhead, either about not skiing a downhill run in summer, or not to go swimming in a pool of sharks with meat tied around your neck.
For those of us with children (and none of us thought we would actually have them) we can still see them today. Animaniacs can be rented from your local library now (as my friend did, which we are about to watch disc 4 of). And TMNT is making a comeback of sorts as evidenced by the new movie (which I took my son to see, and he loved it and the messages about brotherhood that it bestowed upon the audience). Perhaps we will yet again be blessed with TMNT in the mornings and Animaniacs in the afternoons as it was in our youth, but if not, then we can get the DVDs (or download them from torrents) and enjoy them with our children who will hopefully learn the same well rounded lessons we did at their age.
-Cheers
You are exactly right. The cartoons today cannot even compare to the awesome cartoons in previous years. I know I watched Animaniacs, Ninja Turtles, Gargoyles, Pinky and the Brain, and too many others to name. The cartoons today rely so much on computer animation. What ever happened to good old cartoons that were hand drawn such as She-Man or even the original Spiderman. It seems they cease to exist unless you have them on DVD or by chance catch a rerun.
I totally forgot about Gargoyles. I watched that initially because the entire cast of Start Trek TNG was cast as voices in it. That was a great show.
But yea, as good as it is that animation technology as advanced to give us gems like Toy Story and the new TMNT movie, a good old hand drawn adventure is a rare thing these days.
i miss pinky and the brain
Wow. I remember Tom & Jerry. That used to be a great cartoon. Used to watch the many episodes over and over again.