Old Vs New Cartoons

[Lassiem]

I'm sitting here watching my son watch Spongebob and was thinking that cartoons were sooooo much better back when I was young. Am I crazy? Cartoons today just seem to be plain stupid...no meaning whatsoever. Where's the Justice League? Where's the Jetsons? Maybe it's just because I'm so much older now. Maybe those cartoons where stupid also.

[Anime Daisuki]

Many cartoons in the past dealt with moral issues. There was always the fight between good and evil, like Batman, GI Joe, Thundercats, Ninja Turtles, etc. Even the wacky ones like Scooby Doo teaches kids to do good.

Nowadays there are more "Tom and Jerry" type of mindless entertainment. But there are still some good ones, like Powerpuff girls, Dexter, Pokemon, Ben10... By the way, The Justice League you mentioned above is still showing.

Some cartoons should obviously be banned from children, like South Park (shows at 9.30pm these days, which is wayyy to early)

[Bad Infinitum]

Even Tom and Jerry was great, though. Today's are just...senseless.

[Enigmatic]

Totally agree. Cartoons when I was a kid were so much better than today. Batman: TAS is the greatest Batman cartoon of all time. Bruce Timm is a genius and Mark Hamill did one of the best jokers ever. The cartoons to come out of Timm's DC Animated Universe (Batman Beyond, Justice League, Superman) were likewise quite good. Genndy Tartakovsky is one of the greatest people in cartoons. He was the man behind Dexter, Samurai Jack, and most recently the Clone Wars minisodes (not the new cgi deal which is actually better than I thought it would be, but still no comparison to the animated Clone Wars). Clone Wars packed more excitement into 5 minutes than a lot of cartoons do in half an hour. Dexter of course was fantastic for it's humor and plum craziness. Samurai Jack is by far the best sounding cartoon. The footsteps alone were enough to enrapture me.

A lot of the cartoons nowadays just seem pointless. The Batman was a pale comparision to Batman: TAS and the latest, Batman Brave and the Bold, while somewhat better than I've come to expect, is still a far cry from the Batman of my childhood.

Not to say there weren't some stupid and downright abysmal cartoons when I was a kid, but they seem in greater prevalence now. I'm also not a fan of the psuedo-anime style animation that seems popular. It works for somethings, but other cartoons just look horrible. The most glaring example I can think of is Transformers Animated. Dear Lord that's an ugly cartoon and it's an insult to the original Transformers. There was another great cartoon and the only one I really remember from the 80s. I remember getting up early (8 o'clock I think) just to see it. Some people may disagree with me, but Beast Wars was awesome. Especially near the end it had some serious stories. I had almost forgotten but ReBoot was also a fantastic cgi show.

There are some good ones these days though. Anime mentioned Ben 10 and I like that one. There's a new Spider Man cartoon that's not half bad. The series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoons began rather well but with each new series the quality has declined. Fast Forward wasn't horrible, but this latest one is sub par to say the least. There's another one where the animation style looks terrible. Avatar: the Last Airbender is probably the best cartoon in recent years. Intriguing world, compelling story and characters, awesome fight scenes. Avatar had everything.

Okay now I'm just rambling and adding shows to the list as I remember them and as people remind me of them. I think I'll stop now.

[Lassiem]

I do agree that Avatar is excellent....about the only cartoon I didn't mind my son watching....but Ed, Ed, and Edyy...come on...what's the point.

[New Dracora]

I wish I had spent more time as a kid watching the following:

Robotech (Macross)
Thundercats
Heman


Instead of devoting all my time to TMNT.

[Sinn Féin's Ireland]

Late 80s -early 90s cartoons are classic. Who could live without Sharky and George, Transformers, Pirates of Darkwater, Hong-Kong Fuey, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Biker Mice from Mars, Pinky and the Brain, and others too numerous to mention?

[Estayland]

Old stuff is much better. If you have the Boomerang Channel, watch it. It has Tom & Jerry, Popeye, The Jetsons, etc. But, there are some new stuff that is good. The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are cool if they are more "present day" as opposed to the TMNT Fast Forward.

[Chronopolice]

I prefer the old Tom and Jerry cartoons. Now those cartoons are the gold standard of just plain mayhem!!! ;D

[Greek People Nation (GPN)]

Pinky and the Brain!!! That was a good one. " What are we going to do today brain. Same thing we do everyday. Try to take over the world."

[GLIII]

Almost every cartoon is Japanese now.

[Greek People Nation (GPN)]

The only Japanese cartoon that I really like is Dragon Ball Z. Though I haven't watched it in years.

[Shelter From The Storm]

No one can beat the old Bugs Bunny / Foghorn Leghorn and other Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for Warner Bros.

[Isles of Nixon]

Back when I was growing up, there were the Saturday morning cartoons and then there were the ones that were shown during the week. The ones during the week were the classic, the Bugs Bunny, Merrie Melodies from the '40s and '50s and were at one time shown between 5 and 6PM on TNT, which provided for hilarity for a small kid. Of course looking back at them now, it's funny to see how they treated other civilizations, like the Japanese during WWII (although the outrageous ones are never shown, the ones that still are can be quite insulting, too). It was mindless humor and whose sole purpose was to keep kids entertained.

The ones shown during on the weekends, Ghostbusters, Chip and Dales Rescue Rangers, TMNT, they all were pretty new and dealt with morals while still keeping people entertained. Of course, then the WB came along and also produced their own, like Darkwing Duck and TaleSpin. They were a bit more family friendly and again, were shown primarily between 3-5PM, right after school.

Now the cartoons are Cartoon Network, while animated, aren't real cartoons. They have no moral lesson, they lack any coherence and while they are mindless, I doubt you can call them entertainment! But unfortunately that's all there is nowadays. I've asked before and I'll ask it again - what is the world coming to?

[MinnaCaroline]

Jan 3, 2009 1:26:29 GMT -5 Enigmatic said:

Avatar: the Last Airbender is probably the best cartoon in recent years. Intriguing world, compelling story and characters, awesome fight scenes. Avatar had everything.

LOL!! We actually TIVO Avatar... how pathetic are we?! And it's not even for our kids sakes!

It's the only cartoon I can stand and I actually enjoy these days.

We don't allow our kids to watch Sponge Bob, but we do allow Pokemon and Ben10, there's a few out there we will allow but I'm just happy they're getting out of the cartoon stage!

[Shelter From The Storm]

Jan 11, 2009 16:36:09 GMT -5 MinnaCaroline said:

We don't allow our kids to watch Sponge Bob,

Minna,
What's wrong with SpongeBob? (I've only seen it once, for about 5 minutes)

[MinnaCaroline]

Well, Sponge Bob uses words like idiot, stupid, dumb... etc in the cartoon and these are words that we don't allow in the house. So that's one reason and it also promotes lying, cheating, stealing. It's funny yes, but we don't want the kids getting the impression that these things are okay. That's all.

[Shelter From The Storm]

Oh well. My kids are 17 and 25 years old. I don't have much control over what they watch these days.

[MinnaCaroline]

LOL!!! My kids are 7 and 5... we have a bit of control over what they watch.

[Anime Daisuki]

Jan 11, 2009 18:08:34 GMT -5 MinnaCaroline said:

Well, Sponge Bob uses words like idiot, stupid, dumb... etc in the cartoon and these are words that we don't allow in the house. So that's one reason and it also promotes lying, cheating, stealing. It's funny yes, but we don't want the kids getting the impression that these things are okay. That's all.

I know it sounds "expected" for me to say this. But I will recommend young children watch Anime instead of Cartoons.

All these are good titles: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Masterpiece_Theater

Each one is fairly long too (several hundred episodes each). So just one title can keep a child occupied for days.

[Soazigstan]

South Park is awesome, but of course it's an adult cartoon...not all cartoons means kid friendly...especially adult swim hehe

[Private Doctors]

I don't like the new cartoons that much. They seem so...bland. Many of the characters have horriable voice over and everything. I miss old "Tom and Jerry" before they started talking. Voice overs suck lol Just in general.

[Assassins and Bandits]

Hmm... i did watched cartoons when i still in primary school but when come to secondary school until now i more prefer Anime ...

i started 'move away' from watching cartoons mainly the cartoons nowadays much 'American' or 'English' style, actually it is quite hard for people like me (did not live in American or Europe) to understand, i would say they are more local, reflecting the situation of that place.

Well, i would say the Anime, although most of them Japanese, they are more emphasize common understanding among Anime supporters or young children or guy or lady and indirectly promoting Japanese culture.

Love my Avatar... it is Japanese Anime character ... go watch NARUTO!

[Chronopolice]

POCOYO, Shaun the Sheep, Kids Next Door, and the occasional vintage Tom and Jerry is what fulfills my cartoon wants.

[Inquirius]

As Crispin Freeman put it, "mature animated storytelling" is the kind of thing I find worthwhile. Honestly, the only cartoons where I find genuinely engrossing storylines are anime titles. Still, I plead guilty to watching Spongebob once in a while. I miss Gargoyles and Captain Planet.