Whatever happened to good cartoons?

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

I know this has been a discussion for a long time, but holy crap. I turn on the tee vee and see these wimpy characters talking about eating vegetables. I even eat a lot of vegetables, but this show made me want to buy a case of TV dinners. People like to cite the violence of the older cartoons, but it was really the whole package that was lost.

This regional network here shows PInk Panther cartoons before the full-length movie starts. Cartoons like this are everything contemporary animation is not. Shows like Pink Panther were clever, humorous, plot-filled, imaginative, anticipatory, and filled with plenty of personality.

[specsaregood]

I know this has been a discussion for a long time, but holy crap. I turn on the tee vee and see these wimpy characters talking about eating vegetables. I even eat a lot of vegetables, but this show made me want to buy a case of TV dinners.

dunno, I credit the popeye cartoons with my love for spinach ever since I was a wee lad.

[Natural Citizen]

Yeah, really. I do like me some cartoons. They suck today. I agree.

I like Pete Puma...



Bugs was referencing the USS Missouri (Big Mo) when he said he didn't trust that stinkin Pete Puma further than he could throw it.

[CPUd]

[Suzanimal]

dunno, I credit the popeye cartoons with my love for spinach ever since I was a wee lad.

My #2 son loves spinach because of Popeye too. He loves Popeye Pizza - white pizza with spinach.

[Suzanimal]

I loved Scooby Doo, I quit ballet because of the scheduling conflict with Scooby (that and I sucked at it).

[pessimist]

[pessimist]

[fisharmor]

...Are you kidding? Any one episode of Adventure Time kicks the crap out of 70% of anything Warner did, even pre 1960.

Anything with Genndy Tartakovsky in the credits handily beats old HB schlock like Wacky Racers.

And that's just the top of my head, and intentionally not looking at foreign stuff.

Cartoons on the whole are about 1000% better than they have been in the last 50 years.

Go to waychcartoononline.com (adblock REQUIRED) and watch Spectacular Spider-Man, which is from 2008, and bar none the best thing outside of comics to have Spidey in it, and you've never heard of it, because everyone apparently thinks cartooons suck these days.

Even fricking MLPFIM is objectively better than He-Man was.

[mad cow]

Cartoons have been going downhill for 80 years.They broke the mold after Betty Boop popped out.

[thoughtomator]

The tip of the peak of the cartoon industry, after which it was all downhill from there:

[pessimist]

I love the Animaniacs theme song!

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[fisharmor]

This last season, The Legend of Korra featured an antagonist who plotted to topple all the governments of the world and institute anarchy worldwide. He was voiced by none other than Henry Rollins. I wept at the thought that he volunteered to voice that chatacter knowing he had to lose in the end.

[fisharmor]

Ren and Stimpy is classic, but if you liked it, and you claim it has been downhill since, you're making it clear you haven't seen much else.

[specsaregood]

My #2 son loves spinach because of Popeye too. He loves Popeye Pizza - white pizza with spinach.

I also credit duck tales and uncle scrooge with my interest in gold coins. my kid is on the same track as he loves jake the pirate and they are always chasing after "gold doubloons" he's got a piggy bank full of silver coins he calls his gold doubloons and regularly hides it and we go on treasure hunts to find it wherever captain hook hid it.

[DaninPA]

Tried to embed, but I suck.

http://youtu.be/bj78yCaumpc

[thoughtomator]

Ren and Stimpy is classic, but if you liked it, and you claim it has been downhill since, you're making it clear you haven't seen much else.

truth... I gave up TV not long after Ren & Stimpy terminated

[Brian4Liberty]

The tip of the peak of the cartoon industry, after which it was all downhill from there:

Space Madness is one of the all time classics.

[Brian4Liberty]

You'll find that many old cartoons (Bug Bunny) have been blacklisted. They can not be viewed on Youtube, even if they were uploaded in another country. Then they had all of that editing they did at some point, so many kids saw a cut down cartoon that didn't even make sense. Can't show the shotgun blow Daffy Duck's bill backwards!

[Brian4Liberty]

Ren and Stimpy is classic, but if you liked it, and you claim it has been downhill since, you're making it clear you haven't seen much else.

Futurama was pretty darn good. And then there is SouthPark...

[Zippyjuan]

Often we remember the cartoons or movies or songs we liked when we were younger and forget that there were a lot of bad ones then too. That can make yesterday seem better than today. "When I was younger...." "Kids today..."

There are also a lot more cartoons produced today which dilutes the writing talent pool.

[mad cow]

Futurama was pretty darn good. And then there is SouthPark...

There seems to be a misunderstanding,maybe just on my part,on what we are talking about when we say Cartoon.

I was thinking about the 5 to 10 minute shorts that were called cartoons in my youth,not animated TV shows like SouthPark or The Simpsons or movies like Snow White,Fantasia or Fritz The Cat.

So,with those restrictions,Betty Boop rulez.

[Dr.3D]

Who remembers the Rough and Ready cartoons?


Or the Tom Terrific cartoons?

[mad cow]

Hanna Barbera were the final stake through the heart of American Cartoons.

[Dr.3D]

Hanna Barbera were the final stake through the heart of American Cartoons.

That's what I noticed. That stupid Sea Serpent cartoon show was just the start.

I had to think about it a while... it was the "Beany and Cecil" series.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

...on what we are talking about when we say Cartoon.

I was thinking about the 5 to 10 minute shorts that were called cartoons in my youth,not animated TV shows like SouthPark or The Simpsons or movies like Snow White,Fantasia or Fritz The Cat.

That's what I was thinking. The stuff that aired Saturday morning. I actually have not seen cartoons lately, but just saw this bad one on public television. That probably really does not count though because it's "educational." That's what I get for watching PBS. :-/

Yeah, the other category is animated TV shows. I always thought the Simpsons was the best. It was good for about three years, which I think is about the limit of quality for most shows.

The other category is animated specials, especially the holiday shows. I'd say number one or two is the Charlie Brown Christmas. Seems Schulz put a lot of himself into that comic strip. Heard once that Lucy is supposed to represent his first wife.

[mad cow]

Tried to embed, but I suck.

http://youtu.be/bj78yCaumpc

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Can't show the shotgun blow Daffy Duck's bill backwards!

It's not the same, but this Pink Panther short makes good use of a firearm in somebody's face.

And I still can't get that Henry Mancini music out of my head.

[fr33]

[mad cow]

That's what I noticed. That stupid Sea Serpent cartoon show was just the start.

I had to think about it a while... it was the "Beany and Cecil" series.

Clutch Cargo signifies when they stopped even trying.It probably did more to get millions of American kids outdoors playing on Saturday mornings,weather be damned,than all of the parental threats and cajoling combined.