Cartoons no one remembers

I bewail my manifold sins and wickedness for sucking my aunt into the world of Facebook. She seems to be enjoying it, but I can tell she's been assimulated like the Borg on Star Trek.

Of late, she stumbled onto a Facebook group of which I am a member entitled "I remember '80s cartoons that no one else has heard of." She was quite amused by it, and we have been having a Facebook wall conversation (a very curious online phenomenon in and of itself) about 1980s cartoons.

I bring this up in a blog today because there was an article in this morning's paper about the kids that are starting college this fall as freshmen. I was rather shocked to find that the incoming class of college students this year was born in, get this, 1990! A group of kids who have only known Jay Leno as the host of the Tonight Show. (A truly sad commentary...)

Being a child of the '80's for the most part (although there is some debate on that in some circles), I remember most of those classic '80s cartoons like Thundercats, Gummi Bears, and even David the Gnome. Good wholesome cartoons that had both good plots and good animation. Once Ren and Stimpy and the Simpsons came on the scene (circa 1990), the overall cartooning experience has basically ceased to exist. Excluding the cable channels that always play cartoons in the morning regardless, there are virtually no regular Saturday Morning Cartoons anymore.

For the new cartoons that are out there, there are slim pickin's for actual children's cartoons. Of course, there are utter garbage modern staples like SpongeBob Squarepants that are more akin to a doobie dream than something with a discernable plot or the bizarrely violent Pokemon-like spinoffs which are nothing more that continuous violence and fighting for no discernible purpose. None of which has animation and drawing that's worth a plug nickel. (See: South Park, 3rd grade scribbling).

I am convinced that this is one of the reasons why kids today have trouble with basic logic and attention spans that are 5 seconds or less. I remember distinctly the moral code of the Thundercats and the extensive plot lines that the world of the Gummi Bears created. I even remember the cheesy "Knowing is half the battle" public service announcement at the end of the G.I. Joe cartoons. Is there anything even remotely akin to this in modern cartoons?

If there is, I have yet to find it.

Comments

Chris Coucheron-Aamot said…
I used to get up early (6am) in elementary school all on my own to watch Galaxy Rangers. Now that's obscure.
8/19/2008 12:54 PM
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