80's and 90's cartoons you WOULDN'T let kids under 12 watch now

[cerebus23]

Best cartoons have nods to adults in them but do it so subtly, or not so in the case of animainacs, that they escape anyone but the adult that is really watching them.

heck when i was a child we had hr puff n stuff talk about a nightmare show for children, speed racer, ultra man, made up some of my earliest childhood tv. old school bugs bunnies with racists and sexist jokes in them.

lacing childrens shows with pot references was king back then also, puff the magic dragon, alice in wonderland, alot of our 70s childrens showe were fueled by cocaine and ludes.

90s take at look at batman the animated series, animainiacs, ren and stimpy was great because it was so bleeping twisted and it was on nickolodeon of all the crazy places. tiny toon adventures was good. never got into it but many loved frekazoid and think bob or someone on here did a whole piece about that show.

there were some well ahead of their time shows in the 90s but like most eras you have to sift through the garbage to find it.

being a college kid often home in the afternoons after class got to watch almost all batas, am, and etc and enjoy the heck out of them.

 

[TakerFoxx]

Probably the crude ones like Ren and Stimpy, The Simpsons, South Park, and Rocko's Modern Life. Simpsons and Rocko would be allowable when they've reached their teens, South Park a bit later, still would be edgy about Ren and Stimpy, but that's mainly because I don't like Ren and Stimpy.

I might give pause at shows like Beast Wars and Gargoyles, given their intensity, but if my kid proved that he or she could handle it, I'd be okay with it.

 

[balladbird]

Honestly, I don't have much reason for my kids to see cartoons from the 80s-90s, though. sure, there were gems like the animaniacs, but on average the quality of kid's programming has skyrocketed a lot since the turn of the century. Writers are braver about exploring plot elements that were once taboo, writing gets sharper, it's been a blast to watch animation evolve.

Eh, I'm not quite up to date with recent cartoons (aside from MLP and Adventure Time), but what I saw in the 00's was...bad. Very bad.

Stuff like Yu-Gi-Oh! and its spin off's, The Proud Family, Yin Yang Yo! and so on are either stupid, boring or so over the top moralistic (is that a real world?) that I usually switched the channel in disgust after seeing a few episodes. While there are a few gems like Invader Zim, most I saw wasn't entertaining in any way.

Well, the 00s were a transitional time. Anime really took off around the start of the century, and the impact it had on western animation, in terms of art style and storytelling conventions, wound up being far reaching, there was a bit of a renaissance where cartoons went about trying to find themselves again.

Granted, there was a lot of trash, mainly due to a lot of cartoons being produced in the decade (though I admit to having a soft spot in my heart for the Prouds, I agree with you about the others)

I was mainly thinking of action cartoons when I posted earlier, though really any demographic or preference has a title that's high quality and readily available. Not saying programming was worse in the 80s-90s, mind. I was a kid back then, too, it's just... it feels like networks are aware that kids are mature enough to handle more than they thought we could handle back then. the cartoons of the past decade or so feel like they're less patronizing. It's most apparent when you look at new adaptions of old shows. Compare the stakes and tone of the old 80's TMNT with the new Nick one, for instance.

both old and new cartoons are awesome to me, just for different reasons.

 

[Reed Spacer]

Eh, better then what they have nowadays: either Flash-trash, each of which uses effectively the same character-model format, or CGI.

 

[kirwan464]

i would rather my kids watch cartoons from the 80 and 90s then the drivel that is on today that they call cartoons. from the horrible 3d animation they seem to love using for some reason to the terrible inane prattle they call a story. its not childish its moronic. Cartoons nowadays treat kids like complete morons

 

[Verlander]

Watership Down is a bit intense for anyone under the age of 8, but they'd be fine by 12

 

[Mersadeon]

Ok, apart from the general discussion about if cartoons can do damage that has erupted here, my two cents:

Ren & Stimpy? No. Now, if they really want to watch it, ok, but I wouldn't buy the box set and say "hey kids, let's watch this!". It's a bit too crass at times. Although I do think kids should watch at least some of the "bizarre" humour in this kind of show.

Rocko's Modern Life... eh, I'm split on this one. I haven't watched it since my own childhood, and yet there are some disturbing scenes I remember. On the other hand, I LOVE how the show handled "alternative lifestyles". It was great how they were able to bring up serious issues like that without getting the censors too rustled.



I really wouldn't let my kids watch extremely merchandise driven shows, however. Now, Power Rangers is fine (since they really only have one big set of toys per show-season), but stuff like Skylanders from what I've heard is a big moneysink. Also, I think if they ever started Yu-Gi-Oh, I would have to force them to play a GOOD CCG like Magic or Hearthstone.

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

There was a nasty innuendo or two in Ed, Edd n Eddy that went completely over my head as a kid. Meaning no harm done. That's kind of what some animated shows targetted at children are like. Regular Show is admittedly more loose with it but it's still nothing exceptionally bad.

 

[Parasondox]

Best cartoons have nods to adults in them but do it so subtly, or not so in the case of animainacs, that they escape anyone but the adult that is really watching them.

heck when i was a child we had hr puff n stuff talk about a nightmare show for children, speed racer, ultra man, made up some of my earliest childhood tv. old school bugs bunnies with racists and sexist jokes in them.

lacing childrens shows with pot references was king back then also, puff the magic dragon, alice in wonderland, alot of our 70s childrens showe were fueled by cocaine and ludes.

90s take at look at batman the animated series, animainiacs, ren and stimpy was great because it was so bleeping twisted and it was on nickolodeon of all the crazy places. tiny toon adventures was good. never got into it but many loved frekazoid and think bob or someone on here did a whole piece about that show.

there were some well ahead of their time shows in the 90s but like most eras you have to sift through the garbage to find it.

being a college kid often home in the afternoons after class got to watch almost all batas, am, and etc and enjoy the heck out of them.

As soon as you mentioned it, I know what video you were talking about so here is the video if you wish to view the Freakazoid.


How I remember this show well.

 

[PapaGreg096]

Eh, better then what they have nowadays: either Flash-trash, each of which uses effectively the same character-model format.

Wakfu
MotorCity
Fosters Home for imajinary Friends
Ruby Gloom
Kick Butowwski
China IL
Dan Vs
Metalocalypse
Superjail!
And even if I don't like it and sort of find it bland MLP
All of those shows would have to like a word with you about that flash comment

 

[Brainpaint]

I'd actually encourage my kid/s to watch those kinds of shows. Didn't do me any harm watching the cartoons I did at that age... Probably because my dad's a perv and I was exposed to all kinds of innuendo. I saw several Carry On films, Life of Brian and watched Gimme Gimme Gimme, Men Behaving Badly and Bottom religiously before I was 10. When my cousin's cousin's sons used to come over to visit I'd sit with the middle child (10 years younger than me so I knew him between 10 and 12) and he'd always ask to play Left 4 Dead 2 with me and we'd talk about our best kills in Fallout 3. His mum let him anyway but I like to challenge kids. I liked being challenged as a kid.
If the child can't handle it, they themselves will shut it down or ask their parent/sibling/guardian/babysitter to switch it off and/or never want to play/watch it again.
I'm still freaked out to this day by the movie Innerspace after seeing it on TV... Because the villain dies by being digested alive and everybody thought that was totally fine for some reason. And then that thought got into my six year old head I was both scared and angry.
"Why are they happy? The next day that guy's gonna poo out a digested person! This is supposed to be a good thing? This scene is supposed to be funny?"
And for the next few weeks I just couldn't stop thinking about it and got angrier and angrier without even telling my parents why because they didn't even know which movie I was talking about anyway. I saw it alone on my bedroom TV.
Seriously, look up the trailer... PG movie screwed up my head where watching 18 rated and 15 rated violent flicks and games couldn't.

 

[Auron]

I played Doom and Diablo as a kid and turned out pretty normal, there's nothing I'd deny from my child with some proper explanation it really can't hurt.

Cartoons from my childhood, here where I live Anime(not the butchered US versions btw) and tokusatsu took off in the 90's and I remember a lot of them, also Masters of the universe, G.I. Joe Thundercats, SWAT kats, X-men, Spiderman, Batman TAS. I would encourage a son or daughter to watch most of those and definitely wouldn't deny any of them. G.I. Joe, Thundercats and Masters of the Universe are not as good as my childhood memories like to think though.

PS - Somehow I completely missed Transformers, it was terrible as well though Beast Wars was quite good.

 

[Auberon]

Maybe Aeon Flux, purely because it makes no bloody sense at all. I doubt a child can comprehend half the stuff on screen.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Well I didn't turn out so bad, so if I ever have children I don't plan on being overly protective with them so I'd let them watch anything aimed at their age group.

It'd be different if I was watching some other persons child because for one thing I might get into trouble but also because I can't comfortably let them experience what I personally experienced because their mind would be vastly different and maybe unable to handle things I could handle.

For example my theoretical child would probably be fine watching Courage the Cowardly Dog (pretty freaky for a kids show) but my neighbors child might react badly when or after watching a show like that.