Cartoons: Then and now.

[BRex21]

I'm not going to say nostalgia but rather more of a self selection Bias. Consider that you are comparing everything you see now for better or worse with the stuff you liked as a kid. You are now comparing a random sample of what is on to what was at the time the best TV had to offer.
Personally a couple of my favourite cartoons were and I guess still are Sam and Max, and The Tick and I will argue that they held up well, are funny and entertaining as ever. I don't find anything modern to be as good.
Recently however my Roommate Duties have included vetting TV for a 5 year old and have found the vast majority of stuff to be just god awful IE I'm not letting my kid watch that, mine by association BTW, much of it simply seems so unhealthy and amoral... heck perhaps I am just getting old.

 

[Kae]

I'm just saying that most of the stuff from the old days was utter shit, so it makes sense the most of the stuff from now sucks, seriously if I remember correctly when Batman and Justice League was airing, there was also horrible stuff on air like Rocko's Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy, which were just painful to even watch for their stupidity, seriously I couldn't watch those things, and now we have who knows how many pieces of shit, but there's also brilliant stuff like Avatar and Young Justice, so I'd say it's about the same, and it's just selective memory and most people just remember the stuff they really like, which actually a lot of it wasn't running at the same time, and maybe remember a few awful shows, but most of the shows are now forgotten.

 

[Syzygy23]

Remember, cartoons are a fusion of storytelling AND art (the more conventional kind)

Your Ed, Edd n' Eddy/Flapjack comparison doesn't hold up when you actively compare the two.

the three E's featured a lighthearted art style.

Flapjack was just fuckin' scary.

I mean, dear Lord, you've SEEN the show, how often did some character sporting a hideous physical malformation just show up right the fuck outta nowhere? Brr-r-r-r-r-r-r!

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I'm just saying that most of the stuff from the old days was utter shit, so it makes sense the most of the stuff from now sucks, seriously if I remember correctly when Batman and Justice League was airing, there was also horrible stuff on air like Rocko's Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy, which were just painful to even watch for their stupidity, seriously I couldn't watch those things, and now we have who knows how many pieces of shit, but there's also brilliant stuff like Avatar and Young Justice, so I'd say it's about the same, and it's just selective memory and most people just remember the stuff they really like, which actually a lot of it wasn't running at the same time, and maybe remember a few awful shows, but most of the shows are now forgotten.

Whoa, don't go bashing Rocko's Modern Life. I think you've got a bit of a reverse nostalgia filter going on there. It seemed stupid and pointless to you as a kid because you didn't get most of the jokes, almost all of which were about sex and flew over kids' heads (For example, I distinctly remember my mother being upset about how crude it was, and me thinking "what is crude about that?" I didn't realize how crude it was because I didn't get the sex jokes.)

Anyway, my opinion on this is that the 90's were awesome, the early 2000's were awesome, and today is (mostly, it's still recovering) awesome. It was the mid-late 2000's that sucked big time, from about late 2006 to early 2009. Seriously, I don't think there was a single new show that premiered during that period that was good.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

All modern Cartoons that don't involve superheroes are totally stupid and trying to keep kids stupid.

I'm now working on the logic of "Fuck you Cartoon Network, Disney XD etc. If you don't want me to pirate your GOOD shows, don't put them on after an Endless stream of visual dog turd once a week and delayed with bajillions of adverts."

The shows of which I speak are, Ultimate Spiderman, Young Justice, And Avengers EMH.
These are the last bastion of non-brain numbing cartoons. And of course, I miss Johnny bravo

 

[ninjaRiv]

I've never understood the hate for modern cartoons. At least, I never understood the intensity of that hate. shows like The Amazing World of Gumball, Regular Show, Adventure Time and Phineas and Ferb are perfect examples of creativity being embraced by television companies. Yes, they follow certain rules but that's how all sorts of entertainment works.

The Animaniacs, Looney Tunes and the other greats of the past offered the exact same thing modern cartoons offer now.

I, for one, love some of the newer cartoons.

 

[Kae]

I'm just saying that most of the stuff from the old days was utter shit, so it makes sense the most of the stuff from now sucks, seriously if I remember correctly when Batman and Justice League was airing, there was also horrible stuff on air like Rocko's Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy, which were just painful to even watch for their stupidity, seriously I couldn't watch those things, and now we have who knows how many pieces of shit, but there's also brilliant stuff like Avatar and Young Justice, so I'd say it's about the same, and it's just selective memory and most people just remember the stuff they really like, which actually a lot of it wasn't running at the same time, and maybe remember a few awful shows, but most of the shows are now forgotten.

Whoa, don't go bashing Rocko's Modern Life. I think you've got a bit of a reverse nostalgia filter going on there. It seemed stupid and pointless to you as a kid because you didn't get most of the jokes, almost all of which were about sex and flew over kids' heads (For example, I distinctly remember my mother being upset about how crude it was, and me thinking "what is crude about that?" I didn't realize how crude it was because I didn't get the sex jokes.)

Sex jokes, well that explains why I didn't get the show, but if what you're saying is true then I'll probably still hate it, since I don't like sex jokes since I still tend to not get them, and when I get them I hardly ever find them funny, it's just not my type of humour.

 

[Lugbzurg]

Are the Looney Toons all that far off from being Johnny Test?

Umm... Obviously. Why did you even think of comparing the two? They're not at all similar.

I do think we need more shows like AVATAR the last air bender though

Well, there is The Legend of Korra

I keep being amazed by people calling Ed, Edd, and Eddy. For me, it was one of the reasons I stopped watching Cartoon Network, along with some other new shows up there (can't remember the names, though).

Also, I don't like it when people try to break down a work into a neat and simple formulas and try to claim that they aren't that different to other works. Sure, they both feature dumb characters and repeated jokes, but that doesn't mean I have to like both. It's like me pointing out that both and <food you don't like> boil down to having ingredients, flavours, and you chewing them, so in effect there isn't a difference, right? Yet for some reason one you refuse to eat, the other you don't.

Yeah, I don't get it, either. I don't understand what people see in that. It's a show about idiots. Lots of idiots. ...With oddly-colored tongues. Nothing much to see here, folks.

You watched 90's cartoons for children when you were a child. You're watching a present day cartoon for children as an adult, even without Nostalgia there's an obvious bias there.

Are you saying there's something wrong with liking cartoons as an adult?

Lol, I kid, I kid, but I do see what you mean. As an adult my tastes have changed, matured and things that would have been funny to me years ago aren't that funny now. The same thing can be said of children today with Johnny Test and all those other shows as well, correct?

...But, I just can't help but feel that there is something to the older cartoons that endears them to people a bit more. I just can't put my finger on it. Maybe it is nostalgia and I'm just not seeing it, but I want to see if there are any better explanations out there before I accept that.

captcha: hold your horses. I'm really starting to think that this thing is sentient. Should we be worried?

No, older cartoons have definitely been better. I've been looking at a lot of older ones from my generation that I had never actually watched before, and they are leagues better than what we've got today, like The Problem Solverz, Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, and Fanboy & Chum-Chum. (Note: These are bad cartoons of recent times. Not good cartoons of my generation.)

Other than the fact that Looney Tunes got away with way more than would be allowed today, I'm agreeing with you. I was missing the 90s style of cartoons, being just out there and weird. Then I realized we have Chowder, Adventure Time, and Regular Show. there are plenty of call backs to that style that I don't think we can complain too much.

I still miss Angry Beavers though. Damn that show had so many euphamisms that I didn't get when I was a kid.

Exactly! I just don't get it! Back then, Looney Toons was considered suitable for children to watch. Now, it's rated "TV-PG" on Cartoon Network and Boomerang. Why? Why is it that today's childrens' shows are dropping all of these certain elements that some people might consider to be a bit "mature" (guns, bad guys smoking, death, etc.), and replacing them with lots and lots of "child-appropriate" sexual content. Disney Channel is a huge offender of this. iCarly also comes to mind (even though it's not a cartoon, but, it's considered a kids' show).

i think i know what theyre lacking and its why avatar,MLP:FIM, and adventure time are all shows you like ,you learned something. now hear me out, every cartoons show in the 90s taught you something(maybe not looney toons but hey it was just done better hell GI Joe had little now you knows after every episode,but todays cartoons.....WTF does regular show teach anyone? other then to be a lazy good for nothing ass?

Well, Regular Show wasn't made for kids. For that matter, what does Adventure Time teach, then? How to go "your way" and kick innocent people around you in the balls when you're looking for a cyclops' head to rip off? Because, that's the direction that Adventure Time is going in.

I also love me some ponies. Just sayin'.

Captcha: "Halcyon Days".

 

[silver wolf009]

nostalga is a powerful thing

I do think we need more shows like AVATAR the last air bender though

I tried to watch that show, but it just ended up dragging to the point that I quit. Did it pick up after the SS in the earth city?

OT: One of the main things I miss are the old, old cartoons. The ones from the 40's. Something about that slapstick, the imaginative ways Tom and Jerry would do one another in, things like that, just worked. They didn't need story or character, they worked based on the fighting. As for cartoons today, I've not really gotten into any barring MLP: FiM, [footnote]Yeah yeah, sue me.[/footnote] but newer cartoons just seem so... Hard for me to watch. Maybe it's a problem with me, but I never could invest in what's going on.

 

[Muspelheim]

Well, 20-somethings will always bash the currently running cartoons, that's how the nostalgic system works. While I really enjoy me some Ed, Edd n' Eddy, I don't try to fool myself into thinking that show is better than Flapjack or some other modern show I don't like because I'm not a kid anymore. They're about even, I suppose, and it's the additional sprinkle of nostalgia that makes the old shows of "back in the day" seem better than they really are.

Hell, keep that in mind for when someone waltzes in to explain why He-Man and Transformers are miles better than any of the '90-s dross we're fondly recalling. It's nostalgia. It's weird.

Honestly, I recently saw the first Pokémon-film, and I actually rather liked it, in all its stupidity. I didn't even like it as a kid, and I didn't care for Pokémon. That's the power of nostalgia. I wouldn't be caught dead trying to sell that film to anyone that "wasn't there" and as such won't have that mandatory connection to it.

(Also: X'ers, we're not really -that- young, it's you who are getting old. Lol)

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Spoiler: Flash animation bad? MLP:FiM would like to have a word with you, that show is absolutely beautiful sometimes.

Look at those, all made by flash but they're all amazing looking

But yeah, cartoon's haven't gotten worse at all. Look at these fine examples:

Adventure Time
MLP:FiM (don't kill me)
The Legend of Korra
Phineas and Ferb

Those three are amazing shows, and they're all very different and unique to eachother. LoK is a story based show with epic battles and tons of characters.

MLP:FiM is a slice of life show that harkens back to the days of Spongebob and Fairly Odd Parents, with amazing songs and characters that all have flaws and virtues. It also shows some of the most mature love scenes I've ever seen in a kids show, any brony will know the scene. Two of the characters are falling to their deaths, and before they hit the ground the one who's had a crush on the other since the first episode confesses. But before he can finish, the other puts her hooves on his mouth, and looks at him as if to say "I know, and it's perfectly fine. I just don't want to be with you" without saying ANY words. Freaking My Little Pony told a better love story in a few seconds than Twilight did in three fucking books!

Adventure Time is definetly a lot like a few older cartoons, really crazy shit at about 9 minutes a pop with barely any overarching story. It also has songs that I would happily listen to on a radio, or on my Ipod. Same with a few of the MLP:FiM songs, come on Smile Smile Smile would just brighten the day of anybody. But the songs in Adventure Time are utterly different, they're mature adults songs that will stay in my head forever. I want to have the ending song played at my funeral, for gods sake!

P and F is an awesome show that has the same formula, yet keeps things different. It's awesome.

So yeah, a lot of cartoons now are just utter shite (looking at you, Fanboy and Chum Chum) but a few of them are utter gold, which I mentioned above. Also, a lot of the shows do have comedy that is either directly copied or inspired by Looney Tunes and classic shows like that. MLP has a bloody Bugs Bunny "hunting season" bit in one of it's episode.

 

[Smeatza]

Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends is all I need to be convinced that modern cartoons are still awesome.

 

[loa]

Why the hell would you exclude "story based" cartoons?
That is the one thing that changed everything entirely and made things awesome. We have a shitton more diversity now than "just for kids" you know.

Things like spirited away, death note or fullmetal alchemist simply didn't exist back then and you're prattling on about how "most modern cartoons have dumb or simple minded characters".
That is like forcefully closing your eyes for the sake of your point.

 

[SaikyoKid]

Nostalgia definitely plays a huge part in thinking that the older cartoons are all better than the newer ones. I got to watching Inspector Gadget again and I used to watch that all the time as a kid. Looking at it now I think its just more silly and mundane. Not necessarily bad mind you, but I can now see all of the faults I may have overlooked as a little kid.

That being said though, I still believe that the good cartoons from back in the day still blow the good new ones out of the water. The quality of writing is better, they are delivered better, and at the time they were still new. For a good example, just compare the Simpsons to itself. Anyone who has watched the old ones will tell you they are far better than the last few seasons. The characters were better and memorable and they actually had some heartbreaking stories too. Now its just kinda melted down to pop references.

So indeed, a lot of the bad ones are held a little higher thanks to nostalgia, but the real gems truly are that much better than new ones.

 

[brom0220]

nostalga is a powerful thing

I do think we need more shows like AVATAR the last air bender though

I tried to watch that show, but it just ended up dragging to the point that I quit. Did it pick up after the SS in the earth city?

OT: One of the main things I miss are the old, old cartoons. The ones from the 40's. Something about that slapstick, the imaginative ways Tom and Jerry would do one another in, things like that, just worked. They didn't need story or character, they worked based on the fighting. As for cartoons today, I've not really gotten into any barring MLP: FiM, [footnote]Yeah yeah, sue me.[/footnote] but newer cartoons just seem so... Hard for me to watch. Maybe it's a problem with me, but I never could invest in what's going on.

I don't know how far into the Earth City arc you got, but definitely keep watching. It does pick up after that. The slowdown in pacing you are experiencing (you mentioned dragging) is just the calm before the storm, and helps the pacing of the show as a whole. It's a little like that scene in V for Vendetta where V is setting up the dominoes as the inspector tells his subordinate what he thinks is likely to happen, and then V flicks the first domino, with the dominoes representing characters and events in the show and V representing the shows creators. I hope that analogy makes sense. It will likely make a little more sense after you keep watching. If you haven't seen the V for Vendetta, (you should, it's a good movie) then just understand that the creators of the show were setting up certain events and all the pieces had to be in place. If the pacing had been any faster, then the plot would have felt rushed and awkward. The events of that arc have far-reaching consequences.

OT: Yeah, I would like to say that it's just nostalgia, but I think there is more to it than that. Some shows take a while before their reputation is built, and there are plenty of crap shows in every generation. Some modern shows are still coming into their own. Some modern shows die or get screwed before they can really get good (or in rare cases, such as with Sym-Bionic Titan, in spite of the fact that they are good). As for boiling the shows down to their basic formulas, many things have the same basic formula but still have varying degrees of quality. Someone used food as a way to make this point by bringing up the difference between foods you like and foods you don't like. Another example using food is the difference between a meal cooked by a great chef and a meal cooked by someone who doesn't cook that much, such as myself. If you gave the chef and I the same ingredients, the same equipment, and the same recipe, I guarantee that the chef's meal will turn out better than mine, because he's a better cook and knows his craft. Sometimes the creative teams behind certain shows are just better. They know when to innovate and add certain spices, so to speak. It's not just that the show is made, but it is made well. I hope this post makes sense, I'm not very good with words.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

I am rather immune to nostalgia for whatever reason, so I can that without a doubt Gargoyles is still one the best cartoons I've ever seen. But I still love Flapjack and while I see that many of the modern cartoons seem to oh-most be made to dumb down this generation there are still some great ones out there. Adventure time is fairly recent and a lot of fun.

 

[Dtox333]

Flapjack doesn't compare with ed edd and eddy because it doesn't follow the same format. They may have similar character archetypes, but that doesn't make the same show. Flapjack has far more random humor and is generally more nonsensical, where as Ed Edd and Eddy rely far more on slapstick. Ed Edd and Eddy also puts a lot of focus in making clever use of sound effects that add a sense of surrealism.

Flapjack is more reminiscent of something like spongebob where as Ed Edd and Eddy reminds me more of a slice of life version of tom and jerry or the loony tunes.

Which reminds me, I feel as though a lot of these more recent cartoons try to mimic the type of style spongebob had. Kind of hard to explain, but that's the feeling that I get from watching shows like flapjack or chowder, like they're trying to use the success of spongebob to their advantage.

 

[The Funslinger]

I'm not so sure it's nostalgia. Rewatching them, I do still enjoy things like Ed, Edd n' Eddy, and suchlike. Then there was that phase of excessive political correctness, from say... 2003-2010? I soaked up the stuff in that era when I was a bit younger, but now it just irks me. The 90's-esque stuff, however, still entertains me.

And I think that's lifted now because we're getting cartoons I'm enjoying as much as those old 90's cartoons, things like Adventure Time and the Regular Show.

TBH, I think a lot of people are too quick to call nostalgia and have that debunk the quality of anything that's a little older, as a blank statement, instant win argument. I think that's often wrong a lot more than people would think, and in this case, I think cartoons were genuinely better then, and are starting to recover from the PC "let's be educational AND entertaining[footnote]without the entertaining part[/footnote] epidemic now.