Cartoons: Then and now.

Owyn_Merrilin

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Random observation: it seems like a lot of the people who don't like "modern cartoons" are about 3 years out of date on what constitutes a modern cartoon. Fanboy and Chum Chum, Flapjack, and Chowder have all been cancelled for quite some time -- well, unless Nickelodeon is still releasing random new episodes of the first one. They have a way of going months or years between new episode of their shows.
 

ToastiestZombie

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Owyn_Merrilin said:
Random observation: it seems like a lot of the people who don't like "modern cartoons" are about 3 years out of date on what constitutes a modern cartoon. Fanboy and Chum Chum, Flapjack, and Chowder have all been cancelled for quite some time -- well, unless Nickelodeon is still releasing random new episodes of the first one. They have a way of going months or years between new episode of their shows.
The four cartoons that are still airing new episodes, or will be airing new episodes after a season break and that come to mind and are actually decent are: MLP:FiM, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Regular Show and Adventure Time. Those are the only 4 modern cartoons that you could class as decent now, all the other good shows have either been cancelled or have gone the way of the Simpsons.
 

Owyn_Merrilin

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ToastiestZombie said:
Owyn_Merrilin said:
Random observation: it seems like a lot of the people who don't like "modern cartoons" are about 3 years out of date on what constitutes a modern cartoon. Fanboy and Chum Chum, Flapjack, and Chowder have all been cancelled for quite some time -- well, unless Nickelodeon is still releasing random new episodes of the first one. They have a way of going months or years between new episode of their shows.
The four cartoons that are still airing new episodes, or will be airing new episodes after a season break and that come to mind and are actually decent are: MLP:FiM, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Regular Show and Adventure Time. Those are the only 4 modern cartoons that you could class as decent now, all the other good shows have either been cancelled or have gone the way of the Simpsons.
I can add a few: Young Justice, The Amazing World of Gumball, and Phineas and Ferb. It's not a huge list, but it's a heck of a lot better than it was around 2008. The industry just completely lost its footing for the last third to half of the last decade.
 

Relish in Chaos

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Am I the only one who prefers the newer Simpsons to the old ones? I?m not sure why. Maybe it?s because the dated animation puts me off, or the episodes were less juvenile (if that makes some sort of sense). But I haven?t really watched The Simpsons in ages either.

As for Ed, Edd n Eddy, I?d been planning to buy the first two seasons on Amazon (even made a thread about it), but teenage shit like responsibilities and being a depressed moron with fuck all money got in the way. So I was thinking of just waiting until my sister gets here so I can scab some money off her, but we were planning to watch it together when I?m going to go round her house for the holidays anyway, since we loved that show when we were younger (I remember, when we were in America in Summer 2006, most days we just laid indoors marathoning shows on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. That was incidentally the first time I ever watched Family Guy). But I hope to?myself that I like it!

Nostalgia is a damn powerful thing, so much so that it almost makes me wish I was a young child again. Even though I actually don?t like the Pokemon anime anymore (just feels too cheesy, poor voice acting, the Pokemon ? especially Pikachu ? constantly saying their own name like retarded children ? are annoying), I still occasionally watch an episode or two when I?m bored and it makes me feel all warm inside, recognizing all the familiar faces. The games helped in this respect too.

In terms of modern cartoons that are good, I do like League of Super Evil. And I still occasionally watch reruns of What's New, Scooby Doo, despite the fact that it's very formulaic and often features embarrassing pop rock segments. Other than that, I don't watch many cartoons anymore, let alone regular television (most of it's just schlock; reality TV to the brim, uninspiring filler and depressing news).
 

ToastiestZombie

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Owyn_Merrilin said:
ToastiestZombie said:
Owyn_Merrilin said:
Random observation: it seems like a lot of the people who don't like "modern cartoons" are about 3 years out of date on what constitutes a modern cartoon. Fanboy and Chum Chum, Flapjack, and Chowder have all been cancelled for quite some time -- well, unless Nickelodeon is still releasing random new episodes of the first one. They have a way of going months or years between new episode of their shows.
The four cartoons that are still airing new episodes, or will be airing new episodes after a season break and that come to mind and are actually decent are: MLP:FiM, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Regular Show and Adventure Time. Those are the only 4 modern cartoons that you could class as decent now, all the other good shows have either been cancelled or have gone the way of the Simpsons.
I can add a few: Young Justice, The Amazing World of Gumball, and Phineas and Ferb. It's not a huge list, but it's a heck of a lot better than it was around 2008. The industry just completely lost its footing for the last third to half of the last decade.
Yeah, I've seen Phineas and Ferb and loved it but I didn't know it was still on :p The other two I've never watched. But yeah, the cartoon industry has really taken a turn for the worse when you can only name 7 shows that aren't completely terrible. Half of which kids today probably would never of heard of, which makes me kinda sad seeing as the next generation won't be able to be nostalgic about cartoons at all. They'll be too busy gushing over stuff like One Direction and Call of Duty. And really, the 4 I mentioned all have mainly teen to adult male viewers, meaning kids just aren't interested in good kids shows anymore.
 

Relish in Chaos

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ToastiestZombie said:
Yeah, I've seen Phineas and Ferb and loved it but I didn't know it was still on :p The other two I've never watched. But yeah, the cartoon industry has really taken a turn for the worse when you can only name 7 shows that aren't completely terrible. Half of which kids today probably would never of heard of, which makes me kinda sad seeing as the next generation won't be able to be nostalgic about cartoons at all. They'll be too busy gushing over stuff like One Direction and Call of Duty. And really, the 4 I mentioned all have mainly teen to adult male viewers, meaning kids just aren't interested in good kids shows anymore.
That's probably what 80s kids said about us 90s kids, and not just about cartoons. Sometimes I envy my brother's childhood, back in the days where you could still go into the arcades and play stuff like Donkey Kong and Street Fighter. I was born in 1995, so I kind of grew up in both the 90s and early 00s. But geez...it almost makes me cry when I fondly look back on those blissful days. I literally feel like a completely different person to the kid I was back then. No-one ever told me growing up would change me so much like this! :`(

Captcha: I want control.
 

irmasterlol

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Really? You liked cartoons when you were a kid better than you like them now as an adult? Fascinating. I wonder why that is. It's really starting to irk me that people expect their childhood tastes to grow up with them. If cartoons are to immature for you now, maybe you should get some more mature interests like, I don't know, automotive repair, or foreign prostitutes.
 

Charli

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No you are wrong. There were just as many stupid small minded cartoons back then as there are now, we always cherry pick the best of the best in our minds and that paints the wallpaper of nostalgia. I've noticed the trend in EVERY generation and they're all right.

All generations have a sect of cartoons that were brilliant at the time, but they all forget the ones that are terrible.
 

Relish in Chaos

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irmasterlol said:
Really? You liked cartoons when you were a kid better than you like them now as an adult? Fascinating. I wonder why that is. It's really starting to irk me that people expect their childhood tastes to grow up with them. If cartoons are to immature for you now, maybe you should get some more mature interests like, I don't know, automotive repair, or foreign prostitutes.
Me? Yes. Tastes, sense of humour and attention span can tend to change like that. That's not to say that I find cartoons immature to me now, since I still watch them (e.g. Dragon Ball, League of Super Evil, Scooby Doo, occasionally Pokemon and The Simpsons).

I'm not sure whether or not I expected my childhood tastes to grow up with me. You know, I don't really know if I'm sure on that notion myself. As I aforementioned, I don't watch much TV anymore and I'm in a weird and unstimulating place at the moment where I pretty much resent what I and the world around me have become.

I don't know why it should irk you, though. Many people want to stay young at heart, nostagia is a powerful thing, and people don't like change.
 

Sean Hollyman

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I don't really watch many cartoons anymore, but when I did, this was the shit.


I think kids have different interests now, or the parents have influenced what's being made. I don't see many violent cartoons anymore..
 

ToastiestZombie

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Relish in Chaos said:
ToastiestZombie said:
Yeah, I've seen Phineas and Ferb and loved it but I didn't know it was still on :p The other two I've never watched. But yeah, the cartoon industry has really taken a turn for the worse when you can only name 7 shows that aren't completely terrible. Half of which kids today probably would never of heard of, which makes me kinda sad seeing as the next generation won't be able to be nostalgic about cartoons at all. They'll be too busy gushing over stuff like One Direction and Call of Duty. And really, the 4 I mentioned all have mainly teen to adult male viewers, meaning kids just aren't interested in good kids shows anymore.
That's probably what 80s kids said about us 90s kids, and not just about cartoons. Sometimes I envy my brother's childhood, back in the days where you could still go into the arcades and play stuff like Donkey Kong and Street Fighter. I was born in 1995, so I kind of grew up in both the 90s and early 00s. But geez...it almost makes me cry when I fondly look back on those blissful days. I literally feel like a completely different person to the kid I was back then. No-one ever told me growing up would change me so much like this! :`(

Captcha: I want control.
Yeah, but really what have we got now. We've got a generation of kids who will never know awesome shows because they're "kiddy" or "girly" or even "gay" it just makes me sad when bloody 5 year olds won't watch a show like MLP:FiM because they think it's too girly. What will they have to remember when they're adults? Justin Bieber... Call of Duty... Xbox Live. Next generation won't have a Spongebob, or Courage the Cowardly Dog or a Fairly Odd Parents. How I know this? I'm 13, and it seems that every single year year 7's (First year of secondary school) are becoming more rude, more violent and more stupid. It just worries me, and kind of depresses me a little.
 

loc978

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I'm sensing some ignorance of Sturgeon's Law [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_Law] here...
For every Animaniacs, there was an Extreme Ghost Busters or ten... then as now.
 

Bloodtrozorx

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I think maybe we just don't relate to the characters anymore, maybe to a kid Johnny Test seems relatable but to me he is spoiled little bastard who needs discipline (when did I get old?), the scenarios and characters are no longer part of our lives. We've moved on, sadly the moved on show is Family Guy/Cleveland Show which sucks.

I never understood the way people ran away with Invader Zim. I mean it was alright, not a cultural revolution. What pisses me off is my childhood adorning kids born after 1995. You did not watch Rugrats, Doug, Rocko's Modern Life...etc.
 

irmasterlol

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Relish in Chaos said:
Me? Yes. Tastes, sense of humour and attention span can tend to change like that. That's not to say that I find cartoons immature to me now, since I still watch them (e.g. League of Super Heroes, Scooby Doo, occasionally Pokemon and The Simpsons).

I'm not sure whether or not I expected my childhood tastes to grow up with me. You know, I don't really know if I'm sure on that notion myself. As I aforementioned, I don't watch much TV anymore and I'm in a weird and unstimulating place at the moment where I pretty much resent what I and the world around me have become.

I don't know why it should irk you, though. Many people want to stay young at heart, nostagia is a powerful thing, and people don't like change.
Pokemon was never good. All the characters had exactly one trait. Ash loved Pokemon. Brock was a pervert. Misty... was female, I guess? It only bothers me when people publicly complain about it. Cartoons were never that good. Kids are stupid and they'll like anything you throw at them. Since cartoons are for kids, the standard has never been that high. I saw a petition on here asking for a "more mature" Pokemon show. It was absolutely retarded. If cartoons are too immature for you, maybe that's a sign that it's time to stop watching cartoons. That's the thing. Nothing is changing. If anything they're getting better at the formula that makes kids spend their parents' money.
 

ToastiestZombie

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Bloodtrozorx said:
I think maybe we just don't relate to the characters anymore, maybe to a kid Johnny Test seems relatable but to me he is spoiled little bastard who needs discipline (when did I get old?), the scenarios and characters are no longer part of our lives. We've moved on, sadly the moved on show is Family Guy/Cleveland Show which sucks.

I never understood the way people ran away with Invader Zim. I mean it was alright, not a cultural revolution. What pisses me off is my childhood adorning kids born after 1995. You did not watch Rugrats, Doug, Rocko's Modern Life...etc.
I'm a 1998 kid and I LOVED Rugrats, even got the PS1 game and played through it twice! I didn't watch any of those other ones though...
 

ecoho

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Lugbzurg said:
Dreadman75 said:
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.
Vault101 said:
I do think we need more shows like AVATAR the last air bender though
Well, there is The Legend of Korra
DoPo said:
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.
Dreadman75 said:
him over there said:
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.)
TheMightyAtrox said:
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).
ecoho said:
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".
ok so dont know were i was going with adventure time,it was late misstakes happen. As for regular show not being made for kid, the Why the hell isnt it on adult with the other crappy show that people think are mature?
 

Axyun

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I think cartoons are better now than they were back in the 90s and I actually attribute that to anime.

What drew me to anime back when I was a kid in the early 90s was that there was an actual plot that progressed along with the series. Characters grew and developed, villians and heroes were captured or killed and actually remained that way. There was a definitive start and end to the journey. There were consequences for good and bad actions.

Other than the batman and superman cartoons as well as the saturday morning sonic the hedgehog series, no american cartoon had an actual overarching story that went anywhere. As a kid, I loved TMNT, Centurions, He-man, etc. but those series never went anywhere, character or plot-wise save for the immediate episode.

Modern day american cartoons are either full slap-stick stupid (which I never liked, even as a kid) or try to mimic the plot formulas found in your typical anime. Not to mention there is plenty of actual anime to be found in american television.

So, again, I feel cartoons in general are better now than they were back then largely due to most of it either being anime or being influenced by anime.
 

irmasterlol

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ToastiestZombie said:
Yeah, but really what have we got now. We've got a generation of kids who will never know awesome shows because they're "kiddy" or "girly" or even "gay" it just makes me sad when bloody 5 year olds won't watch a show like MLP:FiM because they think it's too girly. What will they have to remember when they're adults? Justin Bieber... Call of Duty... Xbox Live. Next generation won't have a Spongebob, or Courage the Cowardly Dog or a Fairly Odd Parents. How I know this? I'm 13, and it seems that every single year year 7's (First year of secondary school) are becoming more rude, more violent and more stupid. It just worries me, and kind of depresses me a little.
I know you like FiM, and it's a solid show. It's just not nearly as revolutionary as hardcore bronies like to think it is. Your era of kids had the exact same stupid shit. Wasn't it Jesse McCartney, and Halo? It's a good thing they won't have a Spongebob, because that show was (is?) an exercise in knuckle-dragging stupidity. For me it was N-Sync, and fucking Captain Planet. Don't worry. You're just getting to the age where stupid kid shit is no longer targeted at you. It all looks stupid from the outside. To take the movie title, the kids are alright.
 

Relish in Chaos

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Bloodtrozorx said:
What pisses me off is my childhood adorning kids born after 1995. You did not watch Rugrats, Doug, Rocko's Modern Life...etc.
I watched Rugrats, Looney Tunes, and reruns of other 90s cartoons.

irmasterlol said:
Relish in Chaos said:
Me? Yes. Tastes, sense of humour and attention span can tend to change like that. That's not to say that I find cartoons immature to me now, since I still watch them (e.g. League of Super Evil, Scooby Doo, occasionally Pokemon and The Simpsons).

I'm not sure whether or not I expected my childhood tastes to grow up with me. You know, I don't really know if I'm sure on that notion myself. As I aforementioned, I don't watch much TV anymore and I'm in a weird and unstimulating place at the moment where I pretty much resent what I and the world around me have become.

I don't know why it should irk you, though. Many people want to stay young at heart, nostalgia is a powerful thing, and people don't like change.
Pokemon was never good. All the characters had exactly one trait. Ash loved Pokemon. Brock was a pervert. Misty... was female, I guess? It only bothers me when people publicly complain about it. Cartoons were never that good. Kids are stupid and they'll like anything you throw at them. Since cartoons are for kids, the standard has never been that high. I saw a petition on here asking for a "more mature" Pokemon show. It was absolutely retarded. If cartoons are too immature for you, maybe that's a sign that it's time to stop watching cartoons. That's the thing. Nothing is changing. If anything they're getting better at the formula that makes kids spend their parents' money.
Yeah, I know. The only reason I occasionally watch it in boredom is due to nostalgia, since it reminds me heavily on Pokemon Yellow, which I loved as a kid (and regret selling).

And I wouldn't blacklist such a vast genre of TV as "cartoons" being "never that good". Not all kids are as stupid as you think, and they don't all like the common denominator stuff you throw at them. Many cartoons are...well, "deep" would be the wrong word. Maybe essence? Fun? Humour?