What happend to my Saturdays?

[Bigfatstupid]

I remember when I was just a little kid that went to elementary school. Like any kid, we all loved Saturdays because not only was it the begining of our weekend from school, but most importantly, we had our cartoons!

Now, this topic has proably been done to death, but I'm kinda disgusted with what I'm seeing on t.v. so I'm ignoring this little fact and repeating it again.

Man, I loved to watch shows like Animaniacs, Earth worm Jim, Megaman, Looney Tunes, Ghost busters and even Teenage mutant ninja turtles back before they bcame anime rip offs.

Speaking of anime.

WTF?

Why is there so much anime on here?! I'm a man who loves my anime, (Rosario + Vampire, Pokemon, Devil may cry) I'm not ashamed to admit it and screw anyone who thinks I should be!

But right now, I have my t.v. turned to channel six and I'm watching this show called "Dinosaur King" and all I can do is shake my head from side to side asking.

'Did Yugioh and Pokemon have a bastard child or something?!'

There aren't even any GOOD Saturday morning cartoons, just ones filled with crap. It's either an anime like Chaotix or some amazingly disgustingly cute looking t.v. show called Winx club. (Blah!!)

My god, I wish I could go back in time and save the old classics or at least shoot the idiots that thought these shows were actually entertaining.

Oh, and why the hell are card games being played on motorcycles?! >.<

Gah!

What do you guys think of todays Saturday morning cartoons?

 

[Vallen00]

Opinion seconded. I used to love Saturday morning cartoons. Now, though, the only ones I can halfway stand are Bakugan, Yu-Gi-Oh 5 D's, and the occasional pokemon.

 

[PureChaos]

its majorly gone downhill. ive not watched Saturday morning cartoons for years because they got rid of all the good stuff. whats wrong with Sharky and George, Arther, Recess and all those other great cartoons that made my weekend morning great. the years of ant and dec on SM:TV live were the best, i loved that show

 

[cleverlymadeup]

well it's possible you grew up and just not liking cartoons anymore

as for the turtles from the 90s, sorry to say they REALLY sucked, the 2003 reboot was the best one, till they moved to fastfoward but they just switched to back to the sewers

however the cw has a couple good cartoons but they cancelled a lot of the good marvel based ones

 

[Mr. Moose]

The cartoons from the 90's were more politically incorrect, and because of that were more violent and satirical.

Blame the angry mothers who think its the governments job to raise their kid

 

[Jumplion]

While I agree, yes those saturday morning cartoons are getting suckier by the minute, it's pretty much nostalgia from you.

Cartoons are not as good to you, get over it, the "good ole days" arn't coming back any time soon no matter how much I want the Old Pokemon to come back (it was ruined when the changed the theme song's context from "Catch 'em all!" to "Be friends! Challenges!@ Explore the world!")

 

[Pipotchi]

Pokemon? The only Saturday moring cartoons worth mentioning are from the 80's transformers, MASK, thundercats, bananaman and so on, and possibly Dogtanian if you are feeling particulary daring

The greatness of a kids TV show is directly preportional to the awesomeness of its theme tune, hence why Thundercats is King

Thats is all

 

[Geamo]

When they lost SM:TV live then I thought the world had become a nastier place.

 

[Pipotchi]

When they lost SM:TV live then I thought the world had become a nastier place.

SMTV?!? You mean Live and Kicking Surely

 

[PureChaos]

When they lost SM:TV live then I thought the world had become a nastier place.

SMTV?!? You mean Live and Kicking Surely

live and kickng was ok, so was fully booked but SMTV was the best

 

[Pipotchi]

When they lost SM:TV live then I thought the world had become a nastier place.

SMTV?!? You mean Live and Kicking Surely

live and kickng was ok, so was fully booked but SMTV was the best

Ack Ack!! I am choking on my own rage here

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Whole three+ threads on this already.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.73729.814912
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.56217.813190
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.70272.688935

Cartoons were more prolific in the old days, but the true greats stood head and shoulders above the ones from today.

The thing was, even the awful trash like Jabberjaws were comparable to some of the bad episodes of the recent ones.

Even looking back at Scooby Doo, 1968..., in between the overlong chase scenes, total plot exposition and half-hidden clues, there was still enough "Jinkies!" to keep you interested. Modern cartoons tend to pull away the 4th wall for cultural references instead of having smart scripting; whilst the Nostalgic cartoons were built on cultural references.

Scooby Doo meets Laurel and Hardy may look/sound dreadful, but you might have already seen Sabrina the Teenage Witch meets Britney Spears; and it's not much better.

They also had the freedom to play with the rules that only shows like Robot Chicken/Family Guy still manage; but each of those is often very barbed to the 'cartoon logic' inherent in enjoying the show.

Feckers deserve a kick for the Calvin and Hobbes one, but the FF7 Burger Bar was absolutely hilarious because it still treated the characters with respect.

Yes, the idea of a stoner, his talking dog, a butch girl, bimbo and himbo pulling masks of ghosts can be parodied very easily; but as "Meet the Spartans" etc. have proved, the true spoof 'roasts' the characters rather than dismisses them.

He-Man was sanctimonious twaddle, but it paid off with wacked out storylines so that you didn't mind the stupid end bit. And, like Thundercats, there was always the shouting "I HAVE THE POWER!".

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, however, still has the wacked out storylines and characters, but the twaddle is written into the plot in a way that Aaaaaaaah! Real Monsters didn't do.

There was also a 'logic' to cartoons, Road Runner can run through painted holes because it's funny, Wile.E. fails for the same reason. Whilst Chorlton defeated Fenella because SHE'S A WITCH; Ben-10 basically follows a mish-mash of Dial H for Hero and Sailor Moon, there's no real reason for them to fight except over the Mcguffin. Wile.E and Roadrunner didn't even need a reason.

Quick test: For any of the older 'nostalgia' cartoons, find someone who can do a great impression of them doing something they wouldn't normally do. Now try the same with the cartoons of today. Ash Catchem is basically known for chucking a monster at things and being friends; Scooby Doo, Hong Kong Phooey, Dangermouse, Prince Adam, Stimpy, Blossom all have very distinctive personalities and you already KNOW what they will do in a situation.

That's what makes them lovable imho, and what leaves a lot of the recent characters just pronouncing their catch phrase and winning by a Deus Ex Machina.

 

[Pipotchi]

But the Theme Tune!!! Thundercats had the best theme tune.

Actually no scratch that Defenders of the Earth was even better

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-Nm_jJBkHtU Proof!!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

When they lost SM:TV live then I thought the world had become a nastier place.

SMTV?!? You mean Live and Kicking Surely

live and kickng was ok, so was fully booked but SMTV was the best

Ack Ack!! I am choking on my own rage here

TISWAS smashes them all into fine powder.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FBpZ6xthCgY&feature=related

"THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT!!"

 

[PureChaos]

When they lost SM:TV live then I thought the world had become a nastier place.

SMTV?!? You mean Live and Kicking Surely

live and kickng was ok, so was fully booked but SMTV was the best

Ack Ack!! I am choking on my own rage here

good for you. although, looking back, i will admit SMTV WAS BETTER THAN LIVE AND KICKING. i think that it was partly due to ant and dec that made it so good with their polkemon piss take, anty and decy and challenge ant. it was soooo funny

 

[axia777]

I agree. I watch cartoon with my 9 year old daughter all the time. Cartoons today suck money balls and she agrees with me. I have shown her lots of the old school cartoons like Robotech, G1 Transformers, Transformers:Beast Wars, old school TMNT and the like. Now she looks at the crap they serve kids like Bakugan and other crap. We don't like these cartoon. maybe it is just the area I live in. The WB sucks for cartoons and so does Fox. It is all shit. She does like Pokemon, but gets tired of it after a while. She tried that new Transformers:Animated cartoon for a while, but then she just wants to watch the old school G1 shows again. It is a travesty I tell you, a travesty to Saturday mornings.

I actually think they should redo some of the old school cartoons like Thundercats and Silverhawks. But NOT in an anime style. That would be awesome.

 

[Pipotchi]

When they lost SM:TV live then I thought the world had become a nastier place.

SMTV?!? You mean Live and Kicking Surely

live and kickng was ok, so was fully booked but SMTV was the best

Ack Ack!! I am choking on my own rage here

TISWAS smashes them all into fine powder.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FBpZ6xthCgY&feature=related

"THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT!!"

Ah back when all you needed on a Saturday morning was Chris Tarrent throwing buckets of water over some kids in a cage

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

When they lost SM:TV live then I thought the world had become a nastier place.

SMTV?!? You mean Live and Kicking Surely

live and kickng was ok, so was fully booked but SMTV was the best

Ack Ack!! I am choking on my own rage here

TISWAS smashes them all into fine powder.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FBpZ6xthCgY&feature=related

"THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT!!"

Ah back when all you needed on a Saturday morning was Chris Tarrent throwing buckets of water over some kids in a cage

And the delectable Sally James...always had a very strange feeling when she came on...could be due to the wet T-shirt...

 

[000Ronald]

I blame the republican party.

No, seriously; there's a social reason for this.

Democrats generally belive in forcing as little regulation on the airwaves as possible, because they're supposed to give the impression of believing in the middle man, and part of that entails letting people draw their own boundries. This lets administrators flex their creative muscle and test the boundries of what they can do.

Republicans belive that it shouldn't be the job of parents to control what their children can and can't watch; thus more regulation, reigning in the creative process.

So, yeah...I blame the Republicans.

Apologies Abound

 

[Clairaudient]

Cartoons these days are out to sell toys.

This is why they're playing card games on top of jet engine skyscraper space rockets. It makes a bunch of cheap, easy to produce cards seem more XTREME.

Beyblade? Bakugan? They're out to sell tops and platic action figures while the cartoons show them as having mystical ancient powers that are alive with a dragon spirit who wants to be your friend.

Last time I checked, I don't remember Dexter's Lab having many tie-in products.