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Cartoon Discussion Thread
Jun 20, 2016 at 11:57 AM Post #22 of 76
Swamp Tales for the WIN....
atsmile.gif

 
https://www.swamp.com.au/
 
Jul 3, 2016 at 9:39 AM Post #27 of 76
Warning: Grumpy and self-reflective content ahead (click the links--they might not go where you think!)
 
In common with many people my age, I'm 27. That means I got to live through the great renaissance of cartoons that started in the mid-90s. Hits on Cartoon Network like The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, etc. are what I remember most fondly, but I also enjoyed (among others) SWAT Kats (an earlier phenomenon, rudely killed in its prime by Ted Turner and his "cartoons promote violence" attitude*), The Pirates of Dark Water (another early 90s show that was tragically never completed), and even The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, despite it being considered a flop in hindsight. Living to see all this when it was new was awesome! Older people often say to youth that you kids don't know how good you've got it, but even in the single digit years I could tell it was something special. This was helped by the fact that CN played all the old cartoons from the 60s through the 80s alongside their original programing, and even as a young kid I could see the quality difference between the endless rehashes of the Scooby-Doo formula (Josie and the *****cats, Jabberjaw, Speed Buggy, The Funky Phantom, and probably half a dozen others I'm forgetting) and the new original content. I watched it all religiously, and I knew a lot of episodes and one-off shorts by sound alone.
 
What's odd is I never ventured much onto the other network for such things, Nickelodeon. As readers will likely recall, back then you were either a CN kid or a Nick kid. Why in the world you couldn't watch and enjoy both is beyond me. Kids are weird. That said, I was dimly aware of what was happening with Doug and The Rugrats, mainly from exposure at friends' houses who watched those shows. I recall my parents liked The Rugrats, saying that it had "adult values" in addition to its obvious appeal to kids. In fact, the vibe I got from Nick at the time is that it targeted a slightly older audience than CN. I have no idea if it was true or not, so somebody can fill me in on that. Regardless, I regret not checking Nick out more often. One of the many things near the middle of my "Things To Do Before I Die, Kinda Sorta Maybe" list is to put together a list of the best Nick material from the 90s and give it a good watching. It probably won't have the same effect on me as an adult as it would have when I was a child, but I might be surprised. After all, there's this other show that's not aimed at my demographic that I nonetheless enjoy....
 
*It was this attitude, in fact, and the pressure it placed on the creative people making cartoons in the 90s that drove many of them to take a chance on Cartoon Network's What A Cartoon! initiative, which was purposely less restrictive in the hopes of poaching talent and producing a hit. They got at least half a dozen hits, and the talent launched from here went on to generate and/or work on shows as disparate as Family Guy and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. If you look closely, throughout the What-A-Cartoon-launched shows and the later material those involved worked on, you'll find subtle and not-so-subtle rebukes of a lot of 90s sociopolitical tropes. This is perhaps most stark in the character of Starlight Glimmer, who basically aims to indoctrinate her entire world into the notion that differing ability levels and talents create disharmony, and that everyone should be made "equal" by ensuring that nobody rises above the rest. If you grew up in the 90s, you'll recall that this was a popular message, and animators (not to mention educators in the classroom!) were being leaned on to shove this into their work aimed at kids in the early to middle part of the decade, in what is arguably itself a form of indoctrination. Fast forward 20 years later, it's a series big bad that's saying it--that's some serious long-term retribution there!
 
Jul 3, 2016 at 2:11 PM Post #28 of 76
argyris said:
  Warning: Grumpy and self-reflective content ahead (click the links--they might not go where you think!)
 
In common with many people my age, I'm 27. That means I got to live through the great renaissance of cartoons that started in the mid-90s. Hits on Cartoon Network like The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, etc. are what I remember most fondly, but I also enjoyed (among others) SWAT Kats (an earlier phenomenon, rudely killed in its prime by Ted Turner and his "cartoons promote violence" attitude*), The Pirates of Dark Water (another early 90s show that was tragically never completed), and even The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, despite it being considered a flop in hindsight. Living to see all this when it was new was awesome! Older people often say to youth that you kids don't know how good you've got it, but even in the single digit years I could tell it was something special. This was helped by the fact that CN played all the old cartoons from the 60s through the 80s alongside their original programing, and even as a young kid I could see the quality difference between the endless rehashes of the Scooby-Doo formula (Josie and the *****cats, Jabberjaw, Speed Buggy, The Funky Phantom, and probably half a dozen others I'm forgetting) and the new original content. I watched it all religiously, and I knew a lot of episodes and one-off shorts by sound alone.
 
What's odd is I never ventured much onto the other network for such things, Nickelodeon. As readers will likely recall, back then you were either a CN kid or a Nick kid. Why in the world you couldn't watch and enjoy both is beyond me. Kids are weird. That said, I was dimly aware of what was happening with Doug and The Rugrats, mainly from exposure at friends' houses who watched those shows. I recall my parents liked The Rugrats, saying that it had "adult values" in addition to its obvious appeal to kids. In fact, the vibe I got from Nick at the time is that it targeted a slightly older audience than CN. I have no idea if it was true or not, so somebody can fill me in on that. Regardless, I regret not checking Nick out more often. One of the many things near the middle of my "Things To Do Before I Die, Kinda Sorta Maybe" list is to put together a list of the best Nick material from the 90s and give it a good watching. It probably won't have the same effect on me as an adult as it would have when I was a child, but I might be surprised. After all, there's this other show that's not aimed at my demographic that I nonetheless enjoy....
 
*It was this attitude, in fact, and the pressure it placed on the creative people making cartoons in the 90s that drove many of them to take a chance on Cartoon Network's What A Cartoon! initiative, which was purposely less restrictive in the hopes of poaching talent and producing a hit. They got at least half a dozen hits, and the talent launched from here went on to generate and/or work on shows as disparate as Family Guy and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. If you look closely, throughout the What-A-Cartoon-launched shows and the later material those involved worked on, you'll find subtle and not-so-subtle rebukes of a lot of 90s sociopolitical tropes. This is perhaps most stark in the character of Starlight Glimmer, who basically aims to indoctrinate her entire world into the notion that differing ability levels and talents create disharmony, and that everyone should be made "equal" by ensuring that nobody rises above the rest. If you grew up in the 90s, you'll recall that this was a popular message, and animators (not to mention educators in the classroom!) were being leaned on to shove this into their work aimed at kids in the early to middle part of the decade, in what is arguably itself a form of indoctrination. Fast forward 20 years later, it's a series big bad that's saying it--that's some serious long-term retribution there!
Click to expand...

 
Glad ya stopped by! Your intellectual musings are refreshing.
 
I'm one of those who watched both Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network as a kid, but I definitely gravitated toward the former.
 
Be sure to see the shows I put at the top of my list:
 
Hey Arnold!
Invader Zim
Teen Titans (not to be confused with Teen Titans Go!)
South Park
Futurama
The Boondocks
Todd McFarlane's Spawn
 
I think it's best to start with Invader Zim. It's set in a hilariously cynical universe. I don't even know where to begin to explain how cool that show is. It doesn't have too many episodes either, so you can watch the entire series in a short while.
 
P.S. The "in common with many people my age" comment totally made me laugh. I'm 29.
 
Jul 4, 2016 at 1:48 PM Post #29 of 76
Recently I found out about The Lion Guard. I'm a huge fan of The Lion King, so I might actually watch this.
 
Watching it now. Bah. The animation is crap compared to the original movie. Typical modern lazy Flash style... The voice acting is forced too. And it's all so awkward. Only gonna watch it all to satisfy my curiosity of what happens.
 
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