re: Cartoons today.......SUCK!

Tundra is good

When I was a kid in the heydey of 90s animation, the shows everyone loved were kids shows that were written like they were for adults, whether that be dramas like Batman: TAS or comedies famous for "mature" references - Rocko's Modern Life, Animaniacs, Ren & Stimpy.

Now, several decades later, I just see the inverse. A lot of adult cartoons that are written and presented as if they are for children.

Me: Jonny Quest, Bugs Bunny / Roadrunner Hour, Tom & Jerry (Classic and Chuck Jones only).

My son: Batman: The Animated Series, Rugrats, Doug, Dragonball Z

My grandson: Teen Titans Go, Ben 10, Blaze, Octonauts

all i know is any kid from any generation can sit down and watch a classic Tom & Jerry or Bugs Bunny cartoon and enjoy it.
I have all the Tom & Jerry's and Looney Tunes on my Plex server.

Season 6 of Adventure Time (really seasons 3 through 10) - excellent drug references and coming of age story, explores how to be a man in a changing world and valuing women as people not objects, dealing with loss and having crappy father, etc.

Season 2 of Gravity Falls - outstanding critique of modern societies obsession with money and the importance of family/tribe over the city life. Also, the whole series is a drug reference, specifically mushrooms but other hallucinogens as well. Critique of hard drugs infiltrating small town life.

Big Mouth on Netflix - gross but honest look at puberty and shame cycles.

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I'm not exactly sure what has happened, but what they are putting out today is straight garbage. What happened to the classics like, Tom and Jerry? Or, the Road Runner? Or Fog Horn Leg Horn?

Compare that to what we have today? Lol, wow it's like you would have to be high on something to think of it. The days of waking up on Saturday's and watching Cartoons seems to be an afterthought, as if it never happened. Share some of your fav. Cartoons of years past.

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There are a couple of things...

To me, the most important one is that cartoons like Tom & Jerry, Road Runner, etc were originally shorts, meant to appeal to a wider audience. A modernized version of this would be something like the Pixar Shorts collection.

Another aspect is that (for things like Speed Buggy, The Jetsons, etc) the market was tough to get into back then due to there being so few outlets as well as a mindset among the networks that cartoons had to meet certain criteria in order to be successful (they couldn't look too bizarre, had to have a child character or some humanized character for children to relate to, etc). Along with that the only real time cartoons came on was Saturday mornings (some locals might play older ones as reruns between soap operas and the first local news, but the networks ran them only on Saturday mornings).


Most today seem to want to be too Asian (manga-esque) or too bizarre in their art as part of their draw and their content more shock value than actual creative humor.

There is a reason those classics stick around though. There was a certain level of care in the stories, characters and art that I think exists more rarely these days (especially in the more-crowded field).

A lot of the newer versions of cartoons like the newer loony tunes, duck tales, etc seem to have lost the pacing and nuance of previous editions. All the characters have bug eyes, talk loudly and quickly with just a bunch of smart arse quips.

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Most today seem to want to be too Asian (manga-esque) or too bizarre in their art as part of their draw and their content more shock value than actual creative humor.

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This is kind of what I’m talking about. I’m not well versed on cartoon characteristics but a lot of newer shows seem to share this weird fast paced, kind of smart arse animation.

The funny thing is my 3 and 5 year old enjoy the old RR and coyote, Yosemite Sam vs buggs , Tom and Jerry on Boomerang Chanel more than the new stuff.

Oh we have it

If you like Johnny Quest, you should try Venture Bros.

Gumball is pretty good. I'm actually surprised my kids like it because I don't think they can get all the jokes. It's really the only one I have ever laughed at.

Teen Titans Go! is too self aware imo. Very formulaic.

Craig of the Creek is garbage. So is that superhero kid one, and the one with the guy with the 3 superhero women.

We Bear Bears, is boring.

Cartoon Network is on in the background a lot at my house.