When I was a kid, there was nothing better than waking up on a Saturday morning to sit and watch cartoons. The only other necessary element involved was a good bowl of cereal. It didn't always have to be a Saturday morning, but that's when you knew it would be a great start to a weekend. Who could resist watching Elmer Fudd being duped over and over by Bugs Bunny? How about every failed attempt by Wile E. Coyote to catch the Roadrunner, usually ending with his own trap blowing up in his face (sometimes literally)? Family men George Jetson and Fred Flintstone made us laugh as they tried to control their not-so-modern families. You always knew Tom would be outsmarted by Jerry, but it never got old. This was the golden age of cartoons. Given all of the aforementioned were created and made famous in the 60s, so it's not exactly my era, but it doesn't mean I can't enjoy them as if it was.
In the eyes of children nowadays, none of this would make any sense. So sad.
What made these classic cartoons so good? What makes them that much better than what kids watch on television nowadays? Why is our generation so much luckier than the current adolescents? The reasoning behind these questions is extremely simple, yet possibly underappreciated as well.
The most important, undeniable difference is the illustration involved. Think of all that went into cartoon illustration back then. Computers were still in their most primitive stage when it came to animation. That means these works of art were drawn, edited and colored in by hand. Think about that for a minute. Some of the greatest animated works were made from individuals with pure artistic ability and a love for the art they created. These series' combined for hundreds of episodes, which led to tons of spinoff episodes over multiple decades. It seems all the more impressive when you look at today's cartoons.
Tom & Jerry...Silly Tom, when will you ever learn? It's ok though, we still love you.
All of these computer generated, watered-down shows are exceptionally lame. All it requires is a few clicks-and-drags on an illustration program on a computer and one frame is done. A few more drags, add some audio tracks, and now you have a complete scene. I'm oversimplifying it a bit, but you get what I mean. The new-age cartoons are so easily churned out that they have no time to establish an original idea for episodes. They are all derived from the better old school shows, just given a modern twist. It's an insult to those who manually created our childhood entertainment.
CatDog...Are you even serious? This doesn't even make sense. I don't even want to know how it...they...whatever...pee(s).
Unfortunately, it's a lost art. Very few animated shows present true originality anymore. I would go out on a limb and say Spongebob is possibly the last of a dying breed. It required having a new setting, character and concept to even qualify for my consideration (once again...my blog, my rules). I know there are a few 90s cartoons that were also not bad, but they paled in comparison to their predecessors. There will be a future entry on a deeper look into the cartoons of my era, so I'll leave that for later.
If you're like me, and you still need your Saturday morning fix every so often, search for streaming episodes online of the classics. Don't fall victim to sub-par animation and remember your roots, so to speak.
D.
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