::Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart! Gooo planet!!
By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!
(Sing) Captain Planet, he's the hero...
Gonna take pollution down to zero...
Whatever happened to all the good cartoons??
I mean the cartoons that were witty and interesting and funny, but still wholesome and educational. Where did all the 'smart' cartoons go??
I remember when my own disenchantment with Toon-Land began. It was the dawn of the Cow-And-Chicken era. Everybody was going crazy over Johnny Bravo and Dexter's Laboratory and Powerpuff Girls, but I was shocked and disgusted! Why would anybody ever allow such rubbish to permeate their television screens? And how could they possibly replace a brilliantly planned series like Jayce and the Wheel Warriors with something as nonsensical and trivial as Cow and Chicken?? It boggled my young mind.
Remember the original Power Rangers? Silver Hawk? Jayce & The Wheel Warriors? Zoids? Kissifur? Tale Spin? Yogi and Friends? Paw-Paw Bears? The Flintstones, the Jetsons?? Or remember the TLC/PBS-inspired educational stuff like Sesame Street (admit it, you liked Sesame Street when you were little!), Professor Iris, Bookmice, Zoobalizoo, The Puzzle Place, Reading Rainbow, Between the Lions, Magic Schoolbus and whatever great cartoons you used to watch in your time??
I remember me and my siblings fighting over who should be which planeteer in Captain Planet, using mommy's broom to imitate Thunder Cats (thunder, thunder, thunder, thunder cats!!), and using her clean sheets to pretend we had powers like the kids in Dungeons and Dragons (now there was a real cartoon!). Today? The only good stuff I see are animes and some Disney/Nick stuff.
What happened to all the good, wholesome programs? When did we move from pure, unadulterated fun to nothing but nonsense and stupidity? Is this some wholesale conspiracy to dumb down our kids??
I would never let my kid watch today's nonsense! I'd rather buy Sesame Street reruns and force-feed my kid home-made episodes of Reading Rainbow.
*SMH* I don' know when or where the decision was taken to start systematically lessening the intelligence requirements for cartoon production, but it pains my heart to see the rubbish we pass off as entertainment for kids nowadays... *sigh*
Can anybody tell me: where did all the good cartoons go??
21 comments:
Cause Iwould hop on a plane and go get them as insurance for my future kids' educational, holistic entertainment...
straight to hell, that's where they went. Cartoons today SUCK! Except I really do like Jimmy Neutron. Carl cracks me up!!
I loved the Flintsones, (I can still sing the whole theme song) and the Jetson's...Pink Panther...Fat Albert!!! Loved that one!
my kids LOVED Captain Planet. My son had all the action figures and everything,
Cartoons to day are STUPID!
I LOVED Captain Planet growing up!!
Jetsons reruns, Flintstones, and the Smurfs!! fa la la la la la.
I haven't had tv in a while yet, i did like the one that had the characters on the playground and than another episode for their weekends.
I think you mean Disney's Recess. That cartoon is off tha chain!
Girl, I can hardly watch cartoons these days..don't enjoy them at all. I don't mind Edd,Ed and Eddie but hate cow and chicken etc etc. LOl,gimme the good ole Flinstones,Daffy Duck et al.
Can I tell you a secret? I still watch Sesame Street :)
I do too many of these, but TAG, You're IT! Repost with your answers and keep it moving. Much love!
Have a Glass of Cocoa or Cider?
Have a Latte or Tea?
See a Movie or Play?
Go to a Museum or Carnival?
Have a Monkey or a Donkey?
Go to a Comedy Club or The Opera?
Have a Dog or a Cat?
Have a Passionate Love Affair that Lasts 4 years or a Lukewarm Relationship for 40 Years?
Go to Mexico or Canada?
See Paris or Prague?
Dine on Mexican or Chinese Food?
Have a Glass of Wine or a Beer?
Hit the Beach or The Slopes?
Go Sailing or Surfing?
Go Swimming or Hiking?
Win an Oscar or The Nobel Prize?
Be able to read people’s minds or cure diseases?
Be on Larry King or Anderson Cooper?
Go Back In Time or Into The Future?
we're the planeteers..
you can be one too..
saving our planet is the thing to do..
looting and polluting is not the way..
hear what captain planet has to say...
THE POWER IS YOURS!!
lol..i miss the old stuff too
Cant say that I am a fan of the stuff they give the kids to watch, but I look at the cartoons frrom when I was a kid and not impressed either.
lol@mike... cartoons weren't too hot in your time, huh? But, really, are they any better today??
@Rhytswell, I'll do that tag when the sprit moves me... =D
@lemon... I know right! THe old cartoons were the best (the ones from our time, that is)! No doubt about it!
Hey, Abeni, *whispers* I still watch Sesame Street, too... what's more? I sing along with Elmo during Elmo's world...
@Luce... I have yet to meet the person who did not like Captain Planet... it was just awesome!
And the Jetsons Nad Flintstones ae just timeless... I mean literally! lol
@Beth... Jimmy Neutron has got nothing on Fairly Odd Parents! I know that probably contradicts what I've been saying, but: It's nonsensical, but still veery funny.
And my favourite cartoon (today) would have to be Avatar. Hands down. Ang rocks!
Sesame Street STILL rocks.
You know, its funny that you ask this. I have seriously tried to understand what is being presented and called cartoons these days, and I cannot even watch the stuff for 1 minute. Most of them just seem too loud, busy, violent and just plain stupid. I actually don't think kids should be watching a lot of the stuff. Seeing so many children sitting in front of the TV on saturday mornings infuriates me to no end.
A huge part of the problem is that mass market cartoons are no longer being made for and with children in mind. They are now so technically sophisticated and all about the bells and whistles that you can easily forget about the nonsensical story and focus all on how the characters are drawn. Or maybe that's just me.
I find that the stuff I do enjoy is on the public broadcasting (PBS). But, that also means that these are quite thoughtfully created and are not just about mindless silly hijinks a la scooby doo or fred and barney. If you have access, they do have watchable stuff, even at the requisite Sat. am primetime.
Since I do love animation, I have basically have turned to the full-length stuff like Wallace and Grommit. That satisfies my appetite when I want something more than Sesame street.
what about cartoons like the simpsons and the comedy central ones whose names i can't remember--i think they're very funny but maybe they're not for kids...?
Family Guy, King of the Hill, Futurama, Simpsons and such... those are definitely not for kids. I have a friend who always says (about Family Guy), I love Stewie, but only on TV...
i know what you mean... but i find some of these cartoons hilarious - cow is one of my all time favourite characters...
there's an age old debate about what kids should do for entertainment... 150 years ago it was between didactic kids' lit and kids' lit that explored the imagination rather than teaching a lesson... there's a place for both i think... it's like alice's adventures in wonderland vs the pilgrim's progress - one explored the imagination without teaching anything, the other taught how to lead a moral life...
longbeach talks about the focus being on the graphics rather than the story - i think this is true to a large extent... but i also think that there's a certain imaginative exploration going on... it actually borders on the surreal in some cases... i love billy and mandy for example...
having said all that, i think a lot of these shows are more suited to adults and adolescents rather than children... i once saw an episode of billy and mandy where a bunch of dwarves used a giant mushroom to break through the oval-shaped doorway of the elves' tree house... it was totally sexual... plus the elves were fey and tiny while the dwarves were hairy and built - with overt nipples... definitely not for kids...
i've always enjoyed cartoons... and i think they've evolved - the people who enjoyed cartoons as kids are now making them... but they're adults so their viewpoint has shifted...
ok... i'll shut up now... :-)
oops... i almost forgot to add:
i think whatever kids do for entertainment should be monitored... there's no doubt that dora is better - both imaginatively and in terms of teaching lessons - than most of the cartoon network stuff... leave cartoon network (especially after 8pm) to older folks...
i agree will... with teh leaving cartoon network for older audiences. But teh tragedy of taht is that it's CARTOON NETWORK!! Naturally, kids are gonna gravitate toward that stuff. And some trusting parents are going to leave their kids before the TV on CN thinking it's all harmless, innocent kiddy stuff. Poor parent. Poor kid.
Brings back memories...my favs:
THUNDERCATS
"Ancient spirits of evil, transform this decayed form to Mumm-Ra, the Ever- Living!!!!!"
SILVERHAWKS
"Moon star of Limbo. Give me the Might, the Muscle, the Menace, of Monstar"
YooooowwW Gussie! You know what I talking bout!!! Yes, those are the cartoons to which I refer. Crazy stuff, huh? Oh how I wish we could get them back!!
PS, why you manage to remember the lines for all the villains? Hm? :)
My pet peeve about some of these modern cartoons is how UGLY they are. Sponge Bob and his darling Patrick, Dexter, Chowder. Dem all too ugly to look at. The values is another thing. I've seen one of these little ugly things drop his pants and f*rt at somebody. Seriously. But then Tom and Jerry from the old school defined Violent. And Fred Flinstones was cantankerous and very ofetn unfair.
Truth be told though Johnny Bravo, Dexter and some otherwise undesirables do expand children's language, although the formulaic nature of the plots do nothing for their imagination. All said, I would vote Pink Panther, as best cartoon ever, and Tweetie Bird as runner up.
lol... best cartoon ever... there's a thought! Now I'm concocting another post... hmm...
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